Content Optimization. Fashion Industry in Ecommerce in Search of Lost Traffic. Part 2

In the first part of the article, I shared with you the challenges that eCommerce websites in the fashion industry may be facing and that can cause a decrease in traffic. In today’s article, I will tell you about my ways to deal with this situation by providing a well thought-of content that is attractive and useful for potential customers.

Why Content?

First of all, because I am a big fan of creating valuable (I.N.E.: interesting, engaging and natural) content for the user. What does this mean in practice? Everyone can have a different definition of a valuable content. For me, it is a content that answers the most frequently asked questions about a given issue, which encourages users to read the whole thing, be curious about the links it contains, related sources and, finally, make them come back to the site. Creating valuable content means its continuous improvement and constant expansion of knowledge about the needs of the audience.

Properly prepared, planned and edited content, without copywriting mistakes not only provides information that the user needs at a given moment, but also helps to build credibility and brand recognition. The more it will be remembered by the reader, the greater the chance that they will simply return to the website or – in a situation where they will have to choose between our brand and the competition’s – they will be more willing to focus on the one they view as an authority.

Valuable content is not marketing gibberish saturated with key phrases. Under no circumstances should we fool our reader. If they visited our site because they entered the phrase “how to match running shoes” in the search engine, let’s not give them an article about the latest model from our collection. In return, let’s provide a professional guide created with a specialist which accurately describes parameters of running shoes that should be taken into account, how to pick the right size, what is the pronating or supinating foot, and how it affects the selection of running shoes. If the shoes we offer are dedicated to runners, nothing stands against presenting our model in a natural and unobtrusive way and thus give the user the opportunity to learn about it and make an informed decision about their purchase.

I like how https://www.runningwarehouse.com/ has solved the issue of valuable content for the user. By entering the phrase “how to choose running shoes” in the search engine, we get the result at position 0, i.e. as a featured snippet. The article itself in this result is not too extensive, but presents, in a coherent and specific way (in 5 tips), advice related to the topic and offers the user related articles. The source code of the article is optimized for SEO – among others, the appropriate structure of H headings was used and the alt attribute was used in the pictures. Good job! 

Returning to the main topic of this article, building traffic using content during a period of decrease related to seasonality, factors beyond our control, including crises, requires us to carefully analyze and understand the needs of users in the context of the current situation. Emotional support, inspiration, ensuring a sense of security or maybe providing entertainment that will allow audience to break away from everyday life for a moment? The style in which we communicate with users will largely depend on the type of problem we’re facing.

Optimization of Category Descriptions in the Store

The way you optimize category descriptions in your fashion eCommerce will depend to some extent on what causes the decrease in traffic, as well as how “flexible” the presented category is.

Let’s take the example of the swimsuit category which is normally the most popular in the summer, and attracts less interest due to worse weather – not favorable for sunbathing – or due to the economic situation making us give up our trips to warm countries.

When creating a description of the category for such an assortment, we should first of all do a thorough research of the key phrases that are associated with it, taking into account all types of outfits, with an emphasis on those that we can put on for a swimming pool or waterpark, i.e. regardless of the weather or season.

It is also worth remembering to include H2 headings in the category descriptions which will contain keywords describing the range of products with potentially wider interest than only in the season, such as “Sports swimwear”, “Swimwear for aqua aerobics” “waterpark “,” spa swimsuit “,” swimsuit for swimming “etc. Thanks to this, you will increase the chances that these headers will appear in SERP as an extension of our result in the form of the so-called sitelinks.

Both in the category descriptions and in the metadata, it is worth including information on promotions or sales, of course, if you have them in your sales strategy. Category descriptions may, therefore, include phrases such as “swimsuits outlet” and “swimsuits sale”.Here is an example set of key phrases that you can optimize for this category:

• sport swimwear (search volume 5600)
• athletic swimwear (search volume 3100)
• sport bikini (search volume 600)
• athletic bathing suits (search volume 1000)
• swimming pool bikini (search volume 100)
• swimming pool suit (search volume 800)
• swimwear outlet (search volume 1500)
• swimwear sale (search volume 5500)
• swimsuits for water aerobics (search volume 470)
  

Metadata is where you can start using specific values, for example, information on sales discounts or products in an outlet at a price from… This way, you will increase the attractiveness of our result in the search engine and make it stand out from the competition. Here is an example of what this result would look like after optimization, including also emoji characters that can have a positive effect on CTR.

