1. Adam Almohtadi
Web Site Analysis: www.WoodMagazine.com
Web Site Overview
General Site/Company Information:
Woodmagazine.com is a website that offers how-to-project instructions, tool reviews,
techniques, as well as wood and supplies to home and commercial wood workers alike.
Woodmagazine.com also features a wide variety of community tools, such as woodworking
forums, videos, tips, and blogs from members, integrating a social aspect the site. It is a
member or the Better Home and Gardens family of magazines, which has been in the top five
most popular magazines for the last several years, according to the Audit Bureau of
Circulations. The main focus of this site is to inform, educate, and to help share wood working
techniques and ideas with woodworking enthusiasts, as well as someone who may just need
help on a weekend project.
2. Adam Almohtadi
Competing Site: Finewoodworking.com
While researching competitor sites for Woodmagazine.com I came across a
website called Finewoodworking.com. I believe that this is easily in the top, if not the top
competitor for Woodmagazine.com. When looking through the competitors website I noticed
that the layout much much the same as Woodmagazine, as well as what the site had to offer in
terms of resources and information (see screenshots below). The reason I believe this is the top
competing site is because when I Googled “woodworking” Finewoodworking.com was at the top
of the search results while Woodmagazine was not even featured on the first page. Therefore if
someone were search under those terms they would go to the competitor site long before they
came across Woodmagazine, and seeing that they offer almost identical information, they would
have no reason to go beyond Finewoodworking and have the chance of coming to
Woodmagazine.
3. Adam Almohtadi
Design & Layout Analysis
Browser Type:
When first viewing Woodmagazine on my desktop, I used Safari to open the webpage. I
then used both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome to open the page, since these are some of
the more popular web browsers in use. There was no difference between the layout, design, or
usage when opening Woodmagazine.com on any of the three browsers. This is a good quality
for the website to have because it offers the same recognizable look no matter what browser the
person chooses to use.
Monitor Resolution:
The monitor resolution that I’m using on my computer to develop this report is 1280 x
800. The only difference I was really able to see when alternating my screen resolution between
1280x800, 1152x720, and 1024x640 when viewing the website was that when using the lower
resolution was that the picture wasn't quite as crisp, and not as much of the page was displayed
in within the browser.
1280 x 800 1024 x 640
5. Adam Almohtadi
Page Elements:
According to the webpage diagram featured on page 26 of our Above the Fold textbook,
Woodmagazine.com aligns with all of the elements featured (see outline above). The header on
this webpage is bold, clearly displaying the company’s logo as well as a making it stand out with
the strong color choice. Aside from simply catching the eye of a user, the header also features
the proper navigation and tools for the website, making it easier for users to find what they're
looking for without having to search the entire page.
Above the Fold:
Woodmagazine.com has done a good job featuring the necessary components needed
to have a successful “above the fold” portion of a website. This portion of their website contains
the navigation menu, leading users to whichever page they desire of the website without having
to search around. It also has a the main feature of the page, as well as the logo and social
media links to connect users from all platforms to the website. Along with these features that
help users, Woodmagazine.com also contains ad space above the fold, which I believe is also
important to have for competition between advertising companies for this high priority space on
the web page.
Upper Left:
In the upper left portion of a website is a crucial area within the layout from a designers
point of view. Research shows that this is often the first place a user’s eyes go when first
arriving at a website. This being the case, it is important for the designer to strategically place
what is most important to the company in this area. On Woodmagazine.com they feature their
6. Adam Almohtadi
company logo and links to their social media pages. Having the logo here is effective as it
immediately lets the user know where they are, as well as brands the companies logo in their
mind. I also believe that having the links to their social media websites is important because it a
quick and easy way for users to link the company to their social media accounts, giving the web
developers insight into which of their social media sites are more effective, helping them in
future plans involving other pathways to their website.
Advertisements:
Advertising space is very important for a website to have, but the space that is used for
advertising is very relative to the success of the ad. When buying ad space, companies look for
areas they can purchase according to location and size, which will directly effect the success of
the ad. As shown in the web layout image (above) Woodmagazine.com features banner ads at
the top of the page, as well as “big box” ads along the sidebar and the footer of the webpage.
However, it seems that instead of using this space for advertising companies to use,
Woodmagazine.com has used these spaces to promote deals and contests within the company.
While upon refreshing the page ads will take the places of these in house ads occasionally, the
overwhelming number of them stay on the promotional ads. I believe this is a good technique to
use because this in turn will give more publicity to these events, which will then bring profits to
the company rather than a company that would normally rent these spaces to advertise.
However, I also feel that using every space available for the same promotion is counter
productive. Woodmagazine.com should use the main banner ad for their promotion while still
selling the other space for further advertisements, this way they still promote themselves, all the
while keeping money coming in from agencies renting the other ad spaces.
7. Adam Almohtadi
Traffic Analysis
Traffic Analysis via Quantcast.com & Alexa.com
www.WoodMagazine.com
• Average Unique Visitors: 49,441 per month
• Bounce Rate: 45.30%
• Page Views Per Visitor: 3.19
• Daily Time on Site: 2:40
Analysis:
While looking over the traffic analysis, I noticed many numbers that may contribute to
why Woodmagazine is not the top wood working website. When looking at unique visitors since
the websites start, I noticed that there was a huge drop in visitors upon the reveal and use of
Panda by Google in 2012 (see image below). This was a change in the search engines
algorithm and greatly lowered the number of unique visitors to Woodmagazine.com.
