An SEO Analysis of Emirates & Etihad

Airline Companies - An SEO Analysis of 2 Airline Companies

Written by:  Mandeep Singh

“Emirates vs Etihad. Which Airline Optimizes Better?”

Introduction

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important consideration for marketers as it helps in keeping track of traffic. It also tells the company what is or isn’t attracting its targeting audiences. The more present and up to date you are on your site, the more traffic you can welcome and see coming your way. An SEO also makes the brand/company’s job a lot easier when it comes to receiving online orders or requests, complaints, and reviews. You also come to know and discover what your audience is looking for and wants.

SEO Audit	Emirates	Etihad
Screen Captures of both Brand’s home pages:
1.     URL:	https://www.emirates.com/ca/English/	http://www.etihad.com/en-ca/
2.     Page Title	Emirates	Etihad
3.     Meta Description	Fly to over 140 destinations to enjoy award-winning inflight entertainment and free Wi-Fi. Book seats and check in online.	Book flights to worldwide destinations from Canada with Etihad Airways, national airline of the United Arab Emirates.
4.     Meta Keywords :	International flights, book flights, flights, flights to, airlines, emirates, fly emirates, emirates airline.	Etihad, Etihad airlines, flights, Canada.
5.     Quality of written content	Limited written content, mainly communicating, through the use of images and visuals.	Limited descriptions and mainly images. Mostly communicating, through the use of images and visuals.
6.     Content shareable	No, Emirates does not have shareable links for people to easily share content.	No, Etihad does not have shareable links for people to easily share content.
7.     Quality of visual content	Great quality visuals are used on the homepage of the site.	Reasonable – good quality visuals are used on the homepage of the site.
8.     site upload speed	The Emirates site loaded fast even though it has more pictures and bigger pictures to upload. Fast upload speed.	The Etihad site loaded up fast as well, but was a delay for the images and the content to fully upload on the page. Fast uploading speed, but slower than Emirates.
9.     Call-to-action:	“Book a flight”, “Find hotels and cars”, “Discover Dubai”, “Learn more”	“Search flights”, “ View all deals”
10. Anchored Text (hyperlinks):	“Book a flight to Dubai from $1,849* return for two”, “Join now”, “Visa and Passport Information”, “Baggage”, “Check-in Online”	“My Etihad Guest log-in”, “Contact us”, “Multiple Destinations/ Stopovers”, “View all deals”, ”Subscribe for future deals”, “Book extra legroom seat online”, “First Class Lounge & Spa”, “Download our Award Winning Mobile App”
11. Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes, easily accessible from mobile devices and it also have a mobile app.	Yes, easily accessible from mobile devices and it also have a mobile app.
12. Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Social media icons on the homepage are; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google +	Social media icons on the homepage are; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google +

Google Trends:

Google Trends Insights:

 I used the word Airline as my search term. The results I obtained from Google Trends indicate that the keyword Airline is searched the most out of all three comparisons. I also discovered that Emirates is much more popular in searches compared to Etihad. Emirates is more popular in every region, in comparison to Etihad. This could be due to people knowing more about Emirates, or because Emirates may be the number one SEO that pops up when you search for an Airline that flies to UAE and other Middle Eastern countries. In addition to all this, I learned that Emirates and the keyword Airline is searched more in Northern, Southern America and Australia out of the map shown

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

Emirates – Flight Status, Check-in online, Dubai

Etihad - Flight Status, Check-in online, Guest login

Summary:

Emirates strengths are its strong quality of visual content. This really amuses and attracts traffic. Also, Emirates has a faster uploading speed to its website in comparison to the Etihad site. In addition, Emirates is easily accessible from mobile devices and has its own app.

Etihad strengths include the fact that it has some good visuals and the site still uploads at a fast enough speed, which won’t disappoint its viewers.

Both Emirates and Etihad can work towards improvement, to make their SEO’s stronger and better. Areas that Emirates could build upon include; the quality of its written content. This is because Emirates has a limited amount of written content. I know that Emirates is an excellent Airline, so it should write about its service and luxury features. Right now, the page is primarily conveying its brand through images. More written information would be helpful to its traffic. Emirates should also consider making their content sharable through their social media icons and links. This could increase view and traffic. Moving forward, areas that Etihad could build on include; their quality of written work as well. There is a very limited amount of written content. There is barely any information on their company and what their airline could offer. They could possibly consider writing about their services or mission and goals. Etihad could also make their content shareable through their social media icons and links to attract more traffic. Lastly, the Etihad site could improve on increasing the quality of their visual content and increasing the uploading speed to their website.

The keyword sentences found on the sites were “Search flights”, “Check in”, “Destinations”, and “Fly”.

Conclusion:

Include a conclusion that outlines which brand has the strongest SEO and performed best though the audit.  Were there any surprises?

For an SEO to be strong, popular and a hit, it is very important to consider all the factors listed above in the chart. When analyzing the 2 Airline companies/brands; Emirates and Etihad, I observed that both companies have much to improve on. By looking through and analyzing the audit, I have to say that Emirates would have to be the winner. This is because Emirates has better visualized its content with its image quality and layout design. It has also done a better job in its written content. It somewhat describes its brand and its service. Whereas, Etihad has barely any written content. The page almost seems scattered and unorganized, not very pleasing or attractive. Thus, keeping the following considerations in mind, Emirates is the SEO that performed stronger in the audit. Although, both brands still have a lot of room for improvement. Finally, I was surprised to see the lack of written content on Etihad’s site. I was also surprised to see that none of the sites have made their pages shareable through their media icons or links to its viewers.

APA Citations

Airways, E. (2017). Enjoy great fares on flights and holidays from Canada to the world. Retrieved February 8, 2017, from Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi, http://www.etihad.com/en-ca/

Emirates Hello Tomorrow. (2017). Emirates. Retrieved February 8, 2017, from Emirates, https://www.emirates.com/ca/english/