How does SEO fit into a fashion brand’s digital marketing strategy?
It can be really challenging as a small business owner to know where to direct your marketing efforts. I’ve worked with a lot of brands who made the mistake of focusing exclusively on social media marketing or paid ads, without taking the time to ensure their website and content strategies are built for scalability and success. If you aren’t already familiar with SEO, this article will break down what it is and why you should consider investing in SEO as a part of your brand’s digital marketing strategy.
Although paid ads guarantee your brand will receive some amount of immediate traffic, they actually aren’t the most sustainable digital marketing option unless you’re pairing them with a strong, well-optimized website that Google can reward via search rankings. Investing in SEO guarantees you a stream of (free!) targeted traffic that will help you rely less on paid ads in the long term.Read on to learn why your fashion or beauty brand should incorporate SEO for marketing success.
The pillars of a successful digital marketing strategy:
As an e-comm brand owner, you’re probably familiar with most of the elements that make up a digital marketing strategy:
Email marketing, including automated flows (like Abandoned Cart notifications) and one-off campaigns (like new collection announcements). Email marketing is an amazing nurture channel for customers who have already indicated some interest in the brand - thus making their way onto your list.
Social media marketing, like IG and TikTok content. Another example of a nurture channel, social media content tends to result in fewer conversions than emails since the content is less directly targeted and is subject to the whims of a platform’s algorithm. However, social media content has the benefit of being free to post - and there’s always the chance something will go viral.
Influencer marketing, which typically ties in to your brand’s social media marketing strategy, and can also be used as user-generated content (UGC) on your website. Influencer marketing can cost a lot of money, and the content has the same downsides as all other social media content, but with the benefit that you increase your brand’s reach to new audiences who trust the influencer and their opinions. You can also repurpose influencer content into blog posts, email campaigns and other social proof on your website, which helps to build trust and increase conversions over time.
Paid ads - posted on Google, Facebook, IG and/or TikTok - are the advertising pillar that costs the most money (outside of influencer marketing), but guarantees some amount of fast traffic. That’s what makes them so popular. Paid ads cost money per click, with the hope that some number of users who click through to your site will either join your email list or - best of all - make an immediate purchase.
Today I’ll show you a way you can guarantee long term traffic without paying for ads. It’s the digital marketing strategy that’s missing from the list above: SEO-informed content marketing.
You and I both know that not everyone visiting your online store will become a buyer.
But what if I could help you to bump up that percentage?
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a broad umbrella of strategies by which you can set your website up for success so that it ranks better in Google search results. You can accomplish this by making sure your website is technically sound, has lots of relevant content and is easily findable.
That’s the big-picture overview - but, of course, the devil is in the details. I’ve seen a lot of brands totally overlook SEO because they don’t really understand it, or are unsure of why it’s important.
One key thing to know right off the bat is that SEO is not a magic-bullet fix that will guarantee you thousands of pageviews per day. Rather, good SEO is a process that will help your site reap exponential traffic benefits long term. Good SEO results in a snowball effect over time: the more users who come to your site because it is well-optimized, the better it will rank in Google search results.
Why does SEO matter for my fashion brand’s marketing?
Let’s count the ways!
Investing in SEO puts you ahead of the game versus competitors who rely only on (expensive) paid ads traffic. This is because, over time, your optimized website will result in a steady stream of well-targeted organic traffic - who you won’t have to pay money for. Although you won’t see immediate results from your SEO efforts, you will start to see a great return on investment over time versus paid ads.
Optimized content leads to the right type of traffic - and better user experiences. You want your products to be found by the right shoppers, and creating targeted content and copy can ensure that they find you. Well-optimized websites also perform better overall, which leads to lower bounce rates, better UX and happier customers.
SEO helps your shoppable products be found by more brand-new customers. I suspect this will become especially important as Google implements its new AI-assisted search, which seems poised to pull directly from sites’ content (and reviews) to provide product recommendations.
SEO makes your other digital marketing efforts better and easier. You can use keyword research to create more informed paid ad campaigns, for example, or repurpose content from your website to your social or email marketing efforts. Investing in SEO pays dividends across your entire brand marketing strategy.
