A very quick SEO audit for Universal Music Group.

1. SEO AUDIT DEC ’11
HTTP://FATBALLOON.CO.UK

2. Overview
 Universal Music Group
 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Universal Music Group (UMG) is an American music
group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by
its commanding market share and its multitude of global
operations. Universal Music Group is a wholly owned
subsidiary of French media conglomerate Vivendi.
 Universal Music Group owns a music publisher,
Universal Music Publishing Group, which became the
world's largest following the acquisition of BMG Music
Publishing in May 2007.

3. Objectives
URL in question:
http://www.universalmusic.com/
Universal Music Group – SEO Audit
On site
Off site
Power of the brand, is it performing?
Does the link profile / SEO look natural?

4. Index
Google SERPs
Page Source
Ad Words Keyword Tool
Keywords – Impact
Keywords – Summary
Meta Descriptions
Title Tags & Site Architecture
Title Tags – Summary
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content 1
In bound links
Linkscape Data
Linkscape Data 2
H1 & H2
H1 & H2 overview
Universal Search
Universal Search – 1
Universal Search – 2
Content
Facebook
Twitter

5. 1. Google SERPs
 Google.co.uk SERPs for ‘universal music group’

6. 2. Source of Universalmusicgroup.com
 view-source:http://www.universalmusic.com/

7. 3. Keywords – Ad Words keyword tool
 Out of a survey of top 100 keywords
Universalmusic.com should be ranking for the
following table shows the 8 that the site actually
ranks for and the positions.
Keyword Comp. Global Searches p/m Google UK
music lil wayne 0.11 301000 34
music by lil wayne 0.11 301000 42
music of lil wayne 0.11 301000 43
lilwayne music 0.11 246000 59
lil wayne music 0.11 301000 70
lil wanye music 0.24 880 70
lil wayne videos 0.07 49500 72
little wayne 0.04 135000 127

8. 3.1 Keywords - Impact
 According to Alexa.com the keywords listed below are the keywords that
Universalmusic.com is getting the highest organic search impact from. ‘Impact factor’ –
The closer the number to 100, the higher the search impact. The highest brand term
‘Universal Music’, had an Impact of 13.31, which is still a low impact by any standards.
 http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/universalmusic.com#
Query Impact Factor Query Popularity QCI
record labels 2.19 27 55
music music 1.53 19 45
music logo 1.19 26 29
music store 1.13 44 30
universal music store 1.12 15 13
music website 0.88 23 43
music labels 0.7 19 30
get music 0.58 15 40
music uk 0.56 5 50
music 0.48 60 35
music distribution 0.46 17 63
music publishing 0.46 22 48
music.com 0.46 33 29
music distribution companies 0.46 7 80
music indonesia 0.45 23 13
music latino 0.38 8 60

9. 3.2 Keywords - Summary
 Summary
 What we can learn from the above is that with simple
on site SEO, link building, PR and social media
activity using core brand terms such as ‘Universal
Music’ and synonyms thereof, we can extend the
brand’s reach through search and social to increase
the impact of these keywords.

10. 4. Meta Descriptions
 Missing!
URL Meta Description
http://www.universalmusic.com
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=N
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=O
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=L
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=M
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=J
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=K
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=H
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=I
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=F
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=G
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=D
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=E
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=B
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=C
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=A
http://www.universalmusic.com/overview
http://www.universalmusic.com/genre/Latin
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=Z
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=X

11. 5. Title Tags & Site Architecture
URL Title Tag
 Title tags http://www.universalmusic.com home | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=N Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=O Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=L Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=M Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=J Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=K Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=H Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=I Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=F Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=G Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=D Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=E Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=B Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=C Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=A Artists | Universal Music
Overview | Universal
http://www.universalmusic.com/overview Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/genre/Latin Latin | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=Z Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=X Artists | Universal Music
http://www.universalmusic.com/artists?filter0=Y Artists | Universal Music

