Saracen Horse Feeds has strong brand fundamentals — 35+ years in business, a partnership with Kentucky Equine Research (KER), Olympic-level brand ambassadors, and multiple industry certifications. However, the website has significant SEO gaps that prevent these authority signals from translating into search visibility.
This site runs on Webflow with Cloudflare CDN. Some recommendations are constrained by Webflow’s platform limitations — these are marked with a Webflow Limit badge. Where possible, workarounds via Cloudflare Workers or custom code embeds are noted.
| # | Issue | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No structured data on 60+ product pages — missing rich snippet opportunities | Critical |
| 2 | Missing meta descriptions on most pages — Google auto-generates snippets | Critical |
| 3 | Zero schema markup on 9 of 10 sampled pages | Critical |
| 4 | 5 of 6 security headers missing (only HSTS present) | Critical |
| 5 | No author attribution on 80+ articles despite qualified nutritionists on staff | Critical |
| # | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Add <lastmod> dates to all 262 sitemap URLs | Low |
| 2 | Add meta descriptions to the 9+ key pages currently missing them | Low |
| 3 | Fix Organization schema URL mismatch (www vs non-www) | Low |
| 4 | Remove duplicate GTM container (2 loaded on every page) | Low |
| 5 | Add BreadcrumbList schema site-wide | Medium |
Contains only a Sitemap directive. No User-agent rules, no Disallow directives, and no AI crawler policies (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot).
Needs Work Webflow Limit Webflow auto-generates robots.txt. Custom rules require Cloudflare Workers.262 URLs in a single flat XML sitemap. Zero <lastmod> dates, zero <changefreq> or <priority> values. No sitemap index file.
Needs Work Webflow Limit Webflow auto-generates sitemaps with no lastmod control. Cloudflare Workers can serve a custom sitemap.| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| HTTP → HTTPS redirect | 301 Pass |
| www → non-www redirect | 301 Pass |
| Trailing slash handling | Consistent 301 |
| HTTP/2 protocol | Enabled |
| TTFB | 0.12–0.24s |
| CDN | Cloudflare (edge cached) |
Homepage canonical uses https://saracenhorsefeeds.com (missing trailing slash).
Organization schema URL uses https://www.saracenhorsefeeds.com/ — a
mismatch with the non-www canonical domain. Product page canonicals are present and correct.
| Header | Status |
|---|---|
| Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) | Present |
| X-Frame-Options | Missing |
| X-Content-Type-Options | Missing |
| Content-Security-Policy | Missing |
| Permissions-Policy | Missing |
| Referrer-Policy | Missing |
13 international distributor pages exist (DE, FR, Benelux, CZ, DK, ES, IT, PL, SLO, FIN, SE, TR, GCC). No hreflang tags found anywhere on the site.
Missing hreflangHomepage: "Saracen Horse Feeds | Trusted British Horse Feed" (51 chars — good). Product pages use the format: "PRODUCT NAME | Category | Saracen Horse Feeds". Generally well-structured where present.
| Page | Status |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Present (154 chars) |
| Thoroughbred section | Present |
| Product pages (CMS) | Present |
| Category pages | Not Detected |
| Articles hub | Not Detected |
| Contact | Not Detected |
| About | Not Detected |
| Nutrition Advice | Not Detected |
| Stockist Finder | Not Detected |
| Page | H1 | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | "Fresh Look. Same Feed You Trust." | OK |
| /product/performance | "Performance" | Weak |
| /product/conditioning | "Conditioning" | Weak |
| /product/veteran | "Veteran" | Weak |
| /nutrition-advice | "NUTRITION ADVICE" | OK |
| /about | "About Saracen" | OK |
| /stockist-finder | "Stockist Finder" | OK |
| /articles-advice | "Articles, case studies & advice" | Good |
| /contact | "contact" | Weak |
| /thoroughbred | "Saracen Thoroughbred Nutrition" | Good |
Homepage has og:title and og:description but is missing og:url and twitter:image. Product pages have partial coverage. Most other pages have no social meta tags detected.
| Pillar | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Experience | 7/10 | 35+ years, family-owned, case studies with practitioners |
| Expertise | 6/10 | Registered Nutritionist (MSc RNutr) on staff but invisible in content |
| Authoritativeness | 7/10 | King's Award, KER partnership, BHA endorsement, Carl Hester MBE |
| Trustworthiness | 6/10 | Good contact info, outdated privacy policy (references 1998 Act) |
Overall E-E-A-T: 6.5/10 — Strong credentials, poorly surfaced.
80+ articles with strong internal linking. 8th–9th grade readability level (appropriate for consumer audience). Publication dates present on individual articles.
