SEO Trends for the Fashion Industry in 2022
In response to the digital wave in the fashion industry, shoppers are no longer content with simple purchase transactions — they want to have an experience attached to it. This means for the fashion industry to compete online, they must become more digitally savvy to entice shoppers and keep them on their website successfully. That’s why keeping up with the latest SEO trends for fashion in 2022 becomes vitally important.
Table of contents:
- The Most Important SEO Trends for the Fashion Industry in 2022
- Shopping Made Easy by Google
- Content is Still Important but the Search Intent is a King
- SEO Trends for the Fashion Industry in 2022 – The Takeaway
SEO is a must-have for fashion brands looking to sell their products online or set up e-commerce websites or online shops. SEO helps to bring in shoppers who are looking for the products you are selling. Identifying your target audience and selecting proper keywords is just the first step in the SEO journey. The fashion industry is constantly evolving, as is the SEO industry, that’s why it’s important to look out for the newest SEO trends for fashion industry.
The Most Important SEO Trends for the Fashion Industry in 2022
If there’s one word to describe what drives the fashion industry, it would be “change”. And 2022 will certainly bring more of that. This continual change combined with economic uncertainties makes the fashion industry one of the most challenging industries to compete in, especially online. That’s where a strategic SEO plan for the fashion industry comes into play.
SEO helps ensure your fashion brand is searchable in Google, which means it thinks you are real and relevant. SEO best practices, including creating backlinks and videos, optimizing on-page content with highly competitive keywords, incorporating live shopping, creating and maintaining multiple subpages, optimizing product categories, and improving the overall user experience for your website, will generate more trust and credibility alongside visibility. Moreover, offering useful and targeted content with high-resolution images optimized for Google Images will help to increase organic traffic and keep shoppers engaged. Let’s see what SEO trends for fashion industry in 2022 can we expect.
Increase your Conversion Rate with Interactive Live Shopping
So, what is interactive live shopping, and why should you incorporate it on your website?
Live shopping is an interactive live streaming video with shoppable content that allows merchants to bring online in-store experiences. Shoppers watching the video can instantly purchase featured products and participate through a chat function and reaction buttons. Several live shopping companies offer this service, including Vidvi, Livescale, and bambuser.
There is a positive benefit to live streaming from an SEO aspect as the user-friendly and engaging aspect of live streaming appeals to the qualitative determinants of search engine algorithms. Additionally, titling your video appropriately with strategically selected keywords and including a thorough description that includes keywords will also help with SEO. In general, live streams may not have a direct impact on a fashion site’s SEO, but when combined with optimized descriptions and content engaging viewers with a brand they can contribute to better traffic and conversion on the website.
Live commerce helps to accelerate your conversion rate. It’s entertaining and immersive, which keeps viewers watching longer. For selling clothes or other fashion items, it’s an ideal medium for shoppers to see how clothes fit or jewelry looks when worn, how materials move, and how to mix and match items.
The interactive experience of seeing others buy products live entices shoppers to take action to purchase your products. With time-limited tactics, e.g. one-off coupons and deadlines-to-purchase can be used to generate a sense of urgency. Companies are reporting conversion rates up by nearly 30 percent, which is 10 times higher than conventional e-commerce sales efforts.
Live shopping also improves the brand appeal and brand differentiation. It can increase your brand’s appeal as well as your brand’s uniqueness. It captures additional web traffic by strengthening your position among existing customers and attracting new ones, especially younger people who enjoy innovative shopping experiences and formats. Some companies have seen a 20% increase in their share of younger audiences by incorporating live shopping on their website.
Chinese companies, who were the innovators of live shopping, have seen great results. According to a report by McKinsey & Co., in less than five years, live commerce in China has established itself as a major sales channel and transformed the retail industry.
In a 2020 survey, 2/3 of Chinese consumers said they had bought products via live stream in the past year.
From 2017 to 2020, the value of China’s live-commerce market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 280%, to reach an estimated $171 billion in 2020. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, sales have intensified, with Chinese sales expected to reach $423 billion by 2022. While many retailers in the West are still behind China in pursuing live commerce, early adopters are also starting to realize a significant rise in sales. This will definitely be an important SEO trend for fashion industry in 2022.
Optimized Images Helps You in SERPS
High-quality images are vitally important for the fashion industry. According to Vogue magazine, images should be the focal point of telling your fashion story online. Straight-forward, front-facing model images encourage purchases alongside an average of five detail shots. This applies even when it comes to accessories. Basically, shoppers want to see what your products look like on a human body as it helps them with their purchasing decisions.
However, the use of high-quality photography is just the first step in a winning online imagery strategy. This is where SEO comes in. Including imagery positively affects the position in which your website is displayed in the search results. Users are more likely to visit websites that display imagery, which increases traffic to your site.
In addition, optimizing photos, meaning properly resizing them for the internet, significantly improves the speed your page loads, and this is a factor ranked by Google. Sizing and compressing your imagery will also satisfy Google’s Core Web Vitals (CWV), which are a set of three main metrics that Google factors as important in your webpage’s overall user experience. It’s always a good idea to check both your website and mobile apps for load time of imagery.
Another important SEO strategy is the alt tag description. Make sure you use keywords in the alt tag, as this allows search engines to find your photo based on those keywords.
Optimized images for fashion brands are a must-have. It not only draws people in, ranks your website higher in SERPS, but photos also tell your brand’s story and assist your buyers in making more informed decisions. So be sure to include well-optimized photos in your SEO strategy for fashion in 2022.
Cross-selling & Upselling is Essential to Increase Overall Sales
Just as cross-selling and up-selling is important in a brick-and-mortar store, it’s also important online. Suggesting items to your shoppers helps them decide and significantly increases your overall sales.
