The Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK online opticians has just been published. Learn how the top 10 opticians perform across the digital space.

The latest Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK online opticians has just been published. It covers the largest 10 UK online opticians, including Black & Lizars, Bayfields Opticians and Audiologists, David Clulow, Specsavers, Eyesite, Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care, Eye Emporium, Vision Express, Duncan and Todd Group, and Leightons Opticians and Hearing Care.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other online opticians to win brand exposure, drive traffic online and, for those with bricks and mortar locations, even increase in-store footfall. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form below or schedule a call.

Q2 2024 winners leader board

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 10 online opticians on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK online opticians or request a copy of the report for the full review.

What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing.  Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Online opticians will want to ensure that key pages are easy to navigate to and access, such as prescription information, any trial packages they offer, or store locators.

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. For online opticians, they’ll want to ensure their site is fast, and well-prepared for customers to browse new frames on the go.

For Q2 2024, the mobile site speed ranged between 56 and 7, with Bayfields Opticians and Audiologists reporting the slowest site. This online opticians can increase its site speed by reducing image and banner sizes. A poorly performing mobile site can drive away potential customers, with 40% of online users abandoning a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. As the nine opticians in our report range from online-only, to well known, long-standing retail chains, we’d expect to see a wide range of scores in domain authority.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA for this quarter ranged between 73 and 27, with only 2 companies scoring above the 60. However, Eye Emporium is the one to watch, as it flagged the lowest. It also reported the second-to-lowest for the number of backlinks, showing a correlation between DA rating and backlinks. Brands that have connections with high-authoritative websites are more likely to receive backlinks, which can help with their DA score.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. We’ve noted that the cost-of-living crisis has impacted traffic levels in many sectors, with consumers putting off purchases of treats and expendables for later dates. However, as opticians provide essential items, we’d expect brands to be able to maintain performance year on year, even if they may be seeing a reduction in traffic to high end ranges, and more traffic to lower to mid-range products.

Three brands reported a loss in organic traffic for desktop, while 7 reported a loss in organic traffic for mobile. This significant difference shows that most consumers use desktop for visiting their website. But given that 69% of consumers used a smartphone for online purchases in 2023, brands should make their sites more mobile-friendly to not lose out on sales.

Universal Search Opportunity

Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For opticians with high street branches, ‘Local Pack’ results are a useful way of dominating SERPs and ensuring they can capture attention from users still looking for an in-person experience.

Vision Express is still standing strong with the most appearances for Universal Search results (a total of 47,516), with most of these coming from the ‘Image’ category. Four of the brands reported zero searches for ‘Local Pack’. Creating a ‘Google My Business’ profile can help companies to improve their chances of appearing in the SERPs for this category.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Online opticians may find it particularly useful to optimise for keywords showing both high-conversion intent, and information-seeking phrases that may be more often searched at the consideration phase.

Specsavers reported the highest appearance for longtail keywords in positions 3 (12,098) and positions 4–10 (18,010). However, Duncan and Todd Group has the least total appearances, scoring only 2 results in positions 3. This online opticians can increase this figure by identifying relevant keywords their target audience would search.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. Facebook ads provide an opportunity for opticians to quickly reach audiences with offers, new lines, and key products they’re looking to push.

We’ve included three examples of Bayfields Opticians and Audiologists’ sponsored Facebook posts. All of its posts included static images, which have an 8% lower cost-per-conversation than non-static ads — a cost-effective strategy for a brand.

Top Social Shares & Content

When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Though Facebook advertising can be used to boost visibility for brands on the platform, having a strong portfolio of content to draw upon helps build a connection with your audience, as well as providing helpful content that guides them down the conversion funnel.

Specsavers has the largest Facebook page (with 362,200 Likes) and Instagram account (with 55,400 followers). Having a strong solid media presence allows brands to share updates about their latest product releases and provide customers with a quick-and-easy way to interact with brands, helping to improve their relationship.

Website Readability & Accessibility

20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Online opticians should be particularly mindful of having an accessible site, as being poorly prepared for visually impaired users could not only lose customer confidence but look very poor for their brand!

In our previous audit, Eyesite flagged 15 contrast errors, which has remained the same in Q2 2024. It’s important that brands assess contrast errors to ensure their websites are optimised for those with a colour vision deficiency. David Clulow reported the most accessibility alerts (50), which it should look to reduce through simple strategies, such as adding alt text to images.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 2024 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash