SEO Roast: IconBuddy's Organic Traffic Audit
This section has been automatically generated with AI based on the transcript from the video roast.
In this SEO roast, we dive deep into the organic search strategy of IconBuddy, the ultimate source for open source icons.
With a library of over 226,000 icons and plugins for Figma and VS Code, IconBuddy has huge potential to drive traffic and revenue from search engines.
However, our audit uncovered several areas to improve their on-page SEO technical optimizations, and content gaps compared to top competitors.
By implementing the action items from this teardown, IconBuddy could 400X their organic traffic from Google Search and Image Search. Let's get started!
Traffic Overview
IconBuddy's search traffic has been steadily growing since March 2024, now reaching over 300 organic visitors per month. Their top ranking keywords include:
- open source icons
- free svg icons
- [icon name] svg
While this is a great start, there is massive upside potential by expanding their keyword footprint and optimizing for Google Image Search (more on this later).
On-Page SEO
For IconBuddy's key landing pages like individual icon pages, we recommend the following on-page optimizations:
Title Tags
- Include target keyword near the beginning
- Limit to 60 characters
- Example: "[Icon Name] SVG & PNG Icon - Free Download | IconBuddy"
Meta Descriptions
- Incorporate keywords naturally
- Expand to 150-160 characters and include a CTA
- Example: "Download the free [Icon Name] icon in SVG, PNG, and other formats. Copy and paste ready-made icons for your design or development projects."
OG:URL
- This should be the same as canonical URL
OG:IMAGE
- This is the default banner image for all the pages - you can make an unique OG Image using https://ogimage.org
- Ideally, this should be the icon
Header Tags
- Use a single H1 tag that matches the title/keyword
- Include 3-5 related H2 subheadings to break up content
- Example H1: "[Icon Name] Icon"
- Example H2s: "Icon Examples", "Download Options", "Usage Tips"
Alt Text
- Describe icon images using target keyword
- Keep under 125 characters
- Example: "[Icon Name] glyph icon in flat style"
Google Image Search Optimization
We showed how Gradient.page ranks highly for Gradient Wallpapers on Google Images.
One of the biggest opportunities for IconBuddy is to rank their icon images in Google Image Search results, which can drive massive traffic.
We found several competitor sites like IconDuck, Icons8 and Flaticon getting tens of thousands of visitors per month from image search alone.
To optimize for Image Search:
- Ensure images are crawlable (no blocking JS/CSS)
- Use descriptive, keyword-rich filenames
- Compress images for faster load times
- Implement structured data markup (see below)
- Build links/authority to icon pages
Image Structured Data
Adding ImageObject schema markup to icon pages can help them appear as rich results in Google Search and Image Search.
Key properties to include:
- contentUrl
- name
- caption
- creator
- keywords
- license
Here's an example JSON-LD snippet:
Alternatively, you can use RDFa or Microdata formats. The key is to provide search engines with more context about your icon images in a structured way.
Competitor Analysis
Looking at IconBuddy's top organic competitors, we see sites like:
- IconDuck
- Iconify
- Icons8
- Flaticon
What are they doing well?
- Keyword-rich pages: Competitors have dedicated pages targeting high-volume keywords like "WhatsApp icon", "Instagram logo", "emoji icons" etc.
- Related icons: On each icon page, they display a grid of dozens of related/similar icons to improve engagement and internal linking.
- Image optimization: Competitor icons rank highly in Google Image Search due to filenames, alt text, structured data, and compression.
- Categorization: Icon sets are well-organized into intuitive categories and tags, creating a strong site architecture.
To help close the gap, we exported two key reports from Ahrefs:
- Keyword Gap: 500+ keywords that competitors rank for, but IconBuddy doesn't. Priority opportunities to create new pages.
- Backlink Gap: 1000+ domains that link to competitors, but not IconBuddy. Outreach targets for link building.
Download and review the full CSV exports to integrate into your content roadmap and SEO strategy.
CSV exports have been sent to IconBuddy by e-mail. Want one for your website? Order your own SEO Roast here: https://seoroast.org/order
Key Takeaways
In summary, here are the top action items for IconBuddy to boost their organic search traffic:
- Optimize key landing pages with keyword-rich titles, metas, header tags and alt text
- Implement image structured data (ImageObject) and compress icon images
- Build new pages for high-priority keyword gaps vs. competitors
- Improve internal linking with grids of related icons on each page
- Invest in link building outreach to high-authority domains linking to competitors
By executing on these opportunities, IconBuddy can 400X their organic traffic from ~300 to 100,000+ monthly visits. The site has a strong foundation with its robust icon library - now it's time to showcase that value in search!
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Disclosures: IconBuddy is a paying subscriber of SEO Roast. This audit was completed using third-party SEO tools like Ahrefs, and manual analysis. No confidential GA or GSC data from IconBuddy was used.
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