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by Citrus

on Sep 3

Sportsgirl goes down the branded ecommerce path

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18 Comments

onlineshopper
  • Wrote on 3 Sep, at 03:05PM
I am amazed that this site has won the award for 'Best online Retail' when it is invisible to search engines. The whole thing has been built in Flash which means that only a few pages can be found by Google. How can this be a product of a company who prides themselves on digital strategy (Citrus).

I even tested my theory in Google and searched for Sportsgirl Skirt. The site didn't even appear on the first 4 pages of Googles organic search results.

At a time when over 90% of traffic to all sites in Australia originates from Google, how could this Sportsgirl site be considered a success? I hope other retailers out there don't go down the Sportsgirl path as no online shopper will ever be able to find the products they are looking for.
Editor | Scotland
  • Wrote on 3 Sep, at 03:21PM
Hey onlineshopper, absolutely great point. Organic traffic is vitally important to most sites, especially when potential customers are in the information sourcing phase, looking to buy something.

You first need to be able to be found, then you must make sure that anyone else searching for a similar product doesn't come across a substitute for your product at a better price point.

Personally, I probably don't look beyond the first ten listings for many of the searches I perform, let alone go to pages 2, 3, 4 or more. I'm sure many others have this experience too.
Snow
  • Wrote on 3 Sep, at 08:35PM
Well on the outset I just thought I would say I am not the target market for this site.
But overall think it is a great site.

I can totally agree with the 7-7.5 minutes the average time spent on the site as the user experience is really fun (popup animation) - and fast.

I can total understand online sales has increased by 30 percent each month - as it is easy buy while the site constantly gives you advice on accessories or related products. The 'Style me' part of the site is also great idea - and an obvious money spinner.

The online community - forums, blogs, news is somewhat lacking - possibly not necessary.
I personally wouldn't really care about the search results in google as Sportsgirl has strong brand identity from retail outlets and advertising. People are going to google 'Sportsgirl' instead of a particular item.

Personally I think they have nailed the target market and made the online shopping experience into what it is physically - some exploration, hopefully good advice, quick buy, and a friendly manner.

Good case study by the way - thanks Marketingmag
Suzieq
  • Wrote on 4 Sep, at 07:54PM
I think most traffic to Sportsgirl would be generated direct. I doubt many young women would search for Sportsgirl or Sportsgirl skirt. Most would just type it in as the brand is so strong in young women's minds and the URL would be obvious.

So maybe they had this in mind... be interesting to see their brief and whether the aim was to be a good site for Search.
anni_atkinson
  • Wrote on 5 Sep, at 12:29PM
i just searched sportsgirl in google and it came up as the first listing. If people are looking for the site they are more likely to type in 'sportsgirl' than 'sportsgirl skirt' and i agree with suzieq that their url is a fairly obvious one. Keep in mind that Sportgirls TM is made up of tech savvy gen y's who would not have any trouble finding their way to their website.
Editor | Scotland
  • Wrote on 5 Sep, at 01:53PM
OK Suzieq and anni_atkinson, I take your points, but some of the most popular search terms by people are for companies that clearly have a great deal of brand awareness.

So for example, people search regularly for terms like 'Yahoo' on Google, and 'Google' on Yahoo - these are both major brands with memorable names, yet people still use the search engines to find the site.

Ultimately, it's easier to let the search engine do the work. Some brands are even including this idea in their advertising. I'll find the examples and post them here soon, but more and more companies are advising people to search for their brand name in Google, rather than trying to get people to remember URLs. This is similar to people choosing phone numbers like 13 CABS for their business, rather than asking people to remember 13 2227. It's clear which is more memorable.

In terms of wehther the breif was to be search optimised, all I can say is that a breif that doesn't include this as one of the key priorities is not a brief - it's a tragedy! Sort of like spending millions on a new TVC campaign and then running the creative at 2:00am on a community TV station.
simontsmall
  • Wrote on 6 Sep, at 06:00PM
From my experience in analyzing sites for clients from small to large, there is definitely an increase in brand originated visitors when the brand is stronger, however, generic search terms still generate a massive amount of traffic.

On one of our medium-sized sites the non-brand search term visitors was 80%, and a site double the size had 50% non-brand keyword related visitors.

In either case, there is massive traffic opportunities for 'generic'/non-brand keyword searches.

I'd agree that Sportsgirl are missing these opportunities, however, if they miss 50% of the traffic, but have a much higher conversion rate they may end up with the same or better sales, we don't know.
maxsearch
  • Wrote on 10 Sep, at 10:04PM
Think anyone that builds a site with SERP's in mind is crazy . I can see a total rebuild on this site in a year or 2 when they release how limited flash indexing is .

A lot large corporates have no idea about Search Engine Optimisation . Guess this is good for small guys out there .

Was checking it out https://www.sportsgirl.com.au/index.html and they have Page Rank within Google of zero

just so short sighted ..
citrus.com.au
  • Wrote on 12 Sep, at 06:57PM
The comments around the lack of search friendliness are all fair points to make and perhaps the most obvious to pick up on. We recognise that having a flash only site is not the most search-friendly option, however our original brief and aim for phase one of Sportgirl’s digital strategy was to create rich brand experiences for the already engaged, existing Sportsgirl customer.

For a number of reasons we couldn’t do everything straight up, so the approach we’ve taken is to learn from the behaviours of the audience as they interact with the site, evolve the experience and, based on these learnings, apply it in a more acquisition-friendly way as part of the next stage of development. The site already has a relatively intuitive URL, so the website is quite visible with the Sportsgirl customer who is engaged with the brand. Absolutely, there’s limitations in a flash based site but its evolution during the next phase will feature more of a search friendly and acquisition-focused strategy.
maxsearch
  • Wrote on 16 Sep, at 01:21AM
citrus.com.au I would be interested to know what your using to measure stats on internal usage with the flash site. I have never heard of anything that does this
Dessy
  • Wrote on 18 Sep, at 12:00PM
Yeah - nice one on building another expensive all singing all dancing site for a large firm and ignoring basic SEO principles. Gives us smaller guys a chance!

Clearly Suzieq and anni_atkinson have little clue regarding how most traffic to websites is acutally generated - direct traffic is typically less than 1/3 of all traffic to a well optimised site. To ignore the other 2/3 of potential traffic is, well, rather foolish at best.
OnlineMarketingSydne
  • Wrote on 18 Sep, at 12:23PM
I would also like to call your attention to the fact that the top 4 listings are all 2nd hand sites. Ebay, Trademe, Ebay (again) and oztion!

Thats not going to drive new sales online!

Fred
citrus.com.au
  • Wrote on 19 Sep, at 12:09PM
In response to maxsearch- We are using Omniture (site measurement & tracking tool) to understand how customers behave on the site, which is critically important given the site is focused on selling product.

Omniture is particularly powerful in providing clarity on user pathways and 'on-page' behaviour, providing a solid platform for improving conversion (and maximise revenue) on the site.
maxsearch
  • Wrote on 23 Sep, at 06:25PM
citrus.com.au - many thanks will check it out
maxsearch
  • Wrote on 23 Sep, at 06:26PM
citrus.com.au will be interested in seeing how it handles flash internally
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