Blog Archives

Re:signal acquires Root Digital to power next-gen eCommerce growth

We’re absolutely delighted to announce the acquisition of digital PR agency Root Digital, a leading digital PR agency with an exceptional reputation for data-driven/award-winning digital PR campaigns that deliver genuine results.

We believe that this move gives eCommerce brands a stronger edge in the battle for online visibility and trust, and marks our evolution from a single agency into a group of specialist businesses built to support every aspect of eCommerce performance.

Root will operate as a distinct company within the Re:signal Group, under the name Root, part of Re:signal. The deal grows Re:signal’s Group revenue by 30 per cent and also sees a headcount increase of a third.

The new senior leadership team comprises Kevin Gibbons (CEO), Darren Kingman (CEO, Root Digital), Elizabeth Rowe (COO), Callum Lockwood (Head of SEO), Khushal Khan (SEO Partner), and Shannon McGuirk (Digital PR Director).

Together, we’ll offer clients an integrated approach to search, combining technical SEO, content and digital PR, at a time when online discovery is being reshaped by AI-powered search, social commerce and visual discovery.

Kevin Gibbons, CEO and Founder at Re:signal, said:

“The way people find and choose products online is changing fast: AI search, social commerce and visual platforms are rewriting the rules. To stay ahead, brands need technical excellence and creative PR working hand in hand. Recent listening research with our clients showed digital PR as a top priority, and Root’s high-impact, data-driven campaigns are the perfect complement to our SEO and content expertise. With a shared culture and commitment to talent, we’re ready to deliver exactly what the market needs.”

Darren Kingman, CEO of Root Digital, added:

“Root has always focused on creative, news-led campaigns that spark conversation and build trust. Re:signal brings world-class SEO strategy. Together, we can offer clients a complete service, balancing data and creativity, short-term wins and long-term growth. This move is about pushing new ideas and helping brands seize opportunities in a changing digital landscape.”

Why digital PR needs its own RFP

Inspired by Kevin’s blog post on the importance of clear and structured briefing processes, it feels like the perfect time to talk about why Digital PR projects and retainers need their own Request for Proposal (RFP).

Too often, DPR is tacked onto SEO briefs as an afterthought, but while the two are obviously connected, they’re definitely not interchangeable. DPR has its own unique objectives, inputs, and measures of success, which means it needs its own RFP framework to get the best results for both the client and the agency.

What is a DPR RFP?

Maximising the click: the two-way relationship between SEO & UX

SEO and UX were once two completely separate disciplines: one focused on keyword optimisation, crawling and indexing, the other focused more on design.

However, websites have evolved massively over the last 3 decades, as well as what users come to expect from a website. And with SEO becoming more user-focused, the boundaries with UX have started to blur.

The good news is that good SEO generally equates to good UX, and vice versa; however, there are ways to marry the two to truly take them to the next level. This means that, as SEOs, we already possess some of the existing experience and skill sets to improve UX.

If you’re wondering where to start and where to look for UX and SEO improvements, we’ll take you through:

What is UX?

Measuring AI Overviews Impact: What our data reveals about the shifting search landscape

When AI Overviews officially rolled out across the EU, we knew measuring its impact through third-party means would be complex, but the exercise itself revealed insights far more valuable than any single metric. This research examines what happens when you attempt to quantify AI Overviews’ impact using available tools, and why the measurement challenges themselves tell us everything about where search is heading.

The search landscape is evolving faster than our measurement tools can track. While this analysis provides actionable and some strategic insight, it also reveals why traditional approaches to performance measurement are becoming obsolete due to complexity and limitations, and what that means for how we optimise for visibility in 2025 and beyond.

Why did we want to do this? » Read more about: Measuring AI Overviews Impact: What our data reveals about the shifting search landscape »

5 key takeaways from MozCon London 2025

Earlier this month Marco Ferrai (SEO Strategist) and I (Hollie Gibson, Senior SEO Strategist) headed to the Big Smoke for MozCon London, one of THE most exciting events on the SEO conference calendar this year.

As one day conferences go it doesn’t get much better (well, apart from Re:commerce, obviously…), and the event boasted some of the brightest minds from the search industry, including Dr. Pete Meyers, Areej AbuAli, Luke Carthy and Rebecca Jackson to name just a few.