8. Adam Almohtadi
Competing Site:
www.FineWoodworking.com
• Average Unique Visitors: 781,402 per month
• Bounce Rate: 60.20%
• Page Views Per Visitor: 2.34
• Daily Time on Site: 3:14
Analysis:
While overviewing the statistics shown for Finewoodworking.com I noticed the difference
that may set this website apart from all others in its field, including Woodmagazine.com. It
seems that upon the introduction of Panda in Googles search engines in 2012 that
Finewoodworking. com didn't suffer the dramatic drop in traffic that seemed to effect
Woodmagazine.com. Since it was not effected by this change, you can see that the number or
unique visitors has remained consistent through today.
9. Adam Almohtadi
Traffic Conclusion:
While the competing site for Woodmagzine has a much larger number of unique visitors
(781,402 vs. 49,441) other number in the traffic analysis suggest that it may not be an overall
better site. In terms of bounce rate; the number which tells what number of users visit the site
then immediately leave, the competitors number is much higher at 60%, while Woodmagazine’s
bounce rate is at a much lower 45%. This means that more people that visit the site stay on it,
viewing its contents. This is good news for Woodmagazine because while having a lot of people
visit your page is good, it is better to have them stay on it. However, the daily time viewed for
the competitor site is slightly higher than Woodmagazine.com while the total number of pages
visited it lower, which may mean that those who visit the competitors site may know what they're
looking for right away and spend more time on that page. Also, one must keep in mind that the
competitors site is the first result in a Google search when looking up wood working, while
Woodmagazine isn't even on the first page. This results in many more people visiting the page.
Overall, Finewoodworking.com gets an average of 15 times more traffic to their site each month
than Woodmagazine.com
10. Adam Almohtadi
Popularity Analysis
Popularity Analysis via MajesticSEO.com
Link Popularity:
www.WoodMagazine.com
• External Backlinks: 134,205
• Referring Domains: 2,605
Analysis:
In respect to the quality of inbound referring domains to Woodmagazine.com, they are
not very highly ranked. In terms of backlinks found on each of the top three referring domains,
they total to about 98,000. All of three of which, are sister websites to Woodmagazine.com.
These numbers are dramatically low when compared to the competitions.
www.FineWoodworking.com
• External Backlinks: 134,205
• Referring Domains: 2,605
Analysis:
With having their top three referring domains equaling more than 1.3 million backlinks,
Finewoodworking.com clearly has the upper hand on WoodMagazine. Not only are these
11. Adam Almohtadi
referring domains greater in quantity, they are also higher in rankings (Alexa) and trust flow.
Seeing as both sites have almost equal number of referring domains, the backlinks offered by
FineWoodworking’s offer much more traffic.
Social Media Analysis:
Analysis:
Social media means connectivity. If a website is not on a variety of social media
platforms these days, than it is most likely not a successful site. As seen in the numbers on the
chart above, both websites are active in the social media community. However, with
WoodMagazine having 124,000 Facebook likes, it dwarfs the competitions social media
followers on all three platforms combined. Since Woodmagazine.com in the Better Home and
Gardens family on Facebook, it receives much more attention than the competing site which
again shows that connections are power, especially in the social world. While WoodMagazine is
falling behind in the Google + category, this may be because it is a newer social media platform
that the company has not chosen to put full efforts in, in light of its Facebook success.
Page Popularity:
WoodMagazine.com Finewoodworking.com
Facebook Page Likes 124,000 18,641
Twitter Followers 11,694 13,500
Google Plus +1s 683 1,118
12. Adam Almohtadi
Analysis:
Both websites being compared are currently active in a variety of social media sites;
however, I chose to compare the two most used platforms of the companies. Since
WoodMagazine had many more likes on Facebook (see chart above) it is easy to see how a
photo they shared reached 2,657 shares on their Facebook page in a matter of days, while the
most I found on Finewoodworking was 52. The post I found 52 likes on, on the competitors
Facebook page was a story featured on their website, which makes sense when you see the
difference in numbers of visitors per website. While the rest of the two websites social media
numbers are almost dead even, the advantage that WoodMagazine has on Facebook definitely
gives it far more popularity amongst the social networks than Finewoodworking.
Success Conclusion
Success is a hard thing to measure when you're talking about two websites that stem from
magazines that deal with a small, hands-on niche. However, taking into account that one of the
websites, WoodMagazine is a branch of the top national home and garden magazine Better
Home and Gardens; one must remember that most of its business and attention is still going to
come from the magazine itself or through its many sister branches. That being said, in aspects
WoodMagazine.com Finewoodworking.com
Facebook Page-Specific Likes 2,657 52
Twitter Page Shares 5 6
13. Adam Almohtadi
of social media, look, usability, and over all content the two websites are fairly equal. The one
thing that really sets these two site apart is the number of unique visitors, as Finewoodworking
trumps WoodMagazine 781,000 to 49,000 in total unique visitors per month. Another reason for
this, and why Finewoodworking.com has an upper hand on WoodMagazine, is because of its
popularity in the Google engines search results, ultimately ending up in more people landing on
your page. This also leads to the credibility issue, where Finewoodworking clearly has it for
these reasons, it is crucial to remember that WoodMagazine is backed by the Better Home and
Gardens name which is one of the most know in the country in its industry. This gives the
website a credibility which is almost undeniable when paired with its internationally know mother
company, and instills automatic trust in a user due to reputation.
