In order to test the application of SEO to intelligence analysis, I decided to do a comparison of two different popular coffee shops, Caribou Coffee and Starbucks, using the information derived from SEO Websites.  I had originally wanted to use two different suspected terrorist sites to collect data on, however I chose not to follow through with this as I thought it best not to visit those sites while I was going through the security clearance process. 

I chose these particular coffee sites because of their similarity in product.  Not only do they both provide similar food and drink products, they both offer customers a trendy place to enjoy those products.  My collection requirements centered on the kind of information I would want to collect if I were examining the terrorist Websites.  In particular, I focused on collecting page rank information, site background information, number of sites linking in, visitor demographic, and visitor behavior information. 

In order to organize the information collected, I decided to enter the information into a page on my Google Site.  The page used a two-column layout, allowing me to compare the two coffee sites’ information side-by-side.  I used a Snapz Pro X, a screen capture software designed for Macs, to save any relevant graphics as pictures.  The pictures were then embedded into each column of the Google Site.  To compare the amount of site changes for the two coffee companies, I inputted the information into an Excel spreadsheet and created a graph to visually display the information.  Once all the information was displayed in a side-by-side fashion, I was easily able to compare the two sets of information to find similarities and differences.

Analysis of the two coffee Websites revealed many similarities and some expected differences.

One of the major differences between the two Websites was between page ranking.  Caribou Coffee’s page rank was only 44,860, attracting 42.2k visitors a month worldwide (30.8k US visitors/mo.); while Starbucks held a ranking of 2,362 and attracted approximately 871.7k visitors a month worldwide (671.3k US visitors/mo.). 



This vast difference in popularity is most likely attributed to the success of the Starbucks franchise, being the most popular coffee shop in the world, while Caribou Coffee has not been as successful as Starbucks in establishing coffee shops across the United States, let alone the world.  It is also likely that Starbuck’s has increased its online popularity through the marketing and online selling of Starbuck’s coffee products.  Caribou Coffee also sells their own brand of coffee products online, however their products are far less known as their geographic reach is not as wide as Starbucks – leaving Starbucks with far-more branding power.

 


The images above starkly illustrate the search volumes geographically (both globally and in the US) for these two Websites.  Starbucks competitive edge regarding popularity is blatant - covering far more countries and US states than Caribou Coffee.  Analysis of the geographic distribution of search volume is indicative of the marketing strategy of the two coffee shops.  Basing analysis form these charts, it is likely that Starbucks took an aggressive approach and strategically focused on setting up their coffee shops in large metropolitan areas.  This is why we see a larger density around the coastlines of the US - where trade and transportation have encouraged growth.  These areas typically attract bigger businesses and have larger  populations who are more affluent, more educated, and have a busier lifestyle.  Because of the targeted population, it is likely that Starbucks has molded the atmosphere of their coffee shop around the lifestyle of these metropolitan areas; focusing mostly on quick, grab-and go service.
Analysis of these charts also indicates that Caribou Coffee likely took a less aggressive approach to marketing.  It is more likely that Caribou Coffee went for a ripple-effect approach to their business, spreading outward from the first coffee shops established in Minnesota.  The search volume index illustrates that Caribou Coffee has slowly moved outward from the mid-west and will eventually creep-into the larger cities as it draws near them.  When Caribou Coffee shops migrate toward large cities, it is likely that they will stick to the sprawl areas of the city and tend to avoid the downtown areas.  It is more likely that these coffee shops will migrate toward large and higher-end shopping areas.  It is unlikely that Caribou Coffee has marketed itself toward the busy metro lifestyle populations that Starbucks has focused on, and instead has appealed to customers who have more time on their hands and are looking for a place relax while they catch up on daily events and studies.  It is for this reason that the atmosphere of Caribou Coffee shops are more lodge-like, with fireplaces and upholstered seating.

Both sites essentially attract the same type of online visitor:
Caribou Coffee visitors tend to be predominately female (56% Female versus 44% Male), middle-aged (36% of visitors were between the ages of 35 and 49), Caucasian (91%), college-educated (48% with college education and 17% with graduate degrees), no children in the household (65%), and who are affluent (33% make $60-100k).

Starbucks’ visitors tend to mirror that of Caribou Coffee’s, with only some slight differences.  Starbucks tends to attract more young adults (42% between ages of 18 and 34), and while the majority of the visitors are also Caucasian, Starbucks attracts a slightly more diverse population as well as an above-average amount of Asians.  Starbucks visitors also tend to me more affluent, with 31% making more than $100k annually.

Analysis of visitor demographics reveals that Caribou Coffee could possibly have more online success if they pull-in some of the same types of online visitors as Starbucks does.  For example, while Caribou Coffee attracts a respectable amount of young adults (32% between the ages of 18 and 34), this does not compare to the 42% that Starbucks attracts.  68% of Caribou Coffee’s visitors are between the ages of 18 and 49, while Starbucks attracts 76% of the same age group.  Since the two companies attract the same education levels, Caribou Coffee may want to curb its online marketing campaign toward the young adult category.  Paying for advertisements on social networking sites where educated young adults visit frequently, such as Facebook, may likely prove to be a wise strategic move for Caribou Coffee.  Facebook refers 3.92% of Starbucks’ traffic to the Starbucks Website, while Caribou coffee lacks in Facebook referrals. In addition, Caribou Coffee might want to further investigate what sites Asians typically visit, and focus marketing campaigns toward that particular audience as well.

Other than Facebook, referring site analysis shows that aol.com has increased referrals to the Caribou Coffee Website over the past couple of months.  This indicates that a current Caribou Coffee marketing campaign posted on aol Sites is working, or that Caribou Coffee may want to invest more into aol as it is producing traffic referrals (3.57%, which is a +553.4% increase since February).  The same information applies to yahoo.com, a major referring site for both coffee companies; however referrals from yahoo to Caribou Coffee are rising at a greater rate than that of Starbucks (+91.15% vs. +3.33%). 

Lastly, analysis of visitor behavior aids in the decision making process of what types of sites your visitors also go on a regular basis.  Caribou Coffee visitors have strong affinity levels toward sites relating to schools/universities, insurance, toys, pharmacy, and healthcare.  There are also strong trends toward news agencies/sites (particularly in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area), airline travel, and workforce related sites (insurance and management). 
Starbucks visitors have strong affinity levels toward commerce/food, fragrances/cosmetics, jewelry/luxury goods, women, and pharmacy.  Their visitors also tend to visit sites related to other restaurants, shopping, and printing/graphics sites.

The key to the analysis is to find the common threads and themes across the variety of information collected.  SEO will help you assess the route to get a particular population from one area of the Web to your site.  If you know what kind of visitors a site attracts, you can find what other sites those same visitors frequent.  If you know what keywords are used to search for your site or product, and what keywords are associated with the other likes and preferences of your visitors, then you can invest on the keywords that attract that particular population.  If you know what sites push the majority of traffic to your site, then you can focus your keyword campaign on those sites.  It’s a complex process with many routes to take; the trick is just finding the route that gets you the quickest and best results.

When applying SEO to law enforcement intelligence and the national security sector, an analyst can obviously discover a wealth of information regarding a site’s online user.  This type of analysis may be best suited to aid in operational intelligence.  As more information is analyzed about what types of online users go to specific illicit/suspect Websites, resources to combat these illicit activities can be better allocated.  Since the World Wide Web is such a large medium in which we communicate and interact, being efficient with the resources available to counter criminal activity on the Web is a necessity.