The Q3 2024 benchmarking report for UK vacuum cleaner brands has just been published. Learn how the top 9 UK vacuum brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q3 2024 benchmarking report for UK vacuum cleaner brands has just been published. It covers the largest 9 vacuum cleaner brands trading in the UK, including Dyson, Hoover, SharkNinja, Miele, iRobot, Vax, BISSELL Homecare, Tineco, and Gtech - it highlights year-on-year digital performance, plus winner and loser comparisons in 20+ online performance metrics.
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 vacuum brands to win brand exposure, generate online orders, and drive in-store interest & recognition. 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 Q3 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 9 vacuum cleaner brands on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK vacuum cleaner brands or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand 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.
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.
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. Vacuum cleaner brands will want to ensure their site is well equipped to demonstrate their brand's features over that of their competitors, so key pages such as popular products, product comparisons, and FAQs should be easy to navigate to.
SharkNinja flagged 130 4xx errors — nearly double that of the runner up. This vacuum cleaner brand can make improvements by replacing or removing broken links throughout its website to help enhance the user experience.
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 sites hosting a large volume of products, with detailed technical specifications (such as vacuum cleaners), brands may lean towards ensuring these are shown at their very best with high-resolution images and videos. However, these are both elements we frequently see impacting site speeds.
In our previous audit, SharkNinja reported a low site speed (3). This quarter, this vacuum cleaner brand has increased this to 32. Now, the brand to watch is Gtech, which flagged a site speed of 9. It can make improvements by adopting a mobile-friendly website, minimising file sizes, avoiding redirects, and more.
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, ie. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Vacuum cleaner brands can boost their domain authority by collaborating with relevant online publications, and working with bloggers that sit within the homeware and cleaning niche.
Domain authority is considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA for this quarter ranged between 74 and 38, with Hoover flagging the lowest DA. This vacuum cleaner brand reported the second-to-highest number of backlinks, though the number of domains these backlinks were associated with were significantly less. It’s important that brands adopting backlinks from a variety of websites to avoid their website as being flagged as spam.
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. Brands within the home appliances sector, such as vacuum cleaner brands, may find a slowed interest in their products during the cost of living crisis, as consumers may be opting to stick with their older models for longer, only replacing when it becomes essential.
Tineco saw the biggest loss for organic traffic for desktop (-95%) and -99% for mobile, while Hoover saw the biggest increase for desktop (+335%) and +236% for mobile.
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 brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Reviews' results would arguably be the most useful universal search result for vacuum cleaner brands to pursue, as customers will want to know they are getting value for money from their new appliance.
SharkNinja remains at the top spot for the most Universal Search appearances (28,562 — a decrease from 32,770 in our previous report). On the other hand, Tineco flagged the fewest Universal Search results (33) — all of which came from ‘images’, and this brand should maximise the ‘people also ask’ results to help it rank in SERPs.
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. Vacuum cleaner brands should be optimising for longtail keywords that show high purchase intent and are likely to secure orders, especially as they are operating in a sector where repeat purchases will only be very occasional.
SharkNinja remains at the top of the leaderboard for longtail keyword appearances in position 3 (3,899) and positions 4–10 (4,025). On the other hand, Tineco saw the fewest longtail keyphrase appearances in position 3 (6), and it should assess the phrases it uses to ensure they’re suitable with its target audience.
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. For vacuum cleaner brands, Facebook advertising is an opportunity to improve visibility around flash sales, increase awareness of new products, or potentially promote content from their organic channels.
We’ve included 3 examples of Dyson’s sponsored Facebook posts. This vacuum cleaner brand uses vertical videos to cater to consumers using a mobile, and it stuck to a maximum of 2 lines, which is an effective strategy in improving readability for scrollers.
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 that achieves traffic over a long period of time. The cleaning and homecare niche is evergrowing on social media, and vacuum cleaner brands should keep tabs on emerging trends that they can use to show their products in a lifestyle setting.
In our previous audit, Dyson saw the highest total engagement, but Vax saw the most results for this category in this quarter (a total of 12,367). However, Dyson has the most Likes on Facebook (2.9 million), and Miele has the most Instagram followers (927,300). This data shows that more followers doesn’t always mean higher engagement.
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. For up-scale versions of essentials like vacuum cleaners, brands will want to ensure their site is accessible to absolutely everyone, as no one should be excluded from having a clean home!
In our last audit, Vax reported 142 accessibility alerts, which it’s slightly reduced to 131 this quarter. While this brand still has a long way to go, it’s important to praise any improvement for this category. However, Vax also saw the most contrast errors (60), and it should assess its website and make any applicable updates to its theme to improve readability for those with a colour deficiency.
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.
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