An SEO Analysis of WestJet & Cathay Pacific

Title: An SEO Analysis of 2 Airline Companies   

Written by: Harveen Ghumaan

Subtitle: “WestJet vs. Cathay Pacific. Which Airline Company Optimizes Better?”

Introduction

It is important to look into and analyze the following Search Engine Optimization (SEO) considerations/factors in order to make your SEO a hit. An SEO is an important consideration for marketers as it will only help in gaining and attracting traffic/viewers/clients. It will allow marketers to better understand and fulfil their audience’s needs and wants. SEO’s are a great way/source of getting to connect with your audience and keep them happy. They also allow you in keeping up to date with today’s trends and human desires.

SEO Audit	WestJet	Cathay Pacific
Screen Captures of both Brand’s home pages:
1.     URL:	https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/index	https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_CA.html
2.     Page Title	WestJet	Cathay Pacific
3.     Meta Description	Find low fare flights, save with discount codes and seat sales, discover travel and destination information, manage upcoming trips and more.	Book flights to Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, New York, Guangzhou and other destinations with Cathay Pacific. You can also book your flights online, manage …
4.     Meta Keywords :	No keywords in the source code.	Airline flight status, Cathayair, flight information, cheap airfares, vacation package, MPO, Cathay Pacific, Marco Polo Club, Cathay Pacific, check flight status, Cathay Pacific, travel deal, Cathay Pacific, airline flight tracking, Asia Miles, Cathay Pacific, flight reservation, online check-in, Cathay Pacific frequent flyer, phone number, Cathay pacific, online buy ticket, CX, contact number, seating charts
5.     Quality of written content	The quality of the written content is good.	Limited written content. Mainly communicating and conveying through the use of images.
6.     Content shareable	No, WestJet does not have a share link for people to easily share content.	Cathay Pacific allows you to share their page through Facebook, Twitter, Mail, and LinkedIn.
7.     Quality of visual content	Good quality visuals are used on the homepage of the site.	Great quality visuals are used on the homepage of the site.
8.     site upload speed	The site loaded pretty fast even though it has a lot of images and content to upload. Fast uploading speed.	The site came up pretty fast, but there was a slight delay in the images uploading. Fast uploading speed, but slower than WestJet. This could be due to Cathay Pacific having more images on their homepage than WestJet.
9.     Call-to-action:	“Book a flight” “Get flights” “Learn more”	“Book a trip” “Search flights” “Learn more” “Find out more” “Discover more”
10.  Anchored Text (hyperlinks):	“More details” “Learn more” “Learn more about baggage fees” “Book using WestJet dollars” “See terms and conditions”	“Redeem flights” “Multi-city / stopover” “Learn more” “Find out more” “Discover more”
11.  Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes, easily accessible through mobile phones.  There is also an app.	Yes, easily accessible through mobile phones. There is also an app.
12.  Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	The following icons are listed on the social media homepage: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, iOS App, Android App, and WestJet Blog.	The following icons are listed on the homepage: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Google Trends:

Google Trends Insights:

The 2 brands are the 2 airlines I have chosen; WestJet & Cathay Pacific. The search term I chose is Airline since that is my group topic. From analyzing the results I obtained from Google Trends I discovered that WestJet was viewed/searched more than Cathay Pacific over the years 2012-2016. But, after the year 2013 Cathay Pacific has pretty much been going head to head with WestJet until after the year 2015. I can observe that WestJet was searched more due to its great advertisement on its services offered and its generosity towards its clients. On the other hand, Cathay Pacific has really stepped up its game in the past year as it has almost been searched just as much as WestJet. It was just in the early stage that WestJet was search more than Cathay Pacific. Furthermore, searches on WestJet come mainly from Canada and the United States. Searches on Cathay Pacific have come from Algeria, Iraq, Vietnam, China, Japan, Cambodia, Australia, and some from Canada and the United States. Lastly, Airlines is searched almost worldwide!

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

WestJet: Flight Status, Check in, Flight Schedule

Cathay Pacific: Check in, Booking, Marco Polo Club

Summary:

WestJet’s strengths are its fast uploading speed, it gets you to its site in seconds! Then, the quality of its written work is good. Lastly, it can easily be accessed by mobiles. This makes it convenient and easier for people on the go. In addition, it has its own app!

Cathay Pacific’s strengths are its extremely beautifully designed homepage with a good amount of written content too. Cathay Pacific has included a lot of beautiful images of its destinations and trips, which makes the viewers happy. It attracts its audience more. Cathay Pacific’s site also allows people to easily share the page through its social media links/icons directly from their site! Cathay Pacific is also easily accessible from mobile devices and has its own app too.

Both WestJet and Cathay Pacific have need of improvement when it comes to their SEO’s. Areas that WestJet could improve in include; their visual content. They could probably make it more appealing and colorful, which is pleasing to the eye. WestJet could also make their content shareable directly through their social media icons/links like Cathay Pacific has. Also, unfortunately WestJet has no keywords in their source code which could be preventing possible traffic/visits to their site. Now, area that Cathay Pacific could improve in include; their written content. They don’t have enough information to read on their homepage. Then, their site uploads a little slower in comparison to WestJet.

The keyword sentences found on the sites were “Book a flight”, “Get flights”, “Search flights”, “Check in”, and “Book a vacation”.

Conclusion:

It is crucial for SEO’s to keep in mind all the different factors that put together a great and successful/popular SEO. In the end, it would be fair to say that Cathay Pacific has the stronger SEO. The reason being, it has more of SEO considerations included in their site/homepage in comparison to WestJet. It is obvious that if you keep in mind all the considerations/factors towards your SEO, it can maximize the amount of visits and/or traffic you get. Unfortunately, WestJet lacks keywords in their source code which could be stopping some traffic. So, in my opinion Cathay Pacific is the winner, even though both Airlines have room for improvement. To end it off, I was a bit surprised to see that Cathay Pacific has made their page shareable directly through their site, whereas WestJet hasn’t. I was surprised to see this as WestJet is very much involved with social media and spends a lot on its advertisement and service. I was also surprised to see that WestJet had no keywords in their source code.

APA Citations

WestJet. (2017). Book Flights and Vacation Packages. Retrieved February 6, 2017, from WestJet, https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/index

Cathay Pacific. (2017). Cathay Pacific. Retrieved February 6, 2017, from Cathay Pacific, https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_CA.html