Academy Sports + Outdoors SEO audit

Technology profile

Built on the Adobe Experience Cloud framework, academy.com relies heavily on Adobe ecommerce solutions software. These include Adobe Omniture SiteCatalyst (analytics), Test and Target (targeting, split and multivariate testing), Connect (web conferencing), and Scene7 (image processing and retrieval). Data tracking on academy.com includes Google, Bing, Facebook, Dotomi, Ruxit, Quantum Metric, Pingdom, Visual IQ, and more. Academy Sports + Outdoors has implemented BrightEdge SEO optimization, Evergage conversion optimization, and Bazaarvoice feedback forms. It’s hosted by Akamai on Apache servers and uses the Akamai Edge content delivery network.

Forced SSL & subdomain

Duplicate versions of a website, like non-www, non-https, and staging environments, can waste crawl budget, cause indexing bloat and create duplicate content issues. Each should 301 redirect to the preferred version in a single hop. In this case, http://academy.com (non-https and non-www) should 301 redirect to https://www.academy.com (https and www)

http://academy.com
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://www.academy.com/

The first redirect is from non-www to www, but it's still a non-secure request. There is a second redirect from the non-secure URL to the https address.

http://www.academy.com/
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://www.academy.com/

In the end, it resolves to the correct location. However, chain redirects (more than one redirect in a path) aren't ideal for a few reasons. This path could be resolved in a single redirect by combining the htaccess rewrite rules for www and https.

Core web vitals

Even with overwhelming data to support investing in the mobile shopping experience, without a target, many organizations find it difficult to take the first steps. Core Web Vitals are a set of standards that are helpful for looking at and improving the browsing experience. It is rare that Google announces algorithm updates, particularly months in advance. However, Google officially announced the addition of Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor for some time in 2021. Meeting or exceeding the target score for each of these factors is important groundwork for improving Academy Sports SEO.

These Core Web Vitals scores were generated using Google PageSpeed Insights tool (opens in a new tab).

Sitemap optimization

Sitemaps give search engines a quick and easy reference to the academy.com pages that have been updated since they were last crawled. They can also give Academy Sports SEO professionals the opportunity to easily set up crawls for sections of the website, like a single product category, rather than the entire product catalog.

“The URL + last modification date is what we care about for websearch.”—John Mueller, Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google (August 17, 2017 on Twitter)

Improperly configured sitemaps are, at best, just a list of URLs. With proper organization and accurate information, like an authentic timestamp of the last update, search engines can prioritize crawls for updated pages rather than re-crawling previously indexed content. By prioritizing crawls for new and updated content, search engines are able to index the freshest content faster.

“[I]f you have a sitemap file and you are using it to tell us about the pages that were changed or updated, it is much better to just specify the timestamp directly so that we can look into our internal systems and say, ‘We haven’t crawled since this date, therefore we should crawl again.’”—John Mueller, Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google (May 8, 2015 on Google+)

Every URL timestamp in each Academy Sports + Outdoors sitemap reflects the current date. There's currently no way to prioritize a crawl for recently updated information like pricing and availability.

Each Academy Sports + Outdoors sitemap falls into one of four categories: content, stores, categories and products.

At a quick glance, the content sitemap has some interesting inclusions. For example, a home page test that appears to be dated Dec. 21, 2015.

View a screenshot of “/shop/en/store/homepage-test-20151221” (opens in a new tab).

This home page test can be redirected to the working home page and removed from the sitemap. There are likely similar pages in the sitemap that can be redirected and removed. If the page is causing indexing issues for more desirable pages, a removal request should be made in Google Search Console and other webmaster tools.

Test pages like this one can be a terrific way to test new features in the wild. However, it's important to not link to them, including through sitemaps, and to add a noindex tag:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

These steps limit the page's discoverability and help keep it out of sight for the duration of the test. It's also important to remove the page when the test is complete.

Non-indexable product content

Unlinked product families

Search competition at the product level often means only one page will surface in organic and paid search engine listings for each ecommerce site. Because of this, it is important to ensure that each product page links to the other products in its family. Enterprise product information management and build procedures often revolve around criteria other than product family. This linking structure requires, at a minimum, an additional data point that captures the product family relationship. Ideally, it also includes other data points to leverage in calculating the exact relationship between the products within each family.

Here are the related keyword phrase variations that are most popular in the world of our favorite test product, the Marucci Cat7 BBCOR -3 baseball bat. Note the volume disparity between product family searches (like "marucci cat 7") and specific product variation searches (like "marucci cat 7 drop 3").

Product family search volume far outpaces product search volume. Customers searching for “marucci cat 7” could be looking for either the drop 10, 8, 5 or 3. Therefore, it is important that the ranking page serves all of those needs. In this case, Google chose the Marucci Cat7 drop 10 product page as the best “marucci cat 7” result on academy.com.

At the time of publishing, Academy Sports + Outdoor carried 5 SKUs in the Marucci Cat7 product family. In the current ecommerce environment, it is reasonable to expect the page that surfaces in organic and paid listings to represent all 5 versions. That's important because less than half of the traffic to this result is looking for the drop 10 bat. The majority are looking for the BBCOR drop 3 version (in either aluminum or alloy, also built as separate products and not linked together).

Unfortunately, there is no link from the drop 10 to the drop 3, or between any of the Marucci Cat7 products. To continue shopping, likely more than two thirds of organic or paid search browsers will need to use the category menu or the site search bar, or return to the SERP (bounce) and find a more helpful result.

Discontinued, out-of-stock products

Many products maintain organic search value well after they are discontinued and out of stock. This is because search volume often continues for years after a product’s sell-through date. For example, Academy Sports + Outdoors carried Nike Free RN 2018 running shoes. Here is the relative search volume for Nike Free RN 2018 running shoes since launch. Note the continued (albeit reduced) organic search volume well into 2020, long after many retailers sold out of the product.

There is also a possibility that the product makes a comeback, whether it is the exact same model, a closely related one, or reignited cultural interest in the original. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, average monthly search volume for Nike Free RN 2018 was 20% of its all-time search volume peak. In April, 2020, search volume for Nike Free RN 2018 actually began to increase. Here are the most recent monthly search volume estimates from Google Ads Keyword Planner.

To compete for search phrases related to Nike Free RN 2018, Academy Sports + Outdoors needs a page that is optimized for the product. When the product was in stock, this information was presented on a set of product detail pages. However, there is currently no discontinued, out-of-stock product detail page template on academy.com. Instead, when a discontinued product sells through its remaining inventory, the product URL is automatically redirected to a generic product listing page. In this case, the product detail page was redirected to the men’s running shoes page.

https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/nike-mens-free-rn-2018-running-shoes
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://www.academy.com/shop/browse/mens-running-shoes?productNotFound=true

By redirecting a discontinued, out-of-stock product detail page to a generic category listing page, Academy Sports + Outdoors forgoes the opportunity to rank for terms specific to each discontinued product. In addition, academy.com misses the opportunity to capture a share of that search traffic. Here is a screenshot of the generic men’s running shoes product listing page, which lacks the signals necessary to compete for the terms once owned by the now discontinued, out-of-stock Nike Free RN 2018 product detail page:

By creating a discontinued, out-of-stock page experience, Academy Sports + Outdoors will have the opportunity to rank in search results for queries related to Nike Free RN 2018 running shoes, and hundreds (or thousands) of other products long after they are sold out. Over time, the Academy Sports SEO channel will increase its organic search impressions and traffic.

On the surface, discontinued, out-of-stock product pages are an opportunity to provide information to customers about a discontinued product. On a deeper level, they offer the opportunity to communicate the company’s value propositions and make specific product recommendations based on category, brand and product family in a more helpful way than is possible on a generic listing page.

Backlink profile comparison

This data set reflects the recently observed backlink profile as of August 1, 2020. These backlink numbers are most insightful when viewed as a competitive landscape over time.

Commitment to content

In October, 2020, Academy Sports SEO invested in its site content by posting a job for an SEO content lead. Until this job posting, Academy Sports + Outdoors had not put sufficient resources behind content creation for category, product or blog pages. This was a major step forward that will accelerate the development of the Academy Sports SEO content strategy, quality standards and production process. Here were some of the important criteria and responsibilities listed in the job description that are critical for an SEO content leader:

• • Deep on-page SEO knowledge: is up to date on the latest SEO best practices
• • Extremely organized & detail-oriented: balancing the intricacies of content and SEO initiatives
• • Drive multiple SEO activities: perform audits, update redirects, outreach for backlinks
• • Audit existing content to ensure all content provides a strong balance of UX, CRO and SEO
• • Thinking creatively with your team to devise SEO strategies that are aligned with company objectives