Case Study: Innovating Through AI and SEO at EssilorLuxottica

Strategic integration of AI and e-commerce SEO is the key to success for companies aiming to drive change and innovation. Under the leadership of its SEO and editorial teams and working closely with WordLift’s team of experts, EssilorLuxottica has achieved remarkable progress in various aspects of its operations.

By examining its journey, your organization can discover valuable insights and opportunities to move forward. This strategic implementation goes beyond a single e-commerce platform, encompassing multiple channels. With a professional and results-oriented approach, your company can mirror EssilorLuxottica’s success, leveraging the power of AI and SEO to establish itself as a pioneer in your industry.

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EssilorLuxottica commands a global presence as a preeminent force in creating, manufacturing and disseminating ophthalmic lenses, frames, and sunglasses. With operations across 150 countries, the company is an open network enterprise, extending access to high-quality vision care products for industry stakeholders. Its esteemed portfolio features eyecare and eyewear brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Persol. Complementing these offerings are advanced lens technologies such as Transitions, Varilux, and Crizal, alongside essential prescription laboratory equipment and pioneering solutions, all designed to address the diverse needs of customers and consumers worldwide.

The Main Goal

In our collaboration, we have embarked with the EssilorLuxottica team on a journey of commitment to industry innovation and progress.

The goals set included:

• Infusing innovation into workflows.
• Aligning with the latest industry trends.
• Providing ongoing professional support to the Group’s in-house SEO team. 

Special attention was paid to the safe integration of generative AI into critical SEO activities, such as structured data implementation, knowledge graph creation, and refinement of product descriptions. All of these initiatives were pursued to foster continuous innovation, drive scalable revenue growth, and optimize workflows for greater efficiency. This collaborative effort underscores the profound impact that the strategic integration of AI and SEO can have on business operations in the industry.

Challenges

In the collaborative journey of WordLift and EssilorLuxottica, the pursuit of enhancing SEO and refining content strategies has been a dynamic and rewarding process. Despite the successes, the path to optimization had its share of challenges. These challenges, though formidable, served as crucibles for innovation and adaptation, ultimately strengthening the collaborative bond between the two teams.

One initial challenge encountered was managing and processing a large volume of data, an essential aspect of improving SEO. The teams met this challenge by implementing efficient data management strategies, ensuring the use of all the information to its full potential. As campaigns developed and stock availability fluctuated, teams needed agile adjustments to accommodate the dynamic nature of specific campaign periods and stock availability.

The continuous evolution of search engine algorithms posed another challenge. Staying ahead of these changes required constant vigilance and adapting quickly. Teams demonstrated responsiveness to algorithmic updates, ensuring their SEO strategies aligned with the latest search engine trends. At the same time, changes in AI models and technologies emerged as crucial considerations, requiring a proactive approach to adaptation.

In the context of a large SEO team, the complexities of development and implementation further increased the challenges. Coordinating efforts and maintaining cohesion in such an environment require strategic planning and effective communication. The teams faced this challenge head-on, ensuring the collective experience was leveraged to its full potential.

In the face of these challenges, the collaborative effort between WordLift and EssilorLuxottica demonstrated resilience and highlighted the teams’ ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. This harmonious collaboration enabled the teams to overcome challenges and paved the way for creating a robust and adaptable SEO strategy. The resulting online presence and visibility improvement set the stage for a deeper exploration of the solutions implemented during this transformation journey.

Solutions & Results

Responding to the client’s request and considering the challenges explained above, we built a strategy of various solutions that addressed specific needs. The individual solutions adopted are part of an SEO strategy aimed at the innovation and growth of the brand and business. 

Create an Eyewear Ontology

Ontology in SEO refers to the structured representation of knowledge that aids search engines in understanding the context and meaning of search queries. This enables them to deliver more accurate and relevant search results. By incorporating an ontology into your SEO strategy, you enhance the visibility of your content. This means search engines can better comprehend and connect it with user queries, resulting in higher rankings and increased traffic to your website.