12. 5.1 Title Tags - Summary
 Title tags on universalmusic.com follow the same global
convention [keyword] | Universal Music
 From this it is clear that no optimisation has been completed.
 There are many ways to incorporate ‘best practice’ for follow a
title tag convention, but in this instance [keyword 1] |
[keyword 2] | [brand name] might be the best convention to
follow. This is also a good convention for medium sized sites
with 13,900 pages being indexed in Google from
Universalmusic.com. For example:
 http://www.universalmusic.com
 Current Title tag
 Home | Universal Music
 Proposed Title Tag

13. 6. Duplicate Page Content - 1
 Overview URL Dupes
 Top 20 pages on
http://www.universalmusic.com Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Frank-Ocean/Swim-Good/1163455745001 Yes
 universalmusic.com http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Maroon-5/Moves-Like-Jagger/1110957404001 Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Jennifer-Lopez/Papi/1170888437001 Yes
 with duplicate http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Big-Sean/Dance-A/1255074192001 Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Florence-The-Machine/Shake-It-Out/1212949231001 Yes
 content found elsewhere http://www.universalmusic.com/ Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Noel-Gallaghers-High-Flying-Birds/AKAWhat-A-Life/1251773961001 Yes
 on Universalmusic.com http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Mary-J-Blige/258/1251746006001 Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/New-Found-Glory Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/nellie-mckay-the-making-of-normal-as-blueberry-pie Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/No-Doubt Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Nine-Black-Alps Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/norman-brown Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Nikki-Yanofsky Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/nelson Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/nerd Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/Noel-Gallaghers-High-Flying-Birds Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/new-edition Yes
http://www.universalmusic.com/artist/natalie Yes

14. 6.1 Duplicate Page Content - 1
Total on site errors

15. 7. In Bound Links – Top 10 Study
 Overview
 The data set below is taken from Linkscape and
shows the top 10 inbound links to
Universalmusic.com sorted by Page Authority. (a
metric to define the benefit attained by gaining a link
from this page)

16. 7.1 LinkScape Data

17. 7.2 LinkScape Data 2
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group - Branded
Wiki Page
 www.umusic.com/ - 302
 http://blog.us.playstation.com/author/pseybold/
 http://new.umusic.com/flash.aspx -302
 http://new.umusic.com/ -302
 www.ifpi.org/content/section_links/member_sites.html
 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/06/15/music-unlimited-
expanding-to-android-today-new-opportunity-for-ps3-owners/
 www.getmusic.com/ -302
 www.jessiejofficial.com/
 http://www.examiner.com/pop-music-in-chicago/upcoming-
madonna-album-offers-plenty-of-surprises

18. 8. H1 & H2
 www.universalmusic.com/genre/Pop

19. H1 & H2 – Overview
 www.universalmusic.com/genre/Pop

20.  Link building to add benefit to H1s & H2s
 Link data below is from SEO MOZ’s LinkScape

21. 9. Universal Search
 MRSS
 www.universalmusic.com/rss
 Video SEO Optimisation
 Vevo hosting for videos
 why?
 Benefits
 Let video sharing sites compete to host videos

22. 9.1 Universal Search SERPs 2
 Google.com SERPs for ‘new music videos’
 Summary
 Top 10 results are dominated by videos
 Top result is from VH1 blog
 Majority of results from video sharing sites


23. 9.2 Universal Search SERPs 3
 Google.com SERPs for
 ‘Kelly Rowland Motivation’
 Summary
 Kelly Rowland not #1

24. 10. Content Strategy - Spaces
 Create engaging ‘liquid’ content
 Earn a disproportionate share of popular culture
 Create brand stories to create conversations
 Act and react to conversations 24/7

25. 10.2 – Content – Users & Tech
 Fuel consumer and business created stories
 Create an ‘on demand’ culture using technology that
runs 24/7
 Combine ideas with technology
 Leverage customer behavior
 Build and develop direct relationships with
customers

26. 11. Twitter
 Custom background
 Style of tweets
 Questions
 Conversation
 Types of links
 Number of followers
 Influence
 Klout
 Reach
 Recency
 Twitter buttons on site
 Retweet buttons next to content

27. 12. Facebook
 Staff involvement
 Fan pages
 Number of fans
 Update frequency
 Apps
 Any social widgets, buttons on site itself