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LION Digital Welcomed as Shopify Plus Partners

Posted on by Leonidas Comino

For over a decade Shopify has been making commerce better for everyone by reducing barriers to business ownership and offering a suite of services, including payments, marketing, inventory management and customer engagement tools to help brands scale. The Shopify Plus Partners program recognises agencies that combine world-class industry and platform expertise and specialise in solutions to help eСommerce and retail brands grow.

LION Digital has been recognised for its long-term partnership with Shopify, successfully applying the Shopify platform’s best practices and generating online growth for brands like Ledlenser, OneWorld Collection, Nutrition Warehouse, and Havaianas, to name a few.

Leo Comino, CEO and Founder of LION Digital echoed the team’s excitement in officially joining the Plus roster, “We have been working alongside the Shopify Plus team for a long time and are excited to take our relationship to the next level as Digital Marketing Partners”.

LION stands for leaders in our niche, the agency standouts by hiring leaders with over a decade of eCommerce channel experience who recognise success comes from cross-channel cohesion. Having bolstered the senior leadership team with the recent appointments of Clare Graham as Head of Paid Media, joining from Dentsu’s iProspect, and Stelios Moudakis as General Manager from Omnicom’s Resolution Digital, the team is well poised to deliver on its vision to drive performance and provide exceptional client experience.

Leo Comino noted of their appointments “we are very proud of our growth over the past two years and the strategic hires of Clare and Stelios will ensure our product and cohesive client experience offering reaches new heights and reinforces our commitment to being true partners of our clients and tech partners”.

LION provides digital strategy, SEO, Paid Media, Email & Social services for some of the biggest brands in Australia and around the globe.

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH

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Are You Ready for Google Analytics 4?

Posted on by LION Digital

With all the new changes in the past decade in the digital marketing landscape, a more sophisticated way to collect and organise user data was much needed. In the fall of 2020, Google introduced an updated software called Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a version that, so far, has worked in parallel with its predecessor Google Universal Analytics (UA). However, Google recently announced that this version would be sunsetting on July 1, 2023, including its premium version 360 Universal Analytics, which will stop processing data in October of next year as well. It is worth noting that the premium features from 360 Universal Analytics will be rolled into the new iteration of GA4 as well.

Getting used to new software takes time, especially in this case, considering that Google Analytics 4 presents an entirely different interface and configuration to UA. This is most certainly why Google made this announcement in advance, to allow businesses still using the UA tool to migrate and get used to the latest version. It is also worth noting that GA4 doesn’t provide any historical data you’ve tracked in Universal Analytics, which adds another good reason why you should start migrating to GA4 since data continuity and reporting are paramount to your business.

Some of the main tools integrated with Google Analytics 4

Event-based data model

Probably the most significant change in the software, Google Analytics 4 introduces an event-based model that offers flexibility in the way we collect data while also providing a new set of reports based on the model.

With Google Analytics Universal, businesses relied on “sessions”, which accounted for a more fragmented model since it only collected data in limited slots. Also, it only worked with specific and predefined information categories, making custom-type data much more challenging to obtain. But now, since everything can be an event, there’s a broader opportunity to understand and compare client behaviour through different custom-type data across various platforms.

Operation across platforms

Previous to GA4, businesses required different tools to analyse both website and app data separately; this made it difficult to obtain a global picture of its user traffic. But now, GA4 added a new kind of property that merges app and web data for reporting and analysis.

Thanks to this update, if you have users coming to you through different platforms, you can now use a single set of data to know which marketing channels are acquiring more visitors and conversions.

No need to rely on cookies

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, a lot has changed in the last decade regarding digital marketing; this includes an ever-growing emphasis on user privacy.

Big tech companies, such as Apple, have started to develop a first-privacy policy, which is why Safari started blocking all third-party cookies in 2020. So it comes as no surprise that Google also announced that they will do the same in 2023 for Chrome.

With GA4, Google is moving away from a cookies-dependent model, no longer needing to store IP addresses for its functionality and looking to be more compliant with today’s international privacy standards.

Audience Triggers

This is a cool feature and lets brands set conditions for a user to move from one audience group to another (like they’ve bought into a specific product category). Then you can better personalise the ad experience, offering complimentary/similar products across the display, video and discovery placements and bring them back to shop more with you.

More Sophisticated insights

GA4 promised a more modernised way of collecting and organising data. Still, the most important thing for businesses is “how” to use this data. Advanced AI learning has been applied in Google Analytics 4 to generate sophisticated predictive insights about user behaviour and conversions, pivotal to improving your marketing.