No author attribution on any article. Average word count 900–1,100 (below competitive benchmark of 2,000+). Zero scientific citations across the entire site.
19 team members listed on /saracen-team. Only 1 has visible credentials (Lizzie Drury, MSc RNutr). No biographical descriptions, no team photos, no publication history or speaking credentials.
Full contact details (phone, email, address, business hours). Company registration #7130140. Quality certifications: UFAS, BETA NOPS, ISO 17025. LGC Newmarket forensic laboratory partnership.
Customer reviews on product pages. Trustpilot or similar integration. Privacy policy references Data Protection Act 1998 (superseded in 2018) — needs full UK GDPR update.
| Page Type | Schema Found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | Organization + WebSite | Partial (URL mismatch) |
| /thoroughbred | AboutPage | Present |
| Product pages (60+) | None | Missing |
| Article pages (80+) | None | Missing |
| Contact page | None | Missing |
| Stockist finder | None | Missing |
| Category pages | None | Missing |
| Schema Type | Where | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Product | All 60+ product pages | Rich snippets (price, availability) |
| Article / BlogPosting | All 80+ article pages | Enhanced article visibility |
| FAQPage | Nutrition advice, product pages | FAQ rich results |
| BreadcrumbList | All pages | Breadcrumb display in SERPs |
| LocalBusiness | Contact, stockist finder | Local search enhancement |
| Person | Team page, article bylines | Author entity linking |
Organization URL uses www variant but canonical is non-www. Missing sameAs for YouTube channel. Missing founders, numberOfEmployees, and areaServed properties.
| Signal | Status |
|---|---|
| HTTP/2 protocol | Enabled |
| Cloudflare CDN | Edge cached |
| TTFB | 0.12–0.24s (Excellent) |
| Lazy loading | 66 images with loading="lazy" |
| CDN assets | cdn.prod.website-files.com |
| Page | Images | With Alt | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| /contact | ~40 | ~10 | 25% |
| /stockist-finder | ~4 | 0 | 0% |
| /product/veteran | ~25 | ~10 | 40% |
| /about | ~20 | ~10 | 50% |
| /articles-advice | ~12 | 9 | 75% |
| /products/competition-fit-cubes | ~12 | 8 | 67% |
Average alt text coverage across sampled pages: ~43%. Target: 95%+.
| Signal | Status |
|---|---|
| llms.txt file | Does not exist (404) |
| AI crawler policy in robots.txt | No directives (implicitly open) |
| FAQ schema / Q&A content | Not detected |
| Passage-level citability | Low to Moderate |
Well-structured article headings for snippet extraction. Strong proprietary product names (EQUI-JEWEL, NANO-E, MicroSteed). KER partnership provides external authority linkage. Ambassador roster creates citation opportunities.
Opening paragraphs are conversational rather than definitively factual. Limited data points and statistics in content. No FAQ schema or structured Q&A content. Limited external press coverage visible.
Create an llms.txt file with brand information, key expertise claims, product range overview, and partnership details. Add explicit AI crawler directives to robots.txt. Restructure article openings with definitive, fact-first statements for improved AI citability.
| Aspect | Rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Viewport meta tag | Pass | Correct on all pages |
| Horizontal scroll | Pass | Only intentional category tab scroll |
| Navigation | Good | Clean hamburger transition |
| Typography | Good | 16px+ base font, readable |
| Image scaling | Mixed | Homepage good; product pages problematic |
| Layout collapse | Good | Multi-col to single-col works |
| CTA visibility | Poor | Critical CTAs lost below fold on product pages |
| Cookie banner UX | Poor | Covers ~40% of mobile viewport |
| Tap targets | Fair | Primary good; secondary undersized |
| Content priority | Poor | Product images dominate over info |
| Page | Desktop CTAs Above Fold | Mobile CTAs Above Fold |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | "See Our Product Range" + Stockists | "See Our Product Range" only |
| Category | Category pills + highlighted product | Category pills only |
| Product | Stockists button + features + links | None |
| Contact | Phone, emails, 3 cards, form | Phone, emails only |
| Priority Band | Actions | Est. Score Gain |
|---|---|---|
| Critical (#1–6) | Schema, sitemap, security, author, GTM, Intellimize | +25–30 pts |
| High (#7–11) | Meta descriptions, H1s, breadcrumbs, article schema, robots.txt | +12–17 pts |
| Medium (#12–17) | Reviews, llms.txt, GDPR, hreflang, content, images, FAQ | +15–20 pts |
| Low (#18–22) | Sitemap index, preloads, URLs, citations, case studies | +5–10 pts |