Using SEO to Sell Clothing Online: 7 Strategies for Your Fashion Brand

The fashion industry is expected to pull in more than $600 billion worldwide this year. The industry, including e-commerce, has been on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down.

If you want to sell clothing online, though, you’re going to meet with stiff competition. That’s why one of the most important things you can do for your fashion brand is looking to your SEO.

Using even one of these seven strategies will help you improve your rank and sell apparel online.

1. Conduct Some Keyword Research

Content is one of the most important components of great SEO. Without it, you won’t have much to rank for.

That said, you have to build your content around what your audience actually wants.

Keyword research is the connection between your content strategy and what your audience is searching for.

Using tools like Google Suggest, you can discover what people are searching for.

You can then work on ranking for the most popular and most searched fashion keywords to promote your brand.

Knowing your audience is key here. If you know your audience is looking for great deals, then you maybe don’t want to rank for terms about “luxury” items.

If you don’t sell athletic wear, then ranking for “workout clothes” isn’t going to help your online clothing business.

2. Develop a Content Strategy to Sell Clothing Online

Once you’ve done your keyword research, you can work on developing a content strategy.

This can help you address your customers’ needs and answer their questions.

This is key to selling clothing online. Great product descriptions are important, but your audience also wants to know about the latest trends.

You might want to tell them about their options for creating branded clothing.

Online clothing businesses should include many types of content in their strategy:

• Social media posts can help you connect with your audience
• Blog posts boost SEO
• Videos engage and entertain, as well as contribute to SEO
• Infographics are informative

Develop content around keywords and your audience’s preferences. Videos are very popular. Blogs can be a great way to communicate the latest news and keep your audience up to date.

3. Build Brand Authority with Backlinking

If you want to get the word out about your products, you’ll need to work on a backlinking strategy as well.

Backlinks serve several purposes for online clothing businesses. First, they create links between your site and another, reputable source. That source can direct traffic to a product page, an offer, or even a blog post.

Google and other search engines evaluate the quality of sites linking back to you. They use that to determine how trustworthy your site is. If Buzzfeed or the Washington Post recommends your products, then you’re probably a reputable retailer.

The search engines will deem your site more authoritative as a result. This can help you improve your ranking, especially when someone searches for a product you carry. Even if you’re not the only retailer selling it, you’re more likely to claim one of the top spots.

Do be careful with backlinking. As much as these links are important, Google will also penalize sites for misuse. If your site is being linked to by spammy sites, you can disavow the links so they don’t hurt your ranking.

4. Target Local Search

If you want to sell apparel online, you might be thinking about shipping across the nation or even going global.

While these ambitions are great, it also means you’ll have to go toe-to-toe with other clothing giants.

This is especially true for highly competitive keywords. There’s plenty of competition for most fashion keywords.

One of the ways to get around this is to think on a local scale. As much as online shopping means customers can buy from anywhere, many prefer to shop closer to home.

That’s very true when shopping locally results in lower shipping fees or getting items sooner.

In turn, you can boost your SEO by ranking for local keywords and “near me” searches. Filling out your Google MyBusiness and other tactics can help you find your local audience.

5. Get Technical with SEO

If you’re just starting an online clothing boutique, you may not have built your website yet. If you’ve been operating for a while, it could be time to check in on your technical SEO.

Technical SEO refers to all the website factors impacting your ranking in the search results.

Website speed is a great example. Google wants sites to load in under two seconds, as users will leave a site if it takes longer to load.

Technical SEO also looks at elements like:

• The code used on your website
• Mobile-friendliness
• Accessibility
• Site structure
• Site maps

Other factors include whether you’re using Schema or image and video optimization.

Looking at your technical SEO not only helps your ranking, but it also improves the website experience for your online shoppers. By delivering a better shopping experience, you can sell more clothing online.

6. Check-In with Your Competitors

There’s no denying that competition is fierce in the clothing industry. Competition isn’t always a bad thing, though. When it comes to improving your SEO, you can even use it to your advantage.

How so?

Check-in with your competitors and discover how well their SEO efforts are working. If someone’s outranking you, take it as a learning opportunity.

Analyze the keywords they’re using, as well as their SEO. Use this to inform your own SEO efforts, then outrank them.

For example, suppose you learn a competitor is outranking you for “customized t-shirts.”

By analyzing their site, you can see what they’re doing right and what they’re not doing. Maybe they haven’t optimized their images or their site loads slowly.

With this information in hand, you can determine what SEO tactics you can use to overtake them.

7. Get More Social Proof

If you want to sell clothing online, one of the best things you can do is get social proof. Search engines like Google rely on reviews and recommendations.

They place less emphasis on social media likes and shares, but they’re still important.

Why? These posts “prove” that other people like and trust your brand.

So go ahead and ask customers to rate a product or leave a review of their experience with you.

Staying One Step Ahead

If you want to sell clothing online, then tending to your SEO is a must. These seven strategies will help you as you look to rise through the rankings.

SEO is a big job though. What’s more, it’s always changing. If you need a hand developing a better strategy or staying one step ahead of the competition, get your keywords in order.

The right keywords can help your website rank higher.