Integrations

GA4 brings deeper integrations with other Google products, such as Google Ads, allowing you to optimise marketing campaigns by using data to build custom audiences that are more relevant to your marketing objectives and utilising Google Optimise for AB testing

In summary, Google Analytics 4 combines features designed to understand client behaviour in more detail than Universal Analytics previously allowed whilst prioritising user privacy. It also brings about a very friendly interface, with some drag-and-drop functionality to help build reports, reminiscent of Adobe Analytics Workspace.

Adobe Analytics Workspace

GA4 Drag and Drop

You can chat with the team at LION Digital and we can help you set up on GA4

We had a good chat with a colleague at our first Shopify Plus Partner meetup who was developing a Shopify Plus site for their client. They noted GA4 setup they had to do was quite complex and time-consuming as event-tracking needed to be configured, including eCommerce tracking, and Data Studio reports needs to be rebuilt. Took him a good 3 hours that he was keen not to repeat. Thankfully we’ve got a bunch of skilled specialists to help you set up GA4 and we can connect this to our Digital ROI Dashboard to help you get the insights you need, and look at your Channel Action Plans.

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH

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Article by

Dimas Ibarra –
Digital Marketing Executive

What to Expect When Performance Max Replaces Smart Shopping

Posted on by LION Digital

ICYMI: Google is rolling out a new campaign type called Performance Max that replaces Smart Shopping campaigns. Smart Shopping has been great from a channel diversification perspective, expanding your real estate from the Shopping tab across Google’s Display Network, YouTube and Gmail without having to set up specific campaigns across these verticals.

Performance Max builds on Smart Shopping by making available new inventory, including Dynamic Search Ads, Discovery Ads and YouTube Instream. Google likes PMAX so much that they’re forcing everyone to migrate over to these campaigns come July 1st – this means the time to test and learn is closing fast, and we have seen there is an element of learning from the machine’s side before ROAS returns to normal before starting to trend in the right direction.

Similar to Google Analytics 4’s event-based system, PMAX is touted as a goals-based, automated solution targeted at unlocking maximum performance comprised of the following three components:

  1. A single, goal-based campaign focused on achieving the performance objectives, leveraging automation and machine learning.
  2. Path-to-purchase aware, ensuring the right ad served at the right time in line with your marketing objectives.
  3. Access to the best inventory across Google properties to reach customers where they are, efficiently and at scale.

Are you ready to move from Smart Shopping to Performance Max?

Performance Max is about to be adopted by all eCommerce spenders, and the window of first-mover advantage and test and learn is closing rapidly. Act now. LION Digital’s Search specialists can support you throughout your transition to PMAX and other adaptive ad technologies.

We recently achieved outstanding results for our client Helly Hansen!
To know more check our case study.

Work with leaders in the eCommerce space to transform your channel strategy.

LION stands for Leaders In Our Niche. We pride ourselves on being true specialists in each eCommerce Marketing Channel. LION Digital has a team of certified experts and the head of the department with 10+ years of experience in eCommerce and SEM. We follow a ROI-focused approach in paid search backed by seamless coordination and detailed reporting, thus helping our clients meet their goals.

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH

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Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us

Thought Starters to help your business thrive in an economic downturn

Posted on by LION Digital

No doubt you’ve read in the news that there are concerns about an economic downturn in Australia and abroad.

COVID tailwinds, the conflict in Ukraine, the US stock market declines, and the increased cost of shipping goods from China have both businesses and consumers concerned for their livelihoods.

We wanted to write a Thought Starter piece (the first of many to come) that summarises consumer and business reactions to past downturns, shifts in consumer behaviour observed over the past two years, and suggested actions you can take to prepare for the road ahead.

Consumer and Business Reactions to downturns

We’ve just come out of a pandemic, which typically results in a rapid V shape halt and subsequent snapback, as illustrated by the 2020-2021 consumer confidence swings. But we don’t see this in 2022, which belies a gradual decline in confidence as more news reaches consumers and their purchasing behaviour responds accordingly.

Source: ANZ Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index 2020-2022

Consumers respond in different ways to economic downturns; they are quick to act when they sense a tightening but less responsive when times are good. During trying times, they may buy fewer consumer durables, become more price-sensitive and seek cheaper alternatives, stockpile savings and shift spend away from status and lifestyle purchases to focus on items of necessity (non-perishables, essential items, healthcare, and apparently, toilet paper).

