Website Introduction

Brand: LIFX, smart light startup that launched in 2012 with the first Wi Fi-enabled, multi-colored LED, controllable via a smart device.

https://www.lifx.com/ serves as the brand official website. Customers can purchase products from this website, but the brand’s major sales comes from ecommerce site such as Amazon and Best Buy.

Methodology

The browsers used for conducting researches for this audit are Google Chrome and Safari. According to venturebeat, Google Chrome accounts for 25.68% bowser in market share and Safari accounts for 5.12% in

market share.

All cookies and search history on the two browsers are cleared before audit starts.

Competitive Audit & Brand Reputation

Keywords research:

(1) Brand name: LIFX

To people who search specifically for the brand name, it’s easy for them

to find relevant information. SERs on the first page: official website, twitter account, product Amazon page, company’s Kickstarter campaign, CNET review on product

(2) Smart Home Neither LIFX nor other smart lighting brands show up in the results. SERs on the first page: Smart Home design & installation website, E-commerce website for smart home devices (LIFX competitor Philips Hue

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is on the home page of the website), article about smart home, image, CNET review, Home Depot website for home automation, Panasonic Smart Home, LittleBits official website, Target smart home.

(3) Smart Light (usage comparison between similar keywords) Google Trends:

People can still find LIFX on first page when search for smart light, competitors’ websites also show up in the results. SERs on the first page: Best Buy (Smart Light Bulbs), Best Buy (Smart Lighting Options), LIFX official site, Verilux key product site, Verilux key product Amazon site, Flux product site, T-BAR official site (light for suspended ceilings), L8 official site, Awox official site, smart light (LED

lights supplier, smart home/business builder) What’ new: The last four were not on the first page in last month’s audit.

Brand Reputation Audit:

(1) Twitter: content that the current customer or potential customer have posted

(Descending order of popularity) • Review

• Video/photo showoff the light bulbs and functions (existing

functions and newly discovered functions)

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• Other good things: recent system update, marketing email, various color choices, give away, work well with amazon echo and

other smart devices at home) • Suggestions on the functions (increase adaptability to the environment)

• Thank you for free light bulb

• Customer ask questions before or after an order One complaint about did not get response from customer

service Question on should I get LIFX or Hue (competitor) Do you have certain kind of lighting product?

(2) Google News • Improved version of Wi-Fi color LED bulb

• Release of new bulb

• Philips Hue v LIFX

• International shipping

• Ability to control the bulbs from the new Windows 10 app

• Price Cut

(3) Current problems (search for Brand Name + complaint)

Where the most complaints come from: Reddit, customer reviews on

CNET, Twitter, Whirpool, Amazon review, Lifx labs Complaints: • Advertising on 16 million colors, but saturation drops when user increases the brightness

• Bad reviews on CNET: Lifx still lags behind Philips Hue in terms of third-party integration and overall user experience.

• Slow reply from customer service. Response to twitter comment or post was prompt, but it suggested the customer to email customer service because email account and twitter account are not linked

together • Did not ship the product to Kickstarter backer before promised

date • Backers are not happy with the shipped product

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• Time article: “ YouTube user Eran C. Galili ‘My LIFX bulb stopped

working, and as part of customer support, LIFX suggested that I sent a “video that confirms the issue.’… He created a video of lightbulb-fueled drama complete with spaghetti western

soundtrack and post-film credits” YouTube total view: 1,224,531

• LIFX android app doesn’t work well (apple app is ok) • Light bulb gets very hot

Technical Audit

Universal navigation:

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Site Structure:

Things need to be improved: (1) Have keywords like smartlight on navigation page (2) Include product information like smart light bulb in product URL :

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(3) More information are displayed or hidden at the bottom of the home page, not in the navigation strip, at least have help center as one of the universal navigation categories:

Something good about the website: Drop down is html, and users can navigate without drop downs

Site map: Not well organized, need some changes according to the site structure

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Title Tags:

LIFX’s title tag has 36 characters, rather than using descriptive words, it focuses on expressing feelings. Since there is still space left, I would

suggest adding keyword: smart light Example: LIFX | Smart Light | Live a more illuminated life

Mega Tag is clear and to the point.

Canonicalization:

LIFX uses canonical tag in its code

Keywords on website:

Most common keywords are lifx: 16 times color: 10 times white :10 times

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light: 5 times warm: 4 times Failed to use effective keywords

Link on Page:

Cached by Google

42 distinct anchor links connect to pages that are likely have high trust rank. Moreover, text surrounding these links are relevant and contains information.

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SWOT analysis

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Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

LIFX’s light bulb does not require extra bridges and

easy to set up

It has a fair price compared

to other smart devices

The company solely relies on one kind of product.

Product still needs improvement

Smart lighting industry is new and growing.

LIFX is one of the pioneers and has gained its presence in the market

Current user base is small.

LIFX need to differentiate itself with Philips Hue and

to compete with Philip’s prestige

Industry is changing fast