Our Expert SEO Guide for Fashion eCommerce Brands

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization essentially means modifying your website and online content so that it ranks highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). 75% of users never go beyond the first page of search results, so achieving high rankings for relevant keywords is essential if you want to use inbound marketing to increase revenue. 

There are many different aspects to SEO but, in general, it can be split into four separate elements:

• On-page SEO: the optimization of website elements that are visible on the website pages (e.g. website content and meta tags)
• Off-page SEO: the optimization of factors that are external to the website (e.g. backlinks and social media promotion).
• Local SEO: the optimization of a website or online presence to improve its visibility in local search results (e.g. location-specific keyword targeting and Google My Business listings).
• Technical SEO: the optimization of technical elements of a website to improve its performance and search engine friendliness (e.g. website speed and site architecture). 

Encompassing content, product descriptions, backlinks, reviews, website performance, and much more, SEO is a valuable form of online marketing that needs to be weaved throughout your online activity to deliver optimal returns. 

SEO for eCommerce Brands

While the principles of search engine optimization can be applied to any business or industry, SEO is particularly relevant to eCommerce websites and there are certain aspects of SEO that you should pay close attention to when you’re promoting an eCommerce site.

e-Retail sales topped $5.7 billion USD worldwide last year, which highlights just how popular online shopping is amongst consumers and business buyers. Now that technology gives online retailers the opportunity to reach a global audience, there really is no limit to how successful you can be – provided you have the infrastructure to handle all the inquiries that a great SEO strategy will bring you!

11 Industry-specific SEO Tips for Fashion eCommerce

If you want to maximize your online success, don’t just adopt a generic approach to search engine optimization. Instead, use a sector-specific SEO strategy that delivers optimal results for fashion businesses. 

With increased competition and new trends regularly being released, fashion companies need to take a fast-paced approach to online marketing and SEO. By doing so, you can ensure that you’re engaging with users who have active purchasing intent and that your fashion website ranks more highly for relevant keywords than competing sites. 

To get started, take a look at our top SEO tips – which incorporate on-page, off-page, technical, and local strategies – for fashion eCommerce:

#1 Conduct Regular Keyword Research

Keyword research forms the basis of your SEO strategy but, importantly, it’s not a one-off activity. If you introduce new products to reflect the latest trends, for example, you’ll want to conduct regular research to find new keywords. 

Your target keywords also need to have a significant search volume in order to drive more traffic to your website. However, don’t focus solely on search volume when you’re deciding which keywords to target. Instead, focus on long-tail keywords that are specific to your sales offering. 

‘Women’s white trainers’ is far more specific than simply ‘trainers,’ for example, and will drive targeted traffic to your site. This will improve conversion rates and the users visiting your site will be shown products that relate directly to their specific search query. It’s also much more likely that you will rank for longer tail keywords as they will have lower competition

#2 Launch a Fashion Blog

Adding fresh content to your site on a regular basis is critical if you want to achieve high SEO rankings and a blog is an easy and effective way to publish new content and deliver genuine value to your users.

When you start a fashion blog to drive traffic to your site, plan the content carefully and use relevant keywords on each post. However, don’t over-use keywords as this contributes to ‘keyword stuffing’, which could negatively affect your rankings.

Instead, use your target keywords strategically, publish content in a range of formats, and focus on delivering engaging posts. Varied, interesting content will directly help to establish brand loyalty and encourage customers to spend more with you. 

#3 Improve Your Website’s UX

You’ll need cutting-edge UI/UX web design and enhanced functionality if you want to attract, engage, and retain users. 

User experience (UX) refers to how users interact with your site. An uninspiring design or complicated site is likely to dissuade users from making a purchase. Conversely, an engaging design, user-friendly layout, and optimal performance will keep users on your website, reduce bounce rates, and lead to more conversions. 

It’s not just users that care about UX. Google and other search engines place significant emphasis on the UX of the websites they list on search results pages, so improving your site’s UX will have a positive impact on your rankings too. You can explore this overlap further in our SEO vs UX blog. 

#4 Use Structured Data for Product Descriptions

Fashion retail sites can have hundreds or thousands of product pages (or more!) and each product requires a description. When drafting a description for each product, you’ll need to include important information, such as:

• Brand
• Materials and composition
• Available sizes
• Measurements
• Color
• Stock availability

If you want to improve the rankings of your product pages, be sure to use structured data to code product descriptions. This provides search engines with an effective way to collate the information that’s presented on a web page and reinforces what the web page is about. As a result, search engines can index that site more accurately and display it on appropriate results pages.

#5 Add Meta Information

Meta titles and meta descriptions are shown on search engine results pages (SERPs) and they tell potential site visitors what the page is about. They can have a big impact on whether a user decides to click on your site’s link, so don’t underestimate the effect they can have on site traffic. 

Furthermore, accurate meta information ensures that your web pages are ranked for relevant search terms, so draft them carefully if you want to maintain high rankings for target keywords.

