In my years working in cycling, I have always been fascinated by how much sway the online ‘best of’ lists have on product sales, especially for customers new to the sport.

Today I will break down the dynamics of one of these lists and try to understand the forces that influence the effective rankings. I took the current top 8 pages on google for the bib shorts category and analyzed the results.

Background

Ever since the inception of the internet in the late nineties, the ‘best of’ list has been hugely popular in terms of traffic. They provide a quick and easy comparison of a series of products in a specific category to understand pros and cons in a fast and efficient way.

These lists are SEO goldmines because there are a huge number of potential customers looking for quick reviews of products to assist in the purchase. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process that involves tailoring web pages to increase google ranking and search traffic. Web sites are valued on the amount of traffic that they draw, therefore these lists are very important from a business standpoint for online publications.

How are the tests conducted?

Broadly speaking these lists are generated by media outlets as a service for their readers. A journalist from the publication will test a series of sample products that are received from the manufacturer or purchased.

The reviewer will typically speak about their experience riding and trying the products. Sometimes the shorts are reviewed with a ride or two, but in certain cases there are so many products it seems impossible to effectively review them all.

My Analysis:

I took the top 8 search results from Google with the query ‘Best cycling shorts’. Here are the sites with the respective links:

BikeRadar – UK

BikeRumor – USA

GearJunkie – USA

CyclingNews – UK (Future Publishing)

Road.cc – UK

Outoorgearlab – USA

Cycling Weekly – UK (Future Publishing)

Bicycling.com – USA (Hearst Media)

As we are dealing in English language content, the lists are exclusive to US and UK. This will likely influence the results as they will likely be more tailored to those markets.

I counted the number of mentions by brands across the 8 lists that were surveyed.

The Results

There were 35 different brands that appeared in the 8 lists. Assos is widely considered the leader in bib-shorts for road cycling, so this result isn’t surprising. There is a strong concentration of brands at the top of the list. The top 6 brands make up over 56% of the total mentions.

In addition to the effective performance of the shorts, my research indicates that these rankings are also heavily influenced by the following:

• PR activity by the brand – If the brands have an ongoing relationship with the publications, this will surely impact the performance and overall volume of mentions in the lists.
• Product Availability and Distribution – The editors are sensitive to the market distribution of items reviewed to ensure that customers can readily find them in the event they would like to purchase.

The Long Tail

24 of the brands listed were mentioned in just one or two of the lists, this shows the long tail of brands that are currently available on the market. I wrote in a blog some months back about the explosion in the number of clothing brands on the market and this is one of the effects of that development.

My Takeaways

There is a large concentration of brands that occupy the top spots of the list. As I mentioned, this representation is likely due to intense PR activity as well as existing market dominance (in addition to product quality). Not all brands have the resources to be constantly in touch with journalists, so it feels like there is a strong ‘winner take all’ dynamic happening here.