Latest SEO audit analysis I did on Chimera, discussing content, usability issues and Web Presence Optimization good practice guidelines.
Since 1980 #Chimera Lighting now based in Erie, Colorado is a very well known, established brand and recognized for their innovative and excellent lighting products in the photography and film industries. Chimera core product lines include Lightbanks, Lights, Lights Modifiers, Light Booms, Grips and accessories for a wide selection of manufacturers. Chimera products can be found in major lighting equipment distributors.
1- SEO Audit Summary:
The current website ChimeraLighting.com dates back to 2016, more importantly although the domain is secured with https protocol, it contains a number of internal links still pointing to unsecured http URLs.
Also, it appears that internal links are also still pointing to the staging site links like “wpengine.netdna-ssl.com”. The site is using Yoast SEO plugin and Google Tag for indexing so it would be recommended to provide a relevant site description so it shows in Google result snippets.
It seems the site was last updated in March 2020 when adding an updated logo with a message on current health related restrictions. The last posted article dates back to 2019. Promos dates back to 2017, and the catalog pdf found via the footer link and the “Link to Catalog’ dates back to 2013-2014.
Some sub categories in the shopping filtering section are empty and unnecessary brand names are shown on empty pages. Some Product pages which have a pdf document linked are outdated and show product specs with older mailing addresses. As the site is structured around an e-commerce shopping site, it is a good practice in order to improve and optimize the customer experience that the footer includes sitemap, terms and conditions as well as privacy policy pages. Domain search shows 1110 internal URLs.
Last but not least, the mobile browsing shows design issues. Although the site structure is responsive the mobile version of the site need fixing as the top header links are shown white on white and the hero slider is completely hidden by the sub menu categories.
2- Testing:
Lighthouse mobile:
50/100 Performance – 80/100 Accessibility – 69/100 Best Practices – 91/100 SEO
GTMetrix desktop:
Largest Contentful Paint 795ms – Total Blocking Time 0ms – Cumulative Layout Shift 0
3 – Points for improvement:
The load size of the site is 3.63MB with 8 images over 100kb each which could be optimized.
In the shopping section only below the footer a Google translate plugin provides automated translation.
As the Google My Business profile is claimed it would be recommended to have it linked in the Google map found in the contact page. (Link)
In terms of social media in the footer, Instagram updates and icons are broken links, Facebook does link to an active page. There is no link to the Linkedin company page which is actually active.
The Dealer finder page is really a great tool but would need adjusting, as testing 100 miles radius shows 70miles to Kansas City which actually is located at 700miles from Erie.
4 – Final thoughts:
It seems that searching for Chimera products, most ads are shown by the B&H distributor in New York.
It would be recommended to have the site and product pages regularly updated to gain authority in the eyes of Google for indexing products and pages. All staging site internal links should be fully redirected to the main domain to avoid penalties. Instead of an automated Google translation plugin it would be best to have an actual multi-language domain. As Google mobile first indexing is becoming the reference for Google it is very important to put extra attention on the mobile browsing experience to avoid any design issues.
Please like and share, as the aim here is to learn, improve, and remain constructive 🙂
EA
#nimtsa
elisha@nimtsa.com
