SEO for an independent fashion brand - the right tool for the job?

[nicandm]

I have a client that is a small but growing fashion brand in the UK, they make sunglasses, eyewear and swim suits. They are priced as a high-end brand, so around £200 for a pair of sunglasses.

They have asked me about 'sorting out their SEO', but I am struggling to think of viable keywords we could target that don't contain the name of their brand. The SERPS for anything that would be along the lines of 'buy sunglasses / buy swimsuits' etc are dominated by very big players - big department stores etc, so with their small budget I'm sure would be impossible to crack.

My thoughts are that apart from sorting out their on-page SEO (crawlable, sitemap etc) and making sure they rank for their branded terms, that putting money into trying to rank for generic terms around buying swimwear/sunglasses would not be viable. A better route for traffic generation would be through a more content marketing / social media approach to get people sharing their content (e.g. fashion industry commentary) and leading them back to their brand from there.

What do others think? Am I missing a trick on the SEO front?

thanks

[Hannah_Smith]

I think there are some great answers here - the social / content / PR suggestions are all solid.

I think there may be merit in looking to see if there are long tail queries which you can capture, however I'd encourage you think about how relevant those terms might be. For example 'womens designer sunglasses' (arguably not truly long tail, but let's go with it for now) sounds like it's pretty relevant, however it's still pretty competitive and I'd argue that your client's site isn't a great result for that search term given that they only sell their own brand of sunglasses. As such whilst that term might look appealing I'd suggest that even if you did manage to rank for it, it might not convert as well as you'd hope.

In terms of managing your client's expectations I'd look to explain things to them in those terms - their site is a great result for branded searches, and the best way to make more money is likely to be by increasing branded searches. How do you do that? It's a marketing play - likely incorporating PR, social, online and offline marketing activity.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

[ReferralCandy]

No doubt it is difficult to come up with keywords for a growing fashion brand, it is certainly worth spending some effort to work on long tail keywords. Despite the growth of social media and content marketing, search engines still bring in the bulk of the traffic for most sites and it would not be wise to neglect optimising your site on search engines.

Focus on creating keywords based on your client's USP - what's so special about their products? Is it the design, the material or the quality? You don't have to come up with the most unique keywords, but you can still snatch a portion of the traffic for "branded black sunglasses" or "polka dot cotton dresses" (just examples).

That being said, you should still invest some effort on social media and content marketing. One suggestion I have for a fashion brand is to work on Pinterest. Given the high traffic and the female-dominated user base, it would be a good place to promote your brand and engage with potential customers. Develop a holistic approach by pinning quality photos of a selection of your products, other interesting photos, and perhaps run a contest.

Hope that helps!

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Mike and Tim have some  great suggestions.  I wanted to add to it that part of the social campaign you create can include a blog (as Mike suggested).  Some content you create for the social campaign may be best put on the blog and then pushed out the social sites.  Other content may be best distributed straight to the social sites (image memes, quotes, instagrams, etc.) but can also probably be used for content on the blog as well.  Blogging is a great way to put out new, unique content which can help to build authority for the site and you may be able to target keywords on that content as well.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of SEO, especially for smaller or newer sites, is about targeting longtail keywords that are less competitive.  Sure, you may not be able to rank for "buy sunglasses" today, but you may be able to rank well for "designer sunglasses for women".  It doesn't get as many searches, but it gets some.  You build up incrementally.

Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com

[ClaireH-184886]

i would use twitter, use the hash tag about the site and the products, find out if people have used the product and start to get a buz about it. look out for any celebrities who may have used the product and then tweet them, see if they answer.

Talking from a PR background, if you can get a buz about your products and your site then life will become easier.

[MikeRoberts]

Assuming they're trendy, I agree on the Social Media front. Trendy fashion items should have a good likelihood to be shared via facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest and tumblr.

As for the generic terms to attempt ranking for, I'd say use them in a blog campaign to at least create some content devoted to those terms. Get enough people following and liking via social could lead them to linking your blog content in various places which could eventually boost rankings from having a strong, natural backlink profile. And who knows, something could go viral.