Businesses respond to downturns by reviewing and cutting discretionary spend – which often includes a round of redundancies and declines in marketing spend. There have been many studies from academics like Peter Field, Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson advising against cutting marketing budgets during a recession, with many advertisers believing that fewer companies will be advertising, and they can maintain their Share of Voice for a lower cost. This has been proven wrong time and again, with studies like the below from Engagement Labs showing without positive marketing messages, consumers focus on the negatives they may hear in the news or, worse, they may forget you completely, being wrapped up in competitor narratives.

The other side of this, which many brands are still grappling with from the pandemic is when consumers switch to alternatives, often they are slow to switch back when normality returns. Consider how many people now have a coffee machine instead of doing their morning coffee run – great for a coffee supplier, but not so great for the coffee shop owner. 

However, there is only so far that prior studies can take us, as there are a number of unique factors that still linger from COVID that need to be considered when making judgements about the upcoming economic environment.

Macro factors of the 2020’s

Ad spend reaches record high

First and foremost, the ad industry in Australia has surged to over $22.8 billion, with year-to-date financial ad spend reaching record levels, up 14.2 per cent. Digital, powered by search and social, grew 24.2 per cent (thanks to eCommerce, Government and Election campaigns), Outdoor bookings grew 11.9 per cent and TV ad spend is up 7.4 per cent. Ad execs don’t expect to see a spending decline until December or even into 2023.

Source: IAB, SMI, April 2022

It’s been reported in some industries that CPCs for search terms have risen as much as 800%; this coupled with Google’s rollout of Performance Max next month means brands are likely to be paying more to achieve the same results if they’re not careful.

Any eCommerce vendor who hasn’t tested Performance Max yet should look to expedite their migration as a priority, as PMAX campaigns tend to experience a learning curve for the first few weeks before ROI starts to trend in the right direction.

Shifting Consumer Behaviours

The second unique factor in the current environment is they precede sweeping changes in consumer buying behaviour – key outtakes from the AusPost 2022 Ecomm Report include:

  • 81% of households bought online in the last 12 months
  • Average 23% growth in spending on online physical goods
  • Consumers are shopping with more retailers – averaging 15/year vs 9 in 2019
  • Consumers more frequently than ever before – with almost 60% of Australians shopping online more than once a month (up from 42% in 2019)

As we noted earlier, consumers are slow to return to the norm after switching preferences, which they’ve barely had a chance to do before economic concerns arose. We can expect more people to be shopping online and greater price sensitivity, supported by Shopping, Marketplaces and offers from many vendors to impact consumer buying decisions in the months ahead.

Source: Australia Post: 2022 Inside Australian Online Shopping – Ecommerce Industry Report

Fading mental availability and attention

Attention has been cited as a challenge for many brands targeting Gen Z consumers. However, recent research by Karen Nelson-Field, backed by Peter Field and Orlando Wood, indicates this is a much broader issue, highlighting that left-brain targeted ads, particularly in the field of display, are not resonating with the type of right-hemisphere attention that parses the world and our place in it.

People, not product, they argue should be front and centre:

That means advertising, by and large, that involves the living [i.e. people not products] doing interesting things in a definable place. Not always, but mostly those are the sorts of things that capture our attention, elicit an emotional response and put things into long-term memory.

Orlando Wood

They warn that left-brain-targeted advertising is eroding the tried and tested ESOV (excess share of voice) principles that have underpinned advertising for the past 30 years.

The trio will present their findings and advice for marketers at the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity this week.

Source: Mi-3 – Why mental availability, ESOV are fading: Peter Field, Karen Nelson-Field, Orlando Wood warn ad industry faces triple jeopardy threat, effectiveness rulebook ripped up

So what can you do about all this?

Here are a few Thought Starters to help you plan and prepare for the uncertainty ahead.

Find your own alternatives

Price may be a conscious factor in your consumers’ decision to move away from you, so can you find alternatives that can reduce your overheads, like sharing/renting warehouse space, trialling new suppliers or looking at drop-shipping solutions, to pass savings onto your customers? This is a short-term solution but if your consumers are thinking this way, best be proactive and consider what you can do to keep them. 

Talk to your customers

Above all, don’t forget to talk to your customers. They are feeling the same way you are and a bit of reassurance and care can go a long way! You’ll likely find ideas from even the most casual consumer that can help you navigate this environment and retain your customers.

Review Marketing ROI and how this has changed

Take a good look at where you are directing your marketing dollars and the ROI this yields – look beyond ROAS to actual purchase outcomes, order value growth and expected lifetime value of your customers. The Assisted Conversions and Model Comparison tools in Google Analytics are a good way of measuring cross-channel interplay; we’ve seen time and again that consumers first touch and engage through Search and convert through Direct – you can’t neglect the source channel and expect Direct sales to continue growing.