In the journey with WordLift, EssilorLuxottica achieved a significant milestone by introducing the inaugural release of an Eyewear Ontology. This meticulously designed framework serves as a comprehensive map, capturing eyewear products’ intricate nuances. Through the implementation of this ontology, EssilorLuxottica now possesses an exceptional capability to ingest, describe seamlessly, and query product attributes directly from their Product Information Management (PIM) system. Furthermore, the ontology empowers them to automate the generation of product descriptions with precision and efficiency.

By constructing prompts tailored to the specific demands of the task at hand, EssilorLuxottica has harnessed the potential to produce content that not only meets but exceeds expectations. This, coupled with the ability to validate generated content, ensures accuracy and relevance that distinguishes EssilorLuxottica in the digital landscape. The Eyewear Ontology is a testament to their commitment to innovation and an unwavering pursuit of excellence in every facet of their partnership with WordLift.

Build the Product Knowledge Graph

The Product Knowledge Graph (PKG) is an e-commerce-specific form of knowledge graph designed to improve product discoverability and end-user experience by enriching a brand’s content with data. 

Leveraging WordLift’s expertise in semantic search technologies and content optimization, EssilorLuxottica experienced a revolutionary transformation in how their product information was structured and presented online. A pivotal breakthrough came with implementing an advanced workflow integrating data from Google Merchant Center and the SFTP Feed. This innovative approach brought numerous advantages, most notably the rapid acceleration of data import into the knowledge graph.

EssilorLuxottica can import and validate about 1000 products per minute, catapulting efficiency to unprecedented levels. Furthermore, this workflow expedites the resolution of data inconsistencies between Structured Data and Merchant feeds, all while introducing automatic schema validation, ensuring a seamless and error-free user experience. This groundbreaking enhancement streamlines processes and significantly amplifies the brand’s visibility in the digital realm.

Through the implementation of a Product Knowledge Graph (PKG) workflow, we witnessed a significant boost in organic traffic across their various brands. Over the last three months, there was an impressive 16% increase in clicks per website compared to the previous year’s period. This demonstrates the tangible impact of our innovative approach to enhancing online visibility and engagement for EssilorLuxottica.

Experiencing The Power Of Dynamic Internal Links

Dynamic internal links are crucial in enhancing the SEO performance of product listing web pages (PLP). By automating the process of recommending links to users, we facilitate their navigation through similar category pages, ultimately reducing click-depth and improving user experience. Additionally, these internal links provide invaluable signals to search engines, aiding them in comprehending the organizational structure of categories. This, in turn, contributes to higher rankings in search results. 

Furthermore, the strategic use of anchor text optimization can further bolster the visibility of specific queries. From a business perspective, recommending categories empowers us to prioritize sales campaigns, promote key product categories, and appropriately manage those with lower business impact, such as out-of-stock items. 

Implementing dynamic internal links has proven to be a strategic move for EssilorLuxottica in enhancing user engagement and optimizing content focus. The initial experiment on a retailer website in the US yielded promising results, with a noticeable increase in clicks. Furthermore, the data analysis revealed a reduction in the number of queries per page on the variant, indicating a higher level of content precision and relevance. This not only enhances the user experience but also strengthens the overall SEO strategy. 

• 30% clicks (April-September YoY) 
• 20% increase in average position 

Encouraged by these positive outcomes, we are currently rolling out the same dynamic internal link experiment on other websites to replicate and build upon these advantageous results. This initiative aligns with EssilorLuxottica’s commitment to employing innovative solutions to continually refine and elevate the digital experience for their customers.

Generate FAQs by Using AI

We developed an innovative FAQ workflow designed with precision and efficiency in mind. It encompasses improved sourcing methods to prevent query cannibalization, refined content summarization through the utilization of fine-tuned models, and the unique ability to instruct the model using existing page content. Additionally, our process allows for seamless extraction of pertinent questions directly from the content, ensuring a comprehensive and accurate FAQ section. This tailored approach sets the stage for an efficient and user-friendly experience on EssilorLuxottica’s platform.

