Our Work

Eight at the Gate

Helping wine buyers discover the story behind the bottle

Eight at the Gate Wines produces award-winning wines in South Australia and reaches customers through distributors in Australia and overseas. In a challenging wine market, the business wanted to strengthen direct-to-consumer sales and build discovery beyond the people who already knew the brand or encountered it through tourism.

Our work focuses on traditional and AI search: understanding what people ask when choosing wine, creating useful pillar content and practical guides, and improving the paths from discovery into the wine range. Alongside that strategy, we have worked extensively with the business on Commerce7 integration and custom plugins and extensions that support its online operations.

The goal was to create more opportunities for people to discover and buy Eight at the Gate wines directly. The business already had a website and an established distribution network; our brief was to strengthen how effectively that digital presence attracted people who had not yet encountered the brand.

Wine is a crowded market, and buyers often begin with a question rather than a winery name. They might be deciding between two varieties, choosing a bottle for a meal or trying to understand a style they have not bought before. We built the search strategy around those real decisions, then connected the answers to relevant wines and the people behind them.

Service areas

Search Engine Optimisation
AI Search Optimisation / GEO
Commerce7 Development
Email Marketing
Graphic Design
Marketing + Strategy
Marketing Collateral
WordPress Development

What we delivered

Traditional search strategy Researching search demand and improving the content and page pathways that help people discover Eight at the Gate wines.
AI search optimisation Developing clear, useful and well-structured content that can be discovered and referenced across emerging AI search experiences.
Pillar content and practical guides Creating connected wine resources that answer questions about styles, selection, serving and food pairings.
Content and technical optimisation Improving page structure, internal connections and search foundations across the existing website.
Commerce7 integration Extensive work connecting and adapting Commerce7 to support the business and its online customer experience.
Custom plugins and extensions Purpose-built functionality developed around requirements that standard website and commerce features did not fully meet.

Eight at the Gate marketing pullup banner

Meeting customers before they know which wine to buy

Someone searching for a food pairing or the difference between two wines may be a potential customer, even if they have never heard of Eight at the Gate. Helpful answers create an introduction to the brand at the point where that person is actively considering what to drink or purchase.

We developed pillar content and supporting practical guides around those questions. Together, the resources give search engines and AI systems clearer information to understand, while giving readers a useful route from learning about wine to exploring the Eight at the Gate range.

A connected search strategy, not isolated articles

The content works as a connected resource rather than a collection of unrelated posts. Broader guides establish context; focused articles answer specific questions about wine styles, serving, selection and food; internal pathways help readers continue to relevant products and other useful information.

Our ongoing work also considers the structure and technical foundations of the existing website. The aim is to make useful information easier to find through traditional search and easier for AI search experiences to interpret and reference.

Supporting the commerce experience behind discovery

Search visibility is only one part of a direct-to-consumer journey. Once someone reaches the website, the business needs the commerce experience and underlying systems to support the next step.

Alongside the search work, we have carried out extensive Commerce7 integration work and developed custom plugins and extensions around the business requirements. This technical work supports the online operation without claiming the original website design or build as ours.

7.4×

More Google Search impressions

Approximately 17,900 impressions compared with 2,420 in the preceding equivalent period. Source: Google Search Console.

+84%

More clicks from Google Search

123 clicks compared with 67 in the preceding equivalent period. Source: Google Search Console.

Tracked keywords in the top 10

Nine keywords in the top 10 of the monitored Google Australia keyword set. Source: Semrush Position Tracking.

Pages cited in tracked AI results

Six cited pages in the Semrush AI Search snapshot. This measures tracked visibility, not visits or enquiries.

Early momentum from useful wine resources

Following the publication of the pillar content and practical guides, Search Console recorded a marked increase in impressions and clicks compared with the preceding equivalent reporting period. Individual guides are already bringing visitors from searches about wine selection, styles and serving.

Position tracking and AI search monitoring also show wider visibility for the new resources. These are early results, so we are continuing to measure whether that discovery develops into sustained qualified traffic and stronger direct-to-consumer opportunities.

Are customers finding you while they decide?

Your next customer may be searching for an answer long before they search for your business name. A connected content and search strategy can help them discover your expertise, understand what you offer and find a clear next step.

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