Title: Sport swimwear outlet ❤ over 70% sale ✓ in our online store
Description: Check out our offer⭐Sport swimsuits for men, women, children ➤Swimwear for all shapes and sizes ⚡Best price now from USD 19.99 Order now✓

Another example that I want to present are dresses. They are popular all year round, but the popularity of specific types changes depending on the season. In the summer, we are looking for those ethereal, light, with straps, in the winter – for warmer ones, knitted, with long sleeves.

If the range of dresses is located under one URL in the structure of our store, it is worth optimizing its description so that it includes phrases related to broad selections and a wide range of possibilities.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that usually spring dresses can also be worn in early fall as well as in summer, depending on the weather. So, if you can’t sell the current collection in spring, you can present it in the fall. It is good to take this fact into account at the stage of creating category descriptions and metadata.

In addition to phrases related to seasons, it is worth considering those describing styles, lengths, sizes, styles or occasions. Here’s a phrase suggestion:

• white dresses (search volume 279 000)
• long sleeve maxi dress (search volume 35,000)
• romantic dresses (search volume 1800)
• dresses for a date (search volume 1900)
• office dresses (search volume 3600)
• casual dresses (search volume 76 100)
• dresses for short women (search volume 2 200)
• jeans dresses (search volume 18 400)

The metadata itself can also be changed depending on the season. In spring, they can look like this:

Title: Spring dresses ❤ long sleeve ➤ maxi, midi, mini dresses
Description: Discover stylish dresses for spring in our online store⭐ All shapes and sizes ✌ Check spring fashion trends 2020. Quick delivery⚡Order now✓

Whereas for the fall season, they can be as follows:

It will also be a good idea to add a word related to the season in the title of the product itself, which will further enhance the visibility of the site for seasonal phrases.

Landings. Custom Categories in the Store

If our store offers a wide range of clothing and footwear and only part of the category ‘suffers’ from seasonality, it is worth considering creating themed landing sites that will act as a kind of category.

This functionality is normally solved by means of filters, thanks to which we can choose a specific feature of the products. The issue of filters from an SEO point of view is a topic for a separate article that will appear on our blog soon.

Landings are therefore separate subpages with their own URL which should be placed in the structure of the site and allow the crawlers to index them.

The idea of ​​creating such landings is to develop additional key phrases that do not match any of the current categories or relate to an area that includes several categories. 

I will use another example.

The online store has a very wide range of clothing, both seasonal and year-round. In fall and winter, shorts, flimsy dresses or tops are not selling at all. While in summer – pants, sweatshirts and jackets. You can therefore get additional traffic by creating categories based on phrases such as:

• office party outfit (search volume 270)
• vintage style clothes (search volume 2600)
• club party outfit (search volume 390)
• concert outfit 9search volume 24 300)
• hiking clothes (search volume 6700)

This way, on a given landing you can present products a potential customer can use to create the desired styling even out of season. After all, who said that shorts are only intended for the summer and cannot be put on at a club party?

However, if the decrease in traffic is not a matter of seasonality or weather, but the effect of the crisis that many companies in the fashion industry are currently facing, focusing on landing may not be the right choice. In this situation, I would bet on landings that offer products ideal for a gift. Birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Children’s Day or Christmas are occasions that are hard to imagine without presents. So you can create gift categories for our customers that will suggest products recommended as a gift. It is also worth considering creating special gift vouchers that can be an alternative to buying a specific item. When planning to create gift landing sites, you may consider such phrases as:

• unique christmas gifts for her – (search volume 2400)
• gift ideas for best friend female – (search volume 3000)
• birthday gift ideas – (search volume 27 100)
• gift ideas for teenager – (search volume 11 100)
• gifts for fashion lovers – (search volume 200)

The whole art of generating traffic using this type of landing is not only the appropriate selection of topics and products, but also the preparation of properly optimized descriptions, as you would do in the case of categories, in accordance with the previously described principles. It is worth supplementing this description with styling tips that will allow the user to match several products and create a given stylization from them.

You can look for inspiration using Google search engine and its autocomplete feature  which will tell us what users are searching on the Internet:

When creating this type of landing, you should be careful not to duplicate the content and phrases of existing categories. For this reason, the unique content (description, headers, metadata) optimized for relevant key phrases that will not cannibalize with those contained on other subpages of the store will be of key importance here.

Once you prepare such a landing, you should make sure that search engine robots have access to it and can index it, put a link to it in the structure, preferably on the main page – if possible, in the store’s menu – and take care of its internal linking.

Blog

The blog section in the store is one of the most powerful tools for generating valuable traffic focused on the right target group. It is a blog that can help us attract users and arouse their interest, provided that its published content will be the result of a thoughtful strategy.