Look at how cost and acquisition has changed since the pandemic – could you afford similar jumps as competition and CPCs rise? 

At what point do you face diminishing returns on your Marginal ROI? 

What are your contingency plans and channels you can shift to if this occurs?

These are critical questions to discuss with your team and will help you plan for the future

What channels have you not considered?

We know Performance is the driving force for acquisition but what other channels are you not playing in that can yield new customers and returns? You would know best what you’re doing and what you’re not, but look to competitors and market leaders for ideas, or look even further afield to related industries for inspiration (I’ve seen some great Health Insurance providers leaning into the Healthcare space to become more involved with consumers with health concerns, and they are front of mind when premiums come up as a result).

Email remains the top converting channel – do you have segmented audiences in play with offers going out to your customers to bring them back to the store? Have you considered gamifying this channel with quizzes to better understand the products your customers like, which can in turn drive better segmentation, more compelling offers and engaging emails? Is your CRM up to the task, or is it time to enrich your audience list, bolstering it with earned activity or by buying third-party prospecting lists? This is particularly effective in the B2B space, it may be worth considering taking a page out of their book!

Loyalty – Do you have a loyalty program? How is it performing? How do you know what your customers want from you? Don’t be afraid to ask the questions – consumers love being engaged and you will likely get really valuable insights and excite your loyal customers with the offers to come!

SMS might surprise you – with the right offers and focus on what value, this can be a powerful channel! SMS works effectively when paired with Email offers, but consider the role this should play in the overall mix and be cautious of frequency, lest you lose subscribers.

Content – Yes, content is a channel! Going back to Peter Field’s earlier interview, performance is only so effective during the decision-making process – be there with content that helps your prospective customer understand the category, questions they need to be asking and what’s really important when comparing like-for-like products – they will love you for it! Need help with ideas? Chat to the LION SEO team, we can research topics using SEO tools and pull out insights from your own data to help connect you to the questions consumers are asking and you’ll have everything you need to get started.

Partnerships – you are not alone, many business owners are concerned about the near term. What contacts do you have (suppliers, friends/of friends, frenemies) that you can support and what can they do for you in return? Reciprocity is the key to good partnerships!

Search/Social – Yes, we’ve come back to Search and Social! But the power of these channels cannot be overstated and it’s all about finding the right levels of investment; investment of time on the organic side (focused on reach), and smart investment on the paid side (focused on revenue and ROI). There is always more you can do with Search, so look closely at what’s performing well and where you have untapped potential.  You should look to outsmart your competitors rather than outspend them – use your depth of knowledge in the industry to win customers over and leverage the wealth of data in your campaigns to leapfrog your sleeping competitors.

Consolidate channels – We see lots of business owners and marketing managers who work with specialist agencies for different channels. While there is merit to the argument that silos are great for specialism, the downside of managing many vendors, having to switch hats each time and align the agencies yourself stretches you too thin, not to mention higher costs and holistic, cross-channel efficiencies you miss out on by working with disparate teams. 

Pick a niche player – Another challenge we see eCommerce businesses dealing with is working with generalised agencies that work across local, service and eCommerce clients. You know what they say, Jack of all trades, master of none.

LION stands for Leaders In Our Niche. We pride ourselves on being among the top experts in each eCommerce Marketing Channel!

Thanks for reading! If any of what you’ve read resonates call me for a chat

BOOK A CALL 

Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us

The eCommerce game is changing in 2022

Posted on by Leonidas Comino

As many new businesses have transitioned online and started to invest in digital strategies in the last two years, this has created a supply and demand dilemma with the algorithms in paid media.

CPC costs have risen by 150% or more compared to previous years and this trend doesn’t seem to be softening in a hurry

I’m sure you’ve experienced the pinch of this trend if your topline revenue relies heavily on paid advertising.

While LION is across 100s of data points and we keep a close eye on our client’s ad spend to make sure we’re squeezing the most revenue possible from this channel, one thing is for sure.

THE ECOMMERCE GAME IS CHANGING IN 2022

The email channel has always been a fairly misunderstood part of eCommerce from my experience. Most of the brands I start working with only have checkout abandonment automations and a welcome series turned on, and run 1-2 campaigns per week. There is so much more that can be done with this channel to enhance the customer journey or grow the database,

and the Klaviyo platform is the only way to do it!

