Blog da Saraiva is one of the communication channels of the bookstore of the same name, which has been operating in the Brazilian market for over 100 years.
Its main purpose is to present the launches of multiple cultural products to the public of internet users of almost all ages.
In addition, this blog aims to generate visits to the sales pages of the bookstore's virtual store, among other actions.
However, before continuing with the analysis, I would like to inform you that Saraiva's e-commerce site, which sells books, e-books, movies and other products, is listed in the 6.340th global and 221st national positions in the Alexa ranking (with data May 2019).
BRIEF HISTORY OF BOOKSTORE SARAIVA
The first physical store of the Saraiva bookstore was founded in 1914, in downtown São Paulo, by the Portuguese immigrant Joaquim Inácio da Fonseca Saraiva.
Over the following decades, the enterprise grew to reach 36 stores.
In 2008, the company acquired another bookstore, Siciliano, which had 63 stores.
In this way, it gained a 20% share of the national book market.
In the following years, Saraiva created more stores, until it had 114 in 17 Brazilian states.
However, in 2018, it closed 19 of them.
Saraiva's e-commerce site has been online since 1998.
It has a multichannel approach, that is, it integrates its own online store with physical stores and other sales channels of the bookstore.
• To learn how to create an online store from a blog, access and read the article " How to set up an e-commerce store ".
FEATURES OF SARAIVA'S BLOG
These are characteristics of the Saraiva bookstore blog (data from May 2019):
• Design:
According to Google's "Mobile Friendly" tool, Saraiva's blog is responsive. That is, it adapts well to the multiple formats and sizes of smartphone and tablet screens.
However, when submitted to the “Codeorama” and the “Responsive Design Checker”, these tools did not give any response.
When tested on a real desktop device, I noticed the following details in the design of the “home” page of that blog:
- Saraiva logo on the left side, at the top, in a yellow band;
- There is no specific logo for the blog (only the one for the bookstore);
- In the yellow band there is a menu with Home, Stories, Events and Photos;
- Next to the menu there is a search field (magnifying glass);
- Before the page fold there are callouts to events;
- Just below it are more event calls;
- Then there are photo calls;
- Subsequently, there is a video call block;
- In the sequence, there are blocks of calls for “posts”, “books”, “movies”, etc.;
- Soon after there are advertising banners for other sites;
- Ahead, there are calls for “Latest stories” and “Top posts”;
- Finally, there are buttons for physical stores, authors, customer service and social media.
Finally, I opened the blog on a smartphone and found that its home page has the same items listed in the previous topics, only with a more compact design.
• Contents:
The Saraiva blog is composed mainly of content about books, music, games, videos and series.
Furthermore, there is a wing in the “Stories” menu just for comics.
There are also many posts about technology.
Text size ranges from 300 to just over 1.000 words.
SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, for example, recommend a minimum of 300 words for everyday text and more than 900 words for structural text.
In addition to texts, the posts have photographs and various illustrations.
Some of the posts incorporate videos published on Saraiva's YouTube channel.
At the end of the articles there is a recommendation system for other posts.
I didn't notice any concerns with the use of SEO keywords in the titles and subtitles of the posts, nor in the images.
Probably, blog managers also do not mark keywords in internal tags.
I think the lack of care with keywords and tags is a big problem, because search engines like Google need these words to rank posts well in their rankings.
The highest ranked posts get the most visits.
• Links:
The linking system on the Saraiva blog is a little different from the blogs of Casas Bahia , Ponto Frio , Extra , and Magalu, which I've analyzed in previous months.
On the Saraiva blog there are basically two types of links:
1 – Links to other posts :
They appear in blue in the middle of text paragraphs.
When someone clicks on them, a new blog post opens.
Sometimes the new page opens without the current one being closed.
At other times, the new one opens over the old one.
2 – Links to the online store :
In the middle of the posts there are also links to sales pages of the Saraiva virtual store.
These are highlighted in a block outlined by a gray line.
They contain the image, name, code and price of a product, and a “I want this product” button.
This type of emphasis on the links aimed at the virtual store is not seen in any of the other blogs I have analyzed here on the e-Plus blog.
Anyway, I liked this tactic.
I think it's worth applying it.
There should probably be plugins just for that on blogging platforms like WordPress, for example.
• Authors:
On the Saraiva blog, posts are signed by human authors and not by the Saraiva company.
However, as in the other blogs I analyzed, there is no biography available so that we can get to know these authors better.
In my opinion, it is important to mention the biography of the authors, because that way the reader will be able to know better if he is reading a text written by an expert or by someone who is venturing into the field.
• Frequency:
The blog posts of the Saraiva blog are dated.
Therefore, it is possible to verify that the publication frequency is at least 1 post every 10 days, more or less.
Dating is important, as it shows the reader if the news is still current and prevents him from wasting time on something that has already lost its validity.
• Banners:
Here, Saraiva's blog is again different from the other blogs I've analyzed.
Your posts have banners on the sides, which have ads from the Google Adsense platform.
If a person clicks on these banners, they are forwarded to third-party websites.
It looks bad for Saraiva.
On the other hand, when someone clicks on a banner, Saraiva receives a few cents from Google dollars.
It's extra income for the bookstore.
• Mobile:
Despite being responsive, the Saraiva blog is slow on mobile technologies.
As per the PageSpeed Insights test, the blog received a score of 13 (considered slow speed) on mobile and 67 (considered medium speed) on desktop.
For optimization purposes, PageSpeed Insights recommends setting an appropriate image size , providing images in the latest formats, encoding images efficiently, and other measures.
• Organizational culture:
The Saraiva blog does not have a logo.
It employs the same logo as the bookstore.
That way, the colors and symbols are the same across all online and offline channels.
This undoubtedly unifies sales channels and provides credibility.
However, if the blog had its own logo, I think it would give it more personality.
It would stand out and thus could even be turned into something bigger and more interesting.
• Search Google:
The keyword “Saraiva's blog” is searched 40 times a month on Google.
• Audience content:
There is no comments section enabled on the blog, so there is no audience content.
It's a shame, as readers' content can help other readers make a purchase decision.
• Social networks and subscriptions:
Saraiva's blog does not have a form for capturing email marketing subscribers.
I think this is a mistake, as a good email list is gold for online retailers.
Email messages allow you to educate your readers until you take them shopping.
The buttons for social networks are available in the footer.
The posts, in turn, have sharing buttons for the main social networks and also via email.
CONCLUSION ABOUT SARAIVA'S BLOG
Saraiva's blog is very good, however, I think its managers should work better on the issue of SEO keywords; the format, size and “weight” of the images; and insert an email capture form into it.
What I liked most about this blog, however, were the highlighted links, with a product image and a button that sends the reader directly to a specific sales page at the bookstore.
I found this too much.
I was thinking that I should implement something similar here on the e-Plus blog.
Overall, I think Saraiva's content managers are to be congratulated.
Informing readers is critical to helping them go shopping.
Furthermore, a good blog is also very good for creating an atmosphere of influence on Internet users.