Using the blog, you can “prepare” users for the upcoming season, offering them 2-3 month guide content in advance, which will also build their confidence in the brand. Blog articles can provide inspiration, advice and specific tips related to choosing the right product, for example:

• bathing suits for body types – (search volume 2800)
• swimsuits for big busts (search volume 2800)      
• swimsuits to hide belly pooch (search volume 490)      
• swimsuits for large busts (search volume)      

• best fitting jeans – (search volume 1600)
• jeans for men with big thighs – (search volume 1300)      
• jeans for pear shaped body (search volume 270)      
• best jeans for short women (search volume 1200)      

• winter fashion 2020 – (search volume 1100)
• fashionable winter jackets (search volume 300)      
• what to wear in winter (search volume 500)      
• new fashion trends (1500)      

• dresses to wear to a wedding (search volume 32 400)
• wedding dress for winter (search volume 13 400)        
• what to wear to a wedding (search volume 30,000)        
• wedding dress for body type (search volume 810)        

When preparing phrases for blog articles, it is worth remembering to include different types of phrases in them, so that our content will reach a wide audience interested in the topic. I also recommend you to check an article on our blog devoted to this topic: https://insightland.org/2019/08/21/seo-keyword-research-best-practices-you-should-know/

A very good source of information on the popularity of issues related to a given topic, which is worth including in the articles, is the Answerthepublic.com tool, thanks to which you get virtually all possible combinations of search queries, as in the example below:

Such a map of concepts will be helpful in creating the content structure and its optimization for the widest and thematically related group of key phrases. It will also allow you to plan complementary topics that you can use in further content strategy and building interest among users.

This kind of blog articles you can distribute in advance through newsletters or social media channels, preparing our clients for a given circumstance and thus constantly keeping them in touch with our brand. Articles can also promote products matching a given topic in a subtle and unobtrusive way, directing them to the store or to a specific category.

However, how to approach the issue of engaging and interesting content on the blog in the situation we are in today, when many countries imposed restrictions on moving away from home or using public facilities, shops and shopping malls? 

It is hard to imagine encouraging customers to shop for fashion or promoting the latest collections during social isolation. During this period, it is worth focusing on strengthening your ties with them, supporting them and building your authority in their eyes. For them, our blog can be a place where they find inspiration how to cope with the quarantine, so as not to simply go crazy in four walls. 

Topics such as:

“Comfort and elegance at home, that is styling for work … remotely”
“Summer wardrobe overview”
“7 ways to get bored at home”
“How to organize a home gym”

Additional Support for & with the Local Community

Many companies from the fashion industry assumed that if they could not implement their sales plans at that time, they would use their facilities to help. This idea is noble and in the current situation not only puts the brand in a favorable light, but also inspires current or potential clients to support such initiatives and unite in a common goal.

The purchase or making of masks and providing them to hospitals free of charge, financial support for organizations or small entrepreneurs who lost the most in the mandatory quarantine and many other actions are at a premium in the current situation.

Personally, I fully support such initiatives and I’m even more proud that our client Medicine is strongly involved in helping local hospitals and organizes actions to support medical facilities in the fight against coronavirus. They created a dedicated Landing Page in Polish to provide information about the initiative: https://wearmedicine.com/l/maseczki-dla-szpitali

“Recently, together with ANSWER.com, we donated 20,000 masks to hospitals. The response was amazing! Many of you came to us declaring an individual desire to help. We are proud that we have such clients. We admire your big hearts and meet you. From today on wearmedicine.com you can buy any number of masks for PLN 1.50 per item. We will deliver masks to Specialist Hospital No. 1 in Bytom. Support us in helping. Remember that together we can do a lot! You can buy the brick mask under the link.

#wearmedicine #wearetheanswear #togetherwehelp”

Hundreds of clients have made a contribution within the campaign and further 30,000 masks have been sold on both platforms within just a few days. The production process is just about to end and the masks will be donated to hospitals within the next few days. 

Well done Wearmedicine! 

Using the blog to communicate this type of initiatives will, therefore, be a way for readers to get to know the brand better and be able to identify with its values. In this difficult time, we need to believe that good deeds come back to us and that we should be guided not only by reason but also by heart in our business.

The Power of Valuable Content

Now you can see how valuable content allows you to position your fashion eCommerce online and deal with unexpected events. I hope that I will inspire you to make optimizations and improvements tailored to the needs of customers. 

Remember that the analysis of the situation will allow you to most effectively adapt your actions to the needs of your store and clients. And ongoing risk analysis, as well as proper use of the contour, can improve the traffic. At the end, it is always worth to take a look at products and services from a creative perspective and – if you have the possibility – to use your strengths to your advantage.