The real power of the email channel is twofold. You own the experience that you create for your customers (aka you are in control), and, you can target highly specific communication to your loyal customers at pivotal points in their customer journey (read: help them take meaningful actions to your brand). Klaviyo gives you the control you need to do both.

Nutrition Warehouse

Nutrition Warehouse, one of the largest supplement brands in the country that we started working with, in mid-January, has seen incredible growth in a short period of time.

294% MoM growth, a 40% increase in conversions from the email, 7,300% growth in their SMS channel, and March to date have seen the trend continue with 99% growth from the previous month, and an average transaction value of $9 higher than the site average. A large contributor to this growth has been the X45 email and SMS campaigns that were sent last month, using Klaviyo’s sophisticated segmentation tools.

294%

MoM

40%

+CR

7,300%

SMS

99%

MTD

+9$

AOV

Shoe Me

Shoe Me, a specialty shoe store that we work with has seen 15% growth in February from January which was already up 56% from the previous month in December. Historically, at the start of the year, sales are down, however, sending a much higher quantity of campaigns than they did previously to highly segmented audiences has generated these returns. We moved from 11 campaigns per month in December, to 19 in January and February.

11

19

Increase in campaigns from Dec 21 to Feb 22, allowed for MoM growth in a usually down sales period.

DUST N BOOTS

We started with an apparel brand that sells country workwear in July last year, Dust N Boots. They had zero email program and now in February this year it accounted for 34% of their total revenue, and this has not cannibalised revenue from other channels.

I hope you see the potential that email has to change the game in 2022.

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH

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Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us

LION eCommerce Multichannel Series

Posted on by Leonidas Comino

HOW TO CREATE CONSISTENT RESULTS COMING OUT OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON

LION stands for Leaders In Our Niche, and we are a team of seasoned and passionate eCommerce marketing specialists driven by performance and focused on providing an exceptional client experience.

We’ll be sharing practical tips that you can take away and immediately apply. We want you to be able to get consistent results coming out of the holiday season! 

Analysing Your Business Performance and Identifying Growth Opportunities for 2022

Posted on by LION Digital

2021 was a unique year for businesses – retail sales were crashing before picking up steam this October, and the economy was in decline up until that point. This sudden reversal in buying behaviour and business trends highlight the importance of identifying potential areas of growth and capitalizing on opportunities this 2022.

So, how do you do this? When conducting an annual performance review we look at overall performance across five key metrics (per channel): Sessions, Conversion Rate, Transactions, Average Transaction Value, and Revenue.

Why these metrics? Because you can simplify the formula for generating revenue to this equation:

Sessions x Conversion Rate x Average Transaction Value = Revenue

Improve the performance of a single metric, and you improve your overall revenue by the same amount.

To start increasing your revenue, the first step would be to conduct a channel analysis. This is where you compare the annual performance of each channel, with the goal of identifying the percentage of users driven to a channel versus the percentage of revenue generated for each channel.

The results should be similar for all the channels – any significant differences may indicate opportunities for optimization. For example, a high number of sessions with low revenue generated would indicate a problem with conversion, or a potential issue with tracking.

Channel Performance Average Month (Past 12)

In this example, we combined the Organic and Paid channels to measure the “Search” Channel. Why? Because users don’t choose what type of search they do – they just “search”.

In the example we used, we combined the Organic and Paid channels to measure the “Search” Channel. Why? Because users don’t choose what type of search they do – they just “search”.

You then measure the performance for the past 12 months in order to get a picture of what the average month looks like, and once calculated, there are 2 ways to proceed:

Conducting a Month on Month Analysis

This is done by comparing the performance of each month vs. the average month, with the goal of identifying the cause for the significant differences in traffic or revenue.

By extracting this data, this can be presented in ways that can be easier to understand, or with complex data sets to further identify potential issues.

Benchmarking vs competitors using other important eCommerce Metrics

It is important to measure how your business is performing, but if you really want to keep improving, you should look at your competitors’ data, and compare them with yours in these metrics:

New Vs Repeat Visitors / Revenue

This is used to identify the quality of traffic and any potential issues with conversion.

Repeat Purchase Rate

Can be used to measure traffic, but is mainly used to determine consumer loyalty and the quality of post-purchase marketing and services.

Days / Sessions to Purchase

The number of days or sessions it takes before a consumer makes their first purchase. This is useful for planning out re-engagement opportunities or remarketing campaigns.

Path to Purchase

Most consumers don’t purchase during their first visit to a site – they often visit multiple times prior to making their first purchase. This metric is useful for optimizing your campaigns and identifying the most effective platforms to reach your target customers.