We learned a bunch at MozCon, and somehow managed to distill all of those insights from 10 amazing speakers into five key takeaways:

Still focusing on vanity metrics?

How can ecommerce sites implement SEO-friendly faceted navigation without hurting crawl efficiency or creating index bloat?

Disclaimer: This is an extended, in-depth version of an article originally published on SEJ, expanding on the concepts in more detail to provide additional context, guidance, and best practices for SEO professionals.

Faceted navigation without the SEO fallout: a guide for ecommerce sites

Faceted navigation is a game-changer for user experience (UX) on large e-commerce sites. It helps users quickly narrow down what they’re looking for, whether it’s a size 8 pair of red road running trainers for women, or a blue, waterproof winter hiking jacket for men.

For your customers, faceted navigation makes huge inventories feel manageable and, when done right,

5 things we learned at Re:commerce 2025

Almost two weeks on from Re:commerce 2025 and we’re still buzzing from the deep insights we gained from our expert speakers, as well as the engaging discussions we had with our wonderful attendees and sponsors.

We think 2025 was our best event yet and, judging from the feedback we’ve received so far from attendees, everyone who was at The Ham Yard Hotel agrees.

So, if you attended or even if you missed out, check out these five key takeaways from Re:commerce 2025.

AI is THE number one subject on people’s minds

It should’ve been no surprise, but the impact of artificial intelligence and large language models on ecommerce marketing dominated the conversation this year.

A lot of our speakers touched on AI and LLMs as part of their talks, but Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communications at Wix, majored on this subject during her talk, specifically Generative Search visibility and how to optimise for this emerging channel.

For decades, SEOs have had to know which on-page and off-page factors will get their websites ranking in search results for the searches that matter most to them—now, they also need to know how to structure their content to give it the best chance of being referenced in LLM responses.

During her talk, Crystal pointed out that LLMs received a tiny fraction of global search traffic in Q1 2024, but that this increased by 1619% in just 12 months.

Of particular interest to ecommerce marketers was Crystal’s explanation of ChatGPT’s recently announced Shopping Results feature. When ChatGPT detects shopping intent in a query, it selects products to display based on a mix of factors:

‘Prompt intent analysis’ (user intent and context)
What ChatGPT ‘remembers’ about the user
Structured metadata including price, product description and reviews

These features are in the early stages, but it’s something you need to get on top of sooner rather than later, and you can now sign up to be notified when ChatGPT Product Feed submissions open.

Our first keynote speaker, journalist and author Andreas Ekström, also demonstrated some really interesting (and possibly a little scary, if you’re a musician) things AI can already do.

A big fan of Album-oriented Rock (think REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and Journey), Andreas treated us to a song he’d created in an app called Suno. It had all the trappings of a classic AOR track, including the vocal style and melodic guitar riffs.

Andreas then played our audience a video introducing himself in multiple languages, including Spanish, French and Japanese—except Andreas cannot speak fluently in any of them. They were AI-generated based on his likeness and a basic script, which could undoubtedly have numerous uses for multilingual teams.

5 Reasons you NEED to go to Re:commerce 2025

Re:commerce is back for 2025 and it’s set to be bigger and better than ever.

Search and digital marketing experts from some of the biggest ecommerce brands will be in attendance—including Disney, Waitrose, Under Armour, Marks & Spencer and Selfridges. Are you going to join them?

This year’s event will be hosted at The Ham Yard Hotel on Friday 16th May (8.30am – 5.30pm), and full day tickets are available for just £285.00 (ex. VAT). However, if you still need convincing, we’ve got five compelling reasons for you…

We’ve got an incredible line-up of expert speakers

Re:commerce has always boasted a fantastic speaker line-up, and 2025 is no different.

We’re delighted to be welcoming author and journalist Andreas Ekström, and Retail Technology Analyst Miya Knights, as our two keynote speakers. They’ll be giving us a broad perspective on how digital is shaping our relationships, culture and interactions, alongside the latest trends and strategies being adopted in eCommerce.

While we also have seven other experts that are highly regarded in the industry and the speaker circuit, including:

Gillian Ridley Whittle, founder of Peachaus
Aleyda Solis, international SEO consultant
Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communications at Wix
Bethan Vincent, founder and Manager Partner at Open Velocity
Azeem Ahmad, award-winning digital marketing expert
Shannon McGuirk, Digital PR Director at Re:signal
James Miller, Senior SEO Analyst at Re:signal

Our speakers will be discussing everything from high level retail marketing strategy through to in-depth advice on SEO, content and digital PR best practice.