How should my brand start building an SEO strategy?
This article is meant to be an intro to why SEO is important, so I won’t be going in-depth into any one strategy. That being said, here are some areas you can explore if you’d like to being optimizing your brand’s website:
Link building is the process of getting relevant, high-traffic websites to link back to your site, thus boosting your site’s authority in Google’s eyes. This sounds technical but can often be achieved through PR initiatives.
Quality longform content is another pillar of good SEO, because it gives Google a huge amount of relevant data to work through and understand. Good content also improves your user’s experience and helps build your brand’s unique story.
Keyword research is the process of discovering the best terms to use on-site so that your pages appear in more search results - you’re optimizing for the types of phrases customers are actually typing into Google.
Technical SEO includes ensuring your site is discoverable by Google, and doesn’t have any technical errors (like 404 page not found links).
SEO can seem complex - but it doesn’t have to be.
If you’re already feeling overwhelmed here, just know that you’re not alone. I recommend anyone getting started on SEO to focus on creating optimized copy and content, because it’s the easiest for beginners to understand, and makes a huge difference as far as your customers’ experience.
To understand the importance of optimized copy, think of it like this: one of the most important ways Google has to understand your website is through its copy. If Google can’t understand your site’s intent, it is very challenging for them to show your site to its users via search results. You don’t want to miss out on the opportunity for Google to understand - and recommend - your site to people, so you need to make sure your copy and content are reflective of your brand, products and mission.
Here’s an example from an old client that is super simple to understand, even if you’re totally new to the SEO world. I worked with a luxury clutch brand whose products all have women’s names (for example, one might be called the “Lexie” clutch in a finish like “red gloss”). When I Googled this client’s products, I noticed that their site was ranking well below some of their stockist’s websites, like Bloomingdales. This obviously wasn’t ideal, so I did some digging - and learned that none of the site’s product pages actually included the word “clutch” anywhere.
Each product page had a title along the lines of “Lexie Red Gloss,” which made total sense to the brand owner - after all, that was the name of the product being sold! But think about it - how would Google know that each of these product pages was selling a luxury clutch product? Google quite literally wouldn’t be able to tell. “Lexie Red Gloss” doesn’t mean anything to Google, nor to most shoppers, unless they’re very familiar with the brand already. Google isn’t a mind reader - your website’s content needs to give them the context needed to serve up your pages to the right people.
I notice that often, brand owners are so close to their own site and product that it can be hard for them to get the perspective needed to conduct a thorough SEO audit. But making these types of adjustments can have huge longterm traffic implications - after all, if you want to sell more clutches, you need to make sure customers can find you.
How can I tell if my SEO strategy is working?
Implementing an SEO strategy on your site is just the first step. Just like any of your other digital marketing efforts, you’ll want to check in regularly so that you can make data-driven decisions about where to focus your attention and make improvements going forward.
Below are SEO audit suggestions for Google Analytics (which tracks traffic) and Google Search Console (which tracks keyword data). Remember, you do need to give your content time to make its way onto Google’s radar - initially, it can take a few months to start seeing steady organic traffic.
Reviewing SEO results in Google Analytics
To get a sense of your site’s organic traffic at a glance, check the “Landing Page” screen and filter by “Google” as the medium to see what pages users are landing on directly from Google. Once you have a sense of your site’s top organic landing pages, you can create a plan to refresh and optimize those pages’ content every ~3 months to ensure they stay relevant and up-to-date.
Reviewing SEO results in Google Search Console
Over time, your site will begin to “rank” for certain terms in Google - this means that, if a user searches for a specific phrase (like “navy blue bridesmaid dress”), your site shows up somewhere in Google’s list of results. The goal, over time, is to rank higher for keywords that are relevant to your brand. You can generate lists of ranking keywords in Google Search Console, which help give you an idea of the type of content Google is already rewarding your site for - and may help you identify any content gaps, or areas that could be improved.
Want to dive deeper into the world of SEO for your fashion brand? Check out my in-depth Shopify SEO guides: Part 1 on Content, and Part 2 on UX.
Meanwhile, do you have questions or comments? Get in touch. Want to outsource your brand’s SEO to an expert? I can help.