Channel Efficiency

This is computed by getting your total online revenue divided by the amount spent on marketing that channel. The channels which have greater scores are deemed to be more efficient, and are useful for determining channel performance and which ones to spend more on.

Analysing your performance is important to continuous success in the eCommerce industry. This allows you to identify opportunities, optimize resource allocation, and steer your business towards success. 

Want to supercharge your business and implement a measurable strategy?

At LION Digital, we create analytics on a personal level called LION view – a dashboard that collects all your company data and makes your year-end performance review easier and much more comprehensive. This completely customisable, all-in-one and simple-to-use platform gives you an overview of eCommerce channels and metrics, Keywords rankings, Google Search Console data, our 90 day activity plan and your marketing calendar all in one convenient location.

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH 

BOOK A CALL 

Article by

Christopher Inch – Head of Strategy

Chris is a specialist in eCommerce with over 14 years of experience in Digital & eCommerce Strategy, including Search Marketing, Social Media, Email Marketing Automation and Web Development.

Like what we do? Come work with us

SEO Glossary – Popular SEO Terms & Definitions

Posted on by LION Digital

Let’s face it, SEO is full of cryptic, unusual words and terms that might confuse anyone entering the field. But just like in any other fast-developing profession, in SEO it is important to communicate in the language of SEO Analysts. You don’t need to memorise the exhaustive list of all the field related words in one sitting though, for the beginning, it’s enough to know the very basics. Here’s our guide of the most common SEO words and terms to help you get started!

Advanced search operators –  additional features and commands that can be typed into the search bar to make the query more specific.

Anchor text – a piece of text that links to another page.

Backlinks (or “inbound links”) – links from one website page that point to another website page.

Black Hat SEO – SEO practices that violate Google’s guidelines.

Bots (also known as “crawlers” or “spiders”) – the program that crawls the Internet, finds the content and assesses its quality to place it on the search results.

Cache – a saved static version of a web page that helps to not access the website’s database for every query and thus avoids time-consuming operations.

Channel – different types of media and means to attract attention and traffic, such as organic search, email marketing, social media.

Cloaking – displaying content to search engine bots differently than to real users of the website.

Crawling – the process of finding pages on your website through search engine bots and processing them. It’s the first step in the process of your pages showing on the search engine results page.

Crawl budget – the number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on a website in a certain period of time.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – a programming language for structuring the website mainly in terms of fonts, colours and layouts.

CTR (clickthrough rate) – the ratio of clicks on your ad to impressions the ad got. 

De-indexing – a page or group of pages being removed from the process of indexing.

DA (Domain Authority) – a ranking score that measures how relevant the domain is for a specific industry or subject area, typically seen in the Moz tool.

Duplicate Content – big pieces of content that are shared across different domains or different pages of a single domain. Having duplicate content is bad for the ranking of a website.

Engagement – a measure of searchers’ extent of interaction with a website from search results.

Featured snippets (often referred to as “Zero Position”) – informative answer boxes that appear at the very top of search results for some queries.

Google My Business listing – a way for the business’ potential customers to get all company contact info through a listing that appears at the top of Google results when a customer searches for business name or services catered by certain businesses.

Google Search Console – a program developed by Google that allows site owners to track how their website is doing in SERPs.

Hreflang – an HTML attribute that helps Google understand what the language of a website is so that a user finds the version of the website in his language.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) – the set of codes used to communicate how to display texts and images on a website.

Image Carousels – scrollable images that appear at the top of some SERPs.

Indexing – organising and storing content found during crawling.

Index Coverage report – a report that shows the indexation status of all the URLs on a website.

JavaScript – a programming language used for integrating complicated non-static elements to web pages.

KD (Keyword Difficulty) – an estimation (typically out of 100) of how hard it would be to rank high for a certain keyword.

Keyword stuffing – a black hat SEO practice that involves the overuse of important keywords in content and links to try and rank for these words.

Lazy Loading – a way of optimising a page load in such a way that the loading of certain parts of the page or objects are delayed until they’re actually needed.

Local pack – a listing of three local businesses that appear for local-intent searches, like the ones that typically include “near me” in the search query.

Long-tail keywords – keywords that contain more than three words and are longer and more specific than short keywords. For example, “cotton summer dresses UK buy online” as compared to short-tail “cotton summer dresses”.

Organic – placement in search results obtained without paid advertising.