“I had a great time speaking at Re:commerce. I was impressed with how polished the whole event was;

The Ultimate Guide to a Seamless CMS Migration

Building on our previous post, ‘The hidden costs of a botched site migration: Why ecommerce brands can’t afford to get it wrong’, we’re back with actionable steps to help you successfully migrate your CMS. If our last post made one thing clear, it’s that getting it right is absolutely critical!

What is a CMS?

If you have a website, chances are you’re using a CMS (Content Management System). It’s the software that powers your site, enabling you to easily create, manage, edit and publish your website content.

You might feel like your current CMS just isn’t cutting it. Maybe it’s missing key features you need, or it can’t keep up as your website grows with more content and traffic. Whatever the reason, you’ve realised it’s time for a change—and a new CMS might be the solution.

The next step is migrating to your new CMS, and it needs to be done right. A poorly executed migration can lead to broken links, duplicate content, or missing pages, causing your SEO efforts to unravel. Proper planning ensures redirects are set up correctly, preserving your site’s authority and organic performance.

Therefore what we’ve done here at Re:signal, is

The full agenda for Re:commerce 2025 has been announced

There are now less than 10 weeks to go until Re:commerce 2025, and the full agenda has now been announced.

We’ve got an incredible line-up of speakers, boasting some of the brightest minds working in digital marketing, SEO and ecommerce right now. This is a must-attend event for ecommerce brands and marketers that want to keep their finger on the pulse of the rapidly changing digital landscape. To ensure continued growth in 2025 and beyond we need to be able to think differently and challenge how we do things, rather than expecting the same old tactics to continue driving revenue as customer behaviour changes.

Let’s take a closer look at our speakers and what they’ll be sharing with our attendees.

Our opening keynote — Andreas Ekström

Digital Humanist | Author | Journalist

Organic Intelligence is the New Superpower

Andreas Ekström has spent many years reporting on how media, business and politics is impacted by the major digital power players in the world, working as a culture reporter and columnist for Sydsvenskan, a national Swedish newspaper.

Andreas has also been an educator since 2010 and a regular on the international conference circuit, and is a highly sought after speaker that has been very well received across Europe thanks to the deep insight provided by his lectures.

At Re:commerce 2025, Andreas will kickstart the day with his thought-provoking ideas, questions and hands-on tools that help us to understand the impact the digital world has on relationships, culture and human interactions, stressing the importance of ‘organic’ intelligence as we enter the artificial intelligence revolution.

Gillian Ridley Whittle

Founder | Peachaus

Breaking the Mould in Retail Strategy

Pulling on her experience of over 30 years in commercial retail, Gillian Ridley Whittle will take Re:commerce attendees on her journey from big brand fashion director (M&S, Target, Topshop) to founder of Peachaus, a lifestyle brand with an ethical stance focused on changing customer mindsets and building a sustainable brand.

Gillian will share her experience of applying offline learning to building a digital presence, helping us to understand how experience-based retail is taking shape online and providing inspiration of how to think differently in the world of ecommerce.

Crystal Carter

Head of SEO Comms | Wix

Building Brand Visibility in an Evolving ecommerce Landscape

Large language models (LLMs) are causing a lot of disruption to the search landscape right now, and brands need to adapt if they want to remain visible to their target market.

Backed by over 15 years of SEO and digital marketing experience, Crystal Carter will provide Re:commerce attendees with her take on the challenges ecommerce brands have to tackle—but also the opportunities that AI can offer.

Crystal will also discuss the broader implications on marketing in an AI-enabled world, ahead of a quickfire Q&A session with fellow Re:commerce speaker Shannon McGuirk and Re:signal’s founder Kevin Gibbons.

Shannon McGuirk

Digital PR Director | Re:signal

How to Win in Digital PR Through Audience Understanding

Shannon McGuirk joined Re:signal as Digital PR Director in October, bringing with her a wealth of experience of driving organic growth for leading ecommerce brands like ASICS, FatFace and Under Armour.

Shannon is also a veteran of the industry speaker circuit, having given talks at MozCon, BrightonSEO and Outreach, and we’re delighted to have her as part of the Re:commerce 2025 line-up.

Category: Blog