Luxury Brand Takes Quality Control Seriously with IDA
“Feedback from an independent third party, and not just our agencies, helped validate our feedback to our stakeholders”
Angela Ward, Executive GM of Digital and eCommerce, Rodd and Gunn.
About Rodd & Gunn
Rodd and Gunn is an international men’s lifestyle and apparel brand, founded in New Zealand, in 1987. It has six websites that each target particular regions of its international market. The websites are vital to the business’s revenue model, making up around 20-25% of the overall revenue. IDA audited Rodd and Gunn’s Australian website.
With over 1000 employees, Rodd and Gunn websites are managed internally. Digital marketing is also managed in-house, with the help of an external partner company in each region, ensuring that the websites target the appropriate audiences and optimise for each region’s unique needs.
“Our digital marketing decisions are made in collaboration with our agencies and through the analysis of our Google Analytics data.”
Website : roddandgunn.com
Category
Men’s Fashion
Size
Large
Region
Global
E-commerce
Yes
Website
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Years in operation
36 years
Category
Men’s Fashion
Size
Large
Region
Global
E-commerce
Yes
Website
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Years in operation
36
Challenge / Goal
Rodd and Gunn were transitioning from its previous SEO manager, leaving a gap in consistency and maintenance while restaffing was underway. They are also in the process of changing agencies for some areas of the market and were eager to seek clarity around their setup.
“An IDA audit was a great idea to help us stay on top of our ongoing SEO requirements and to obtain a clear picture about how we are set up, our performance, and what to prioritise as we move forward.”
Rodd and Gunn sought a third-party perspective to help facilitate future planning and have fresh eyes on the business.
Key Findings / Results
“Despite our concerns around paid media, we were very pleased to learn that it was generally performing well, and following best practices. We were expecting more issues.”
Unexpected technical and metadata issues were identified on the website. With a clear understanding of the nature of the issues, Rodd and Gunn began implementing the recommended changes, with the help of IDA”s priority list. Issues included disavowing toxic links, correcting H1 heading issues, duplicate data issues, missing Alt and Hreflang tags, as well as pages with 404 errors.
“Our agencies felt that our paid activity was too brand-focused. The IDA audit echoed their perspective, helping us feel confident in strategising our content accordingly.”
A third-party perspective provided an unbiased view to examine and support Rodd and Gunn’s external agencies and to reassure stakeholders.
“As a business, key stakeholders prioritise bottom-of–funnel strategies and conversions. The independent audit helped us justify the need for top-of-funnel spending too.”
IDA’s independence is a valuable tool for businesses to tap into.
“The audit reporting and dashboard is so easy to understand and to action. It’s presented very clearly, spelling out every issue and what to do about it. Our team extracted it and sorted it by priority, and are systematically working through the list with the help of our agency… Money well spent!“
