We are writing today in regards to Spark’s use of search engine optimization.

When we review the keyword practices of Spark compared to their key competitor, Match, we can see a few critical trends that hurt Spark’s competitiveness for search engine optimization. First, Spark uses 29 keywords on their homepage compared to Match’s 16, and none of them reach this segment effectively. We found that fitness singles should be targeted by key words such as “fitness dating” and “sports dating,” as well as other keywords such as running, yoga, and active.

A critical element of Match’s ability to target market segments through SEO is their use of subpages and an extensive site map. Each subpage has unique meta-keywords and a meta-description that compliments the title and content to create strong keyword optimization in relevant dating searches. Spark fails to use any metadata on their community pages, which reduces the page’s impact on search engine placement.

Spark fails to include any community sites or subpages – including for fitness singles – in their sitemap. This makes it more difficult for users to navigate to relevant content, and for search engine spiders to index these critical pages that drive traffic more than articles and profile information.

Spark should be able to be significantly more competitive in attracting fitness singles if they change their keyword mix to better target this audience and create a specific, highly-visible community page indexed on their sitemap. This would also improve overall stickiness to and conversion of this target segment.

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