Incorporate the web page’s target keyword into the meta title and meta description but be sure to do so in a way that’s engaging and encourages the user to click through to your site. If your keyword is, ‘ballerina flats’, the following meta title:

‘5 Reasons Ballerina Flats are a Must-Have Item for Summer 2023’

is much more engaging than:

‘Shoes – Ballerina Flats’

#6 Optimize Images for Search

Online fashion businesses rely on high-quality images to showcase products, but you can also use images to drive traffic to your site. When surveyed, more than 85% of respondents stated that visual information is more important than text information when shopping for clothes or furniture, so fashion retail sites should certainly be embracing the potential of visual searches. 

Visual search simply means that a user inputs an image into a search engine, rather than a text-based search term. Whether they are looking for a specific item, a similar product, or inspiration based on a style they like – if your images are properly optimized – your web pages can rank for visual searches as well as text-based searches. 

Firstly, use high-quality images in well-known formats but compress them so that they don’t take too long to load. Secondly, use a range of images to showcase a product, rather than a single picture. Then, add informative and keyword-rich image titles, descriptions, alt-text, and captions. This will help search engines understand what is depicted in the picture.

#7 Increase Page Speed

This falls under the umbrella of ‘technical SEO’ and it’s an important way of reducing your bounce rate and ensuring users spend more time on your site. Users tend to leave a website quickly if it takes more than 2-3 seconds to load and, as a result, this has become an increasingly important ranking factor. 

If your web pages take longer than this to load, you’re likely to lose a significant proportion of the traffic you’re working so hard to attract. So, don’t let slow page speeds negatively affect sales and, instead, aim to increase page speed so that each web page takes 1-2 seconds (or less) to load on any device. 

#8 Enhance Mobile Functionality

Another aspect of technical SEO that will substantially improve your SEO performance is mobile functionality. As mobile internet traffic continues to increase, greater emphasis is being placed on the mobile functionality of websites. After all, a user can’t make a purchase from your site via a smartphone or tablet if the website isn’t optimized for mobile devices. 

In fact, mobile functionality is now so important that Google takes a ‘mobile-first’ approach to indexing web pages. So, if your site doesn’t deliver a good UX on mobile devices, don’t expect to generate much organic traffic. To prevent this from happening, make sure your site delivers an optimal mobile experience and use responsive web design to enhance functionality across all devices. 

#9 Secure High-Quality Backlinks

Securing high-quality backlinks is integral to any off-page SEO strategy. ‘Backlinks’ refer to external websites that feature a link to one of your web pages. When a reputable site links to your own website, it improves the trust and credibility of your site and, as a result, search engines are likely to rank it more highly.

The highest quality backlinks are those that come from extremely relevant and authoritative sources. For example, if you are a Dubai-based fashion eCommerce brand, getting a link in an article titled “The Best Fashion Brands in Dubai” by Vogue Arabia will positively influence your rankings.

Securing high-quality backlinks can be difficult but guest blog posts and guest spots on podcasts are a great way to increase brand awareness and generate backlinks. In addition to this, adding your website to relevant industry directories and completing your Google Business Profile will also improve backlink performance and, therefore, enhance your off-site SEO.

#10 Use Social Media to Increase Online Visibility

There are differing opinions over whether social media is a direct ranking for Google search results, but one thing’s for sure, high-profile social media activity won’t harm your rankings. Social media is a valuable form of marketing in its own right, particularly for fashion retailers that rely on buzz about new trends and products to engage users. 

What’s more, sharing your content across social media can lead to increased backlinks, which will have a direct impact on your website’s SEO performance. As you generate more social mentions and social signals, you might notice your rankings creeping up too. 

#11 Optimize for Local Searches

This is particularly important for fashion eCommerce brands – especially if you also have physical store locations – because prospective customers will often look for nearby options when shopping for clothing and accessories.

Optimize your web pages for relevant and location-based keywords throughout your website. For instance, use keywords such as ‘vintage clothing Dubai’ or ‘retro clothing store UAE’ in your website content, product descriptions, and meta tags.

Equally, make sure that you claim and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) Listing. GMB is a free tool that helps businesses manage their online presence on Google. Claiming and optimizing your GMB listing can help your fashion eCommerce brand appear in Google’s Local Pack, which is the box of three local search results that appear at the top of Google’s search results page. 

Make sure to add as much accurate information as possible, such as your business hours, phone number, and address. The Google Algorithm is programmed to reward optimized GMB profiles.

SEO for Fashion eCommerce FAQ

Implementing an SEO Fashion eCommerce Strategy

An effective SEO fashion eCommerce strategy takes a lot of time, skill, and investment.

You’ll need to stay up to date with new ranking factors and have the technical expertise to modify your web pages accordingly. Furthermore, you’ll need the time and expertise to craft top-quality content, optimize images, update product descriptions, and much more!

We have worked with a number of established fashion brands – such as Loop Generation and Childsplay Clothing – and so know exactly what it takes to execute a digital marketing strategy that will put your brand on the map.

Learn more about our eCommerce SEO services or simply book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our SEO experts and see what we can do for you.

While SEO best practices are applicable to any business with an online presence, there is also a range of industry-specific considerations that must be accounted for. If you’re interested in the different approaches to search engine optimization required, check out our other industry-specific SEO guides below.