In The Weekly Shop this week there is a big focus on mobile and how it’s fast becoming the dominant device for consumers. We also look at the latest news from Google as they quietly make changes to encrypt all search activity – what does this mean for your SEO strategy? In more SEO news, we also look at how SEO and social can work together and reasons you should be looking to increase your SEO budget in 2014.
Ecommerce evolution at a tipping point, with mobile now behind all online growth: new analysis
Analysis from etail trade associations IMRG and Capgemini has shown that ecommerce appears to have reached a tipping point, as new figures suggest that mobile devices are now primarily responsible for driving online sales growth. The two partners, who produce the monthly IMRG-Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, have for the first time stripped out all the mobile data from its overall online sales data and found that ecommerce growth, excluding transactions made via mobile, has been steadily declining for the last two years. In the second quarter of 2013 it flat lined altogether, and by that point, mobile devices accounted for 23% of all online retail sales.
From analysing our clients’ transactional data, we’d back up this study’s findings!
A new study from eDigitalResearch and IMRG has found that a majority of shoppers feel that the online shopping experience improves at Christmas, while the in-store experience deteriorates. I couldn’t agree more! A whopping 96% of the shoppers surveyed said that they plan to shop online this Christmas with 64% saying they plan to spend more on their mobile this Christmas than the last.
We’ll be writing more on preparing for Christmas on the Frogblogg shortly, so watch this space.
10 inspiring uses of mobile in retail
So with mobile presenting the greatest opportunity for retailers to drive growth, Econsultancy has rounded up ten great examples of mobile use in retail, which makes for some inspiring reading. I particularly like the idea from Meatjack which certainly must have annoyed their competitors!
eBay offers high street in-store collection through Argos trial
eBay has just announced that for a trail period, customers will be able to pick up purchases from selected merchants from branches of Argos. The move gives eBay merchants access to Argos’ wide-ranging store network and means Argos will potentially share the bricks and mortar advantage with online traders of all sizes. This news comes at a time when Click + Collect services are booming in popularity, with retailers seeing up to 60% of their online sales collected in store.
Top 3 Ways SEO and Social Can Work Together to Make Each Other Insanely Successful
There are huge profits to be made when you strategically align your SEO and social media strategies. A successfully executed venture can see both areas benefitting in areas such as outreach and promotion, content creation, brand management and goal tracking. Here at Leapfrogg, we’ve seen great success from structuring our teams in this way so all our disciplines work harmoniously together yielding better results for our clients. This article from Search Engine Watch highlights the top three ways to set up and benefit from this powerful combination.
Post-PRISM, Google Confirms Quietly Moving To Make All Searches Secure, Except For Ad Clicks
Google has recently made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity – except for clicks on adverts. In short, this means that in Google Analytics you will not be able to see the keywords that have driven organic traffic to your site. Google has stated that this has been done to provide ‘extra protection’ for searchers but there is speculation that this move may be to increase ad sales. The resonating behind this move is not clear, and this article from Search Engine Land looks at the implications of this change and the possible reasons behind it.
Google’s keyword data apocalypse: the experts’ view
More on this with a number of search marketing experts offering their view. Ben Potter, our Commercial Director, agrees with the view that this has been on the horizon for a while; ‘we’ve been seeing the amount of ‘not provided’ data steadily increase over the last year or two. I don’t think it has come as too much of a surprise that 100% of the keyword data would be wiped out in Analytics’. We’ve been working on various ways around this, which our clients are already benefiting from’.
5 Reasons You’ll Need to Increase Your SEO Budget in 2014
This article from Search Engine Journal outlines five reasons why it is in your best interests to increase your SEO budget next year. This includes outsourcing social media, SEO and having a strategic content marketing strategy.
How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
Last week, we shared an article on how search engines work, outlining the difference between crawling and indexing. To extend this further, this useful article from Search Engine Watch looks at the various ranking factors at play. It is a great good starting point to better understand the complex search landscape and therefore what is involved in executing a modern natural search strategy.