Not on the High Street SEO: What we learnt from scraping 186 page 1 results on Not on the High Street

There is very little information available online about how to rank highly on NOTHS. The only snippets we could find directly from NOTHS were the NOTHS success guides series. However, this was limited to a two page PDF with not a huge amount of detail.

So, here at NOVOS, we did our own research, and this is what we found.

Methodology:

Using a python script, we scraped three popular gifting categories: gifts for him, gifts for her, gift sets & hampers.

Each categories’ page one PLP was analysed on: 

• The no. of results
• How many results offered free UK delivery
• How many sponsored posts there were
• How many listings included “Personalised”
• How many listings included “Gifts”
• The average price of each listing
• The average rating of each listing
• The average number of product ratings 

We then scraped each of the page one listings (across all three categories) for the following information:

• Personalisation available
• Made in Britain
• Exclusive
• Eco-friendly
• Gift wrapping available
• Free gift wrapping available

All of the above was then collated into a Google sheet for analysis. Here were the results:

NOTHS Analysis:

1. Product description attributes

• Out of the 186 results scraped:
  • 68% of results offered personalisation.
  • 63% stated that their products were made in Britain.
  • 42% claimed that they were exclusive to NOTHS.
  • 35% were listed as eco friendly.
  • 17% offered gift wrapping, 5% of which offered it for free.

• Whilst these product attributes aren’t explicitly mentioned in NOTHS’ SEO documentation, it is clear that these factors are favoured by their algorithm (and users).
• NOTHS refer to these as ‘special features’ in their product filtering options.

2. Product listing imagery

• Unlike Google (for now) NOTHS rely on imagery to encourage users to click on product listings, just as much as the product name.
• Therefore it is vitally important that the product image is interesting, high-quality, and shows the product in the best way possible.

3. Product page imagery

• Optimise your images with clear alt text, accurately describing all product attributes.
• Utilise the image carousel option to add in any additional information like:
  • Awards won
  • Press coverage
  • Seasonal lifestyle examples (e.g. dinner parties, festive period, Valentine’s Day) shots. 
  • To display more information on how the product is used/ poured/served/ looks like on a model.
  • The packaging – especially for gifting items.

4. Free delivery

• Of the 186 results scraped, 157 of these results offered free delivery.
• This works out as roughly 84% of the listings.
• If a product does offer free delivery, it has a graphic on the product listing – likely to affect the click-through rate.
• There is also the option to filter searches by free or express delivery.

5. Product reviews

• Customer reviews are important, but not vital.
• The vast majority of listings on the first page had an average score of 4.74.
• There were a few exceptions to this rule. However, these tended to be sponsored posts, paid for by the retailer.
• Average customer reviews are shown next to the product title above the delivery options – likely affecting the conversion rate.
• The average number of reviews in the ‘gifts for him/her’ section was 410, whereas the food and drink category average was 80.

6. Personalisation

• Personalisation is a key factor that kept appearing again and again – particularly for gifting terms.
• Competitors who do offer personalisation are able to add these into their product listings that get pulled through to the main search results page.
• This will likely encourage a higher click-through rate for gifting searches – particularly birthdays and anniversaries etc.
• Users also have the option to filter by personalised and non-personalised gifts on the search results pages – showing this to be a prevalent feature in these types of listings.

7. Sponsored posts

• In the initial launch stages, we recommend applying for a set of sponsored posts across different categories to raise visibility and awareness of the brand.
• These sponsored posts sit right at the top of the search results, so are likely to gather more traffic and conversions than the organic listings below the fold.
• This will also, hopefully, help your brand gather more reviews in a shorter time period, and before the lead up to Christmas.

8. Corporate gifting 

• Consider contacting NOTHS about their corporate gifts team to discuss larger order opportunities.
• From what we can see, NOTHS actively offers a customer help service for corporate gifting and offers 10% off for those who directly contact them.
• This isn’t something we were able to gather more information on as it is on a case by case basis. owever, we recommend visiting the corporate gifts page and seeing if there are any partnership opportunities to explore there.

Actions and recommendations 

• Review all products and list as many relevant product attributes in the product description as possible.
• Look at your competitors’ imagery – what types of images are appearing on the first page? And do they entice users to click through?
• Actively pursue customer reviews.
• Consider offering free delivery.
• Consider running sponsored posts to get product visibility up, raise your brand’s profile on the marketplace and hopefully result in more product reviews.
• Personalisation is big. Can your product be personalised? If yes, then definitely include this in your product name and description.
• Use the product description to shine. Does your company have a USP? What is it? Are you an expert in your field? 
• Explore the ‘fast delivery’ option. The ‘super speedy gifts’ banner ad kept appearing when we were doing the research, suggesting it’s an angle they really hope to push as a company.
• If it’s a food or drink product, clearly describe each product in the box, the flavours and what they taste like.

To conclude:

• Think like a customer. 
• Use fun, enticing images. 
• Offer free delivery
• Consider running a sponsored post
• Refer to NOTHS success guides series and guidelines.
• Utilise the product listing characteristics. 

Not only will these help the algorithm navigate through your product listings, but they also widen the opportunities for customers to find your products through a variety of different searches.