Private Blog Network – This is an artificial way of creating content and websites to generate fake backlinks to trick Google. This is, unfortunately, a common practice by most agencies and link providers and can jeopardise revenue and rankings in the longterm

People Also Ask boxes – an element in some SERPs that shows questions related to the search query.

Pruning – is a process of taking down low-quality pages to improve the website’s overall quality.

Scroll depth – a way of measuring how far visitors scroll down the website page.

Search Volume – an estimation of how many times a keyword was searched during the last month.

Sitemap – a list of page URLs that exist on your website.

Personalisation – a search engine feature that customises the results a user gets for his query based on the location of the user and his previous search history.

Redirection – a way of sending search engines and users to a URL that is different from the one primarily requested.

Rendering – an automatic process of turning code into a viewable, usable website page. 

SERP features – search results that appear in a non-standard format. For example Zero Position, Image Carousel, People Also Ask, Adwords etc.

SERPs – short for “search engine results page” – the page with relevant info and links that appears as a response to the user’s query.

SSL certificate (SSL – Secure Sockets Layer) – a certificate that enables encrypted connection between a web browser and a web server. It makes online transactions more secure for customers.

User Intent – the kind of results on SERP users want or expect to see when typing their queries.

Webmaster guidelines – information provided by search engines like Google and Bing on how site owners can optimise their websites and create content that is found and indexed appropriately so that the content does well in search results.

White hat SEO – SEO practices that comply with Google’s guidelines.

Puzzled about SEO terms? Why not get in touch?

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH 

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multi-channel digital marketing

Posted on by LION Digital

Supercharge Your Site with Multi-channel Digital Marketing

Multi-channel Marketing/Multi-channel Strategy are common buzzwords in agency lingo – right up there with “Data-Driven” and “Full Service”. 

So what is a Multi-channel Strategy, really?

A Multi-channel Strategy is simply a strategy that incorporates multiple channels & activities implemented in and can’t stress this enough; in a complementary manner to achieve a common goal. Examples could be growth in Revenue, Sessions, Customers or improvement in Retention, Repurchase Rate or a decrease in Paid Marketing spend.

The problem is that too often, we see clients with a goal like increasing Revenue working with a couple of different agencies, consultants and even internal team members operating in isolation and ultimately at cross purposes when results could be amplified significantly if they worked together. 

What do we do?

At LION, we follow a Blended Multi-channel Methodology, a holistic strategy encompassing Customer Acquisition, Retention and Brand Awareness with SEO the foundation. Our model is based on having specialised teams across each channel lead by a director with over a decade of experience in their channel and eCommerce.

Why is SEO the Foundation? 

While the goal of SEO is generally to increase Organic Sessions and Revenue through improved Visibility and Rankings, SEO is focused on optimising the performance of the entire website, which in turn can improve the results of all other channels and activities. 

How can SEO improve
the entire site
& all other channels?

Well, let’s look at a couple of examples:
  • Improving Website Speed by 0.1 seconds can increase the Conversion Rate of all channels by 8% (all else remaining equal, that’s an 8% increase in Revenue) as per Think with Google.
  • Fixing Broken Links reduces bounce rate, improving User Experience & Conversion Rate.
  • Resolving indexing issues can boost Visibility leading to increased Awareness, Sessions 
  • Implementing Structured Data like FAQs and Reviews improves User Experience & Conversion Rates.

2 Creating New Pages for Key Customers Segments 

  • Increases Visibility of targeted Keywords, Segments and Products 
  • New Pages can serve as Landing Pages for other activities like SEM, Email and Social.
  • Improves User Experience, reduces Bounce Rate, Increases Time on Site & Pages Viewed
  • Improves Conversion Rate of not just the Organic channel but all traffic is driven to the page. 

LIONs Multi-channel Methodology

The diagram below shows the different facets of a Multi-channel Strategy and how SEO is the foundation.

Already have a solid Website Foundation?

It’s time to consider Customer Acquisition, Retention and Awareness. Now, there’s some overlap between the channels and activities with Customer Acquisition and Retention generally higher priorities as they are key revenue drivers and where most sites can generate the quickest revenue wins – and let’s face it, we all want more revenue, right!

We’ve also included some insight into additional activities that can support awareness, acquisition and retention.

1 Customer Acquisition – New Visitors / Customers

Customer Acquisition is driven through SEO, Paid Search, Google Shopping, and to a lesser extent, Social and focused on enhancing the visibility of the site, supporting the acquisition of new users, customers and email subscribers and increasing total website sessions, transactions and revenue. 