To increase the overall purchase amount, make sure you are cross-selling to your shoppers by offering products that may accompany the original purchase. With clothes, it’s always a good tactic to offer accessories such as jewelry, belts, gloves, shoes, or watches that may match or enhance the look of an outfit. You can also suggest additional purchases by mentioning what other shoppers bought with that purchase. Some catchphrases or headlines to use in cross-selling are “buy the look” or “other shoppers also bought.”
Upselling is suggesting a more expensive item that may also work. For example, if a buyer likes a sweater and there is a more stylish sweater at a higher price, you should display that sweater too. That way it not only gives your shoppers more choice, but it also increases the overall sale. Catchphrases for upselling might be “you might also like,” or “our latest featured item” or “new item.”
These product images can be displayed on the product pages and on the checkout cart page as well. Using these selling tactics helps your shoppers see other products they might not have known about, and it definitely will increase your online sales.
How does it help SEO? It definitely improves your internal linking structure and helps indexing your page.
Meet Customers Where They Are – On Their Mobile
Fashion brands need to adapt to how customers want to shop on their mobile devices—and not expect them to find their site by chance. In fact, 6 out of 10 shoppers say mobile is an important factor in deciding which brands to purchase from, according to a Shopify 2020 e-commerce fashion industry report.
An in-depth analysis of fashion shopping habits globally during the 2019 holiday season showed mobile phones accounted for 67% of traffic to fashion retail sites and 52% of sales revenue, according to a report by Internet Retail. And according to Nosto, large fashion brands win big on mobile, with 76% of their traffic coming from mobile devices while small retailers garner 61% of their traffic from mobile.
So, it behooves your fashion brand to ensure that your mobile app works smoothly and efficiently for shoppers. Make sure your mobile site is optimized to make the conversion process easier and less stressful for shoppers. How to get ready for this SEO trend for fashion in 2022? Remember to:
- make the buyers’ journey easy to understand
- make sure your search function is operating properly
- use larger or colorful buttons that stand out
- compress your images, so they don’t interfere with load time
- use auto-fill where appropriate
- use multiple screens instead of scrolling
- offer guest checkout for shoppers on the run
- make the checkout process as easy as possible
You can also run several applications that will tell you how optimized your mobile website is for shoppers. Google offers a free test, as does Search Engine Reports.
Shopping Made Easy by Google
In recent years, Google has given a huge push to its e-commerce endeavors, integrating it with a core search experience to help shoppers. Some of the most notable efforts include developing a Shopping Graph that uses AI to track users shopping prefaces to help display more relevant search results; showcasing deals on Google’s shopping tab; allowing merchants to list their products for free by creating a unique URL on Google’s deals pages and creating a Google SERP feature called Affordable Picks Carousel that displays retailers’ inexpensive items. Getting familiar with and the use of these features along with an effective SEO strategy will significantly increase your rankings on Google in 2022.
Google’s Shopping Graph
To display more tailored search results for shoppers, the Shopping Graph combines AI with information from websites, prices, reviews, videos, and product data supplied from brands and retailers. When displaying results, the AI-enhanced feature considers the user’s interests and previous shopping behaviors and is designed to show users relevant listings.
The Shopping Graph helps drive traffic directly to your product pages. Although there is a paid optional advertising feature, it costs nothing to list your products. It also allows shoppers to identify products that they may be interested in. It’s important here to use an SEO strategy by including pertinent keywords in the content and product listings as well as the alt text for images supplied to Google. This will also increase your chances of ranking even higher in SERPs. This is one of the most important SEO trends for fashion industry in 2022, so be sure not to skip it!
Google execs say the Shopping Graph works in real-time so people can discover and shop for products that are available right now. This feature is perfect for fashion retailers to showcase their seasonal items and to drive traffic right to those product pages.
Showcase Your Promos & Deals on Google’s Shopping Tab
Last year, Google made it free for merchants to sell on Google. This year, retailers can upload promotions and deals in the Merchant Center. Your deals and promotions will be automatically served to deal-seeking shoppers in the Shopping tab, regardless of whether businesses advertise on Google.
Offers are displayed based on factors such as how popular a product is, the discount itself, and how popular the website is. This Google feature was designed to enhance retailers’ ability to move inventory, increase sales, win new customers and develop brand loyalty during important shopping events and holiday seasons.
Your promotion will appear in the Google Merchant Center as clickable special offers within the shopping ad box in the search results. When clicking on the product promotion, shoppers will be directed to your product page. You can use up to 60 characters of copy to help you stand out and add a “Special offer” button in your ad. You also have 60 extra characters to convince users to visit your site.
As in the Shopping Tab feature, here, it’s also important to include keywords in your product descriptions, and alt text for all images as this increases your visibility in searches. The special offers can either pertain to the specific product showcased in the ad or to your website if you are running a site-wide promotion (usually with a promo code).
Relevant Retail Deals Served up in SERPs
Additionally, and more importantly, your deals uploaded to Google’s Merchant Center will also appear in organic search results, which is a critical factor in increasing your overall page ranking position. So, the use of keywords and alt text on your images for products that you list on Google’s Merchant Center becomes an important factor in showing up in SERPs.
Smaller retailers may especially benefit from this Google feature as previously big retailers have gotten more play in search results. With Google’s attempts to even the playing field, small retailers have a better chance of having their products being displayed in searches, especially if they optimize their product listings.
Products and promotions are ranked based on relevance, the search terms entered, and the shopper’s previous Google activity. If your product data is provided to Google and is relevant for a particular user, it will show up in that user’s search. As stated earlier, the use of SEO, such as keywords in product descriptions, will significantly increase your chances of showing up higher in SERPs.
Affordable Picks Carousel
To appease price-conscious shoppers, earlier this year, Google added the affordable picks carousel