Through the implementation of AI-powered technology, EssilorLuxottica has achieved remarkable advancements in generating FAQs for 5 e-commerce websites.

• 22% increase in clicks on lifted PLPs with Generated Question&Answers + FAQpage markup (January-December 2023) YearOverYear Comparison

By implementing a specialized reporting dashboard through our Looker Studio Connector, we’ve equipped EssilorLuxottica with a powerful tool to monitor and evaluate performance metrics across its wide range of offerings. This empowers them to make informed decisions and refine their strategies based on data-driven insights. The integration of AI-driven solutions has significantly elevated EssilorLuxottica’s efficiency, precision, and strategic acumen in their digital marketing endeavors.

Generate Content at Scale using LLM and KG

Employing a meticulous process of data preparation and model building, EssilorLuxottica has achieved a significant milestone in content generation. 

Our approach to AI-generated content revolutionizes the content creation landscape, bridging the gap between human creativity and AI capabilities. We address the challenge of subpar automated content, ensuring a higher quality standard. 

With a Knowledge Graph-centric methodology, we eliminate the need for extensive external data, emphasizing sustainability and ethical AI use. Our validation rules further enhance precision—this fusion of AI and human oversight results in top-tier content, robust control, and eco-conscious practices.

By developing a specialized dashboard, we’ve developed a powerful content generation tool that not only aids in the content generation process but also serves as a valuable resource for the EssilorLuxottica team, ensuring seamless integration and accessibility for future endeavors. This strategic advancement underscores our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance the brand’s digital presence and solidify EssilorLuxottica’s position as a leader in the eyewear industry. Using it, now we are able to produce +1000 completions per minute. Our tailored approach has not only ensured a consistent and high-quality output but has also provided a substantial boost to the overall content production capacity.

Analyzing the data from July 1st to September 1st in a Year-over-Year comparison, we observe a commendable stability with a noteworthy increase of +5.4% in clicks.

Opportunities

In its pursuit of digital excellence, EssilorLuxottica has harnessed the transformative power of data control. This key aspect has driven it to create tailored content and customized models for its audiences. This newfound mastery of data has laid the foundation for a dynamic and personalized digital experience.

A significant leap forward was made by implementing an automation system powered by artificial intelligence that synchronized multiple data points. This ensured the delivery of up-to-date information and helped create a streamlined and efficient process (PKG). The accuracy of data synchronization became a milestone, improving the overall accuracy of content delivery and reinforcing EssilorLuxottica’s commitment to excellence.

Throughout the journey, the significant increase in the learning curve became a testament to the collaborative efforts between WordLift and the EssilorLuxottica team. The challenges were not simply obstacles but opportunities for growth. This enhanced collaboration improved the teams’ collective knowledge and resulted in more effective strategies and streamlined operations.

Adopting AI technologies has emerged as a proactive measure, especially for navigating the dynamic digital landscape during critical times. The integration of AI facilitated adaptability and allowed EssilorLuxottica to remain at the forefront of an ever-changing technological environment. The proactive approach ensured that strategies remained current and forward-looking, aligning perfectly with the company’s vision for digital innovation.

In conclusion, EssilorLuxottica’s journey reflects a transformative adoption of data control, AI-based automation, and a commitment to continuous learning. These strategic initiatives have positioned the company as a digital leader and laid the foundation for sustained success in an ever-evolving digital ecosystem. As EssilorLuxottica continues to pioneer innovation, the synergy with WordLift remains a driving force, propelling it to new heights of digital excellence.

Note on the methodology used

The methodology that we used to calculate the achieved outcomes is causal inference. 

It is a branch of statistics that helps us isolate the impact of the change by comparing the results achieved with the predicted results we would have had without the implementation by the team. 

The prediction uses a Bayesian structural time-series model that learns from the clicks we had before the intervention (occurring during the dedicated period) on the pages considered.

To perform the evaluation, we used CausalImpact, an open-sourced Google tool that created baseline values for the period after the event.