Key Metrics – New Visitors, Sessions, User Experience, Conversion Rate, Transactions & Revenue (by both Total and Channel).

2 Customer Retention & Repurchase Rate – Repeat Visitors

Customer Retention and Repurchase Rate are largely driven via Email Marketing, Social & Display Remarketing to re-engage with both past visitors and lapsed customers to cross and up-sell, reduce the time between and frequency of visits, acquire subscribers & reviews ultimately increasing revenue from Repeat Visitors & Customers. 

This phase may also involve mapping out and focusing on strategies to increase the Customer Lifetime Value.

Key Metrics – Increased Frequency of and Reduced the Time between Visits, Increased Repurchase Rate, Email Subscribers & Reviews and ultimately Revenue from Repeat Visitors. 

3 Brand, Product Awareness & Recall

Social and Display Network Ads are used to raise brand and product awareness for key customer segments, increase brand recall, support off & online marketing initiatives and acquire new visitors. 

Note, Awareness activities are measured by impressions & reach, typically only contributing a small percentage of overall revenue.

  • Key Metrics – Impressions & Reach
  • Secondary Metrics – Sessions & Revenue

Multi-channel Consulting – Have the basics covered and
still want more?

At LION we’ve developed a new initiative where our Senior Directors & Consultants with 10+ Years in eCommerce conduct regular reviews identifying current performance, new multi-channel opportunities and initiatives to help you succeed.

From referral platforms like Commission Factory to Influencer Marketing, all of which add value from greater Brand & Product Awareness to more Sessions & Revenue. What’s most important in implementing these additional activities is to –

1 Understand how they will support the wider strategy, i.e. What’s the goal? Is it?

  • Brand or Product Awareness & Reach
  • Email Subscriber Acquisition
  • Sessions, Conversions or R

2 Have KPIs and Metrics in place so that results & success (or lack thereof) can be measured. 

For instance, if considering Influencer Marketing rather than just handing out $X for a review or sponsored post, actually identifying how many Impressions, Engagements or Sessions you need for an activity to be worthwhile and set that as a KPI. 

If it doesn’t meet the KPI, understand why and use that to inform strategy and investment decisions moving forward.

Getting Started with Multi-channel?

Need help putting it all together and developing a comprehensive multi-channel strategy that drives growth and makes commercial sense. 

Want to supercharge your site, generate more revenue and implement a measurable strategy?

GET IN CONTACT TODAY AND LET OUR TEAM OF ECOMMERCE SPECIALISTS SET YOU ON THE ROAD TO ACHIEVING ELITE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES AND GROWTH

BOOK A CALL 

Article by

Christopher Inch – Head of Strategy

Chris is a specialist in eCommerce with over 14 years of experience in Digital & eCommerce Strategy, including Search Marketing, Social Media, Email Marketing Automation and Web Development.

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eCommerce Website Migration – Avoid Losing Traffic & Revenue

Posted on by LION Digital

Moving or migrating a site is an event that promises significant benefits in the long term and equally substantial troubles in the short term. While it is impossible to avoid the latter, there are ways to minimise risk. 

The site is a very fragile system, and changing or moving any part of it can significantly affect the structure of the site and its performance. But it is pretty common for those who make decisions about a site migration to underestimate the complexity of the work and the associated risks.

An example of how easy it is to underestimate a migration can be taken from one of our larger clients. The client had just engaged a developer to work internally to redesign and rebuild their website. The focus of the work was a simple template change to improve the UX and customer journey throughout the website. Our involvement in the project was kept brief, as the developer ensured the client that there would be no significant URL changes as part of the project.

Two weeks before launch, our team happened to ask for the staging site to check in on the progress, and we found that every category page URL had changed, including the placement within the site, causing some 100,000+ URLs to be affected. Luckily, our team was able to get the migration and web build back on track, ensuring that our client’s revenue and business is protected.  

If not discovered, this could have cost the client significantly, resulting in a potential loss of millions of dollars. Resolving this failure may have taken several months, while the business would have continued to lose organic revenue month on month until repaired. See below the keyword rankings of a past failed migration of a prospective client:

Web development and SEO migration are two different masteries and need to work hand in hand. SEO migration is the most common digital blind spot, needs to be taken seriously and requires the right team of specialists. 

When deployed correctly, a new website can be a great initiative and is an essential part of every online retailer’s digital journey. However, an incorrectly managed site migration often has disastrous consequences for immediate and long term financial performance and can set a business back years.

If you’re preparing to migrate, don’t get caught out and call us today. Let our specialised migration team help support your business through this challenging project.

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Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

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