Wordlift/Luxottica
Internal links automation for PLP pages
Project name: Glasses.com (PLP internal link automation)
Start date: july, 2022
Introduction
The goal was to create a document and including supporting prototypes and other assets, such as workflow diagrams, showing how the automation works. The document also shows how semantic similarities and the actual link structure will improve the SEO for the product pages.
The outcome is a document that describes the technical specifications for a related links widget to be added on e-commerce websites. Internal web links are essential to improve SEO on product listing web pages (PLP). The purpose of this automation is to help both users and Google discover similar category pages. Using the product knowledge graph, the plan is to automate the creation of semantically relevant links for PLP pages while adding the required structured data markup.
Our challenge
The project of introducing Wordlift automated internal linking for PLP pages posed several challenges due to the rather vague specifics and context provided by Wordlift beforehand. Some of the key challenges were:
Vague Specifications: The project began with limited information and unclear specifications from Wordlift, making it challenging to define the exact requirements and expectations for the automated internal linking white paper. The team had to work with the available information and gather additional insights to understand the scope and goals of the project.
The process
To overcome the challenges and successfully introduce Wordlift automated internal linking for PLP pages, the team followed a structured process:
Requirements Gathering: The team collaborated closely with Wordlift to gather additional details about the project’s objectives, specific requirements, and desired outcomes. This included understanding the technical capabilities and limitations of the existing websites and identifying the key areas for improvement.
Research and Analysis: In-depth research was conducted to explore the potential of the Wordlift solution and its impact on SEO for PLP pages. The team studied the product knowledge graph, analyzed the relationships between different categories and products, and identified the most effective ways to leverage this information for automated internal linking.
Design and Prototyping: Based on the research findings, the team designed a related links widget and created prototypes to visualize how the automation would work. Workflow diagrams were developed to illustrate the steps involved in generating semantically relevant links for PLP pages. The prototypes and diagrams served as valuable communication tools to convey the concept and gather feedback from stakeholders.
Workflow overview
The workflow is simple and provides a base for understanding how things can be implemented on a website like glasses.com (or oakley.com).
Semantic similarity
Behind the scenes the KG uses the SentenceTransformers (SBERT) library.
An index, using the text related to each PLP page, is used. The title of the page is used as a query. Results are based on the comparison, within the same vector space, between the embedding of the title of a page and the embeddings of the textual elements of all the other pages.
UX ideas and examples
There are various examples of internal links on e-commerce websites that can be used as a reference, and in general, every site already has its design language.
Here below are a few aspects to take into consideration when designing the web element:
● Text relevance is essential and far from being trivial. In coordination with the SEO team of Luxottica, the proposed links can be reviewed and manually edited from the back-end interface of the KG.
● Most of the implementations that we have seen by analyzing a selection of e- commerce sites are based on a horizontal design. If the complexity (i.e., the number of recommended links) is limited, this is an excellent way to provide options without interfering with the facets that are typically displayed vertically.
● Refinement (or search) chips are a good design pattern to help users intuitively find what they need.
● Adding visual elements (a featured image for each category), and the number of items behind the category could be an intelligent option to facilitate the discovery of different products. While the existing implementation is limited to text-only it is possible to add also the support for images.
Refinement chips for glasses.com
Below are two mockups providing a rough idea of where the links can be added for a site like glasses.com. These are not finalized mockups but only intended to indicate how links might appear to the end-user.
A possible solution depicted below (for the mobile) can be represented by the introduction of a set of three or four refinement chips, right after the intro text.
Alternatively (here we see the desktop version) the links could be placed at the bottom of the page right before the FAQ block (when this is present).
Conclusion & Results
The introduction of Wordlift automated internal linking for PLP pages proved to be a successful endeavor. The team’s efforts in overcoming the challenges and following a systematic approach led to positive outcomes:
Enhanced SEO: By automating the creation of semantically relevant links for PLP pages, the solution aims at improving the SEO performance of the websites.
This would enable both users and search engines like Google to discover similar category pages more effectively, enhancing the overall visibility and organic traffic to the e-commerce websites.
Efficient User Experience: The related links widget provided users with additional navigational options, helping them explore related categories and find relevant products. This would improve the overall user experience by simplifying the discovery process and guiding users to the information they were seeking.
Increased Efficiency: The automation of internal linking reduced the manual effort required to create and manage these links. It saved time and resources for website administrators, allowing them to focus on other important tasks while ensuring that the PLP pages were optimized for SEO.
In conclusion, despite the challenges posed by vague specifics and context provided by Wordlift, the team successfully introduced Wordlift automated internal linking for PLP pages. The well-structured approach, including thorough requirements gathering, research and analysis, design and prototyping, and technical implementation, enabled the team to overcome the challenges and achieve positive results.
The solution aims at enhancing SEO by generating semantically relevant links, improving the visibility and organic traffic to the e-commerce websites. Additionally, the related links widget provided an efficient user experience, guiding users to related categories and relevant products.
The automation also increased efficiency by reducing manual effort in managing internal links.
Overall, the project successfully addressed the challenges, delivered a robust solution, and resulted in a well-formatted document you can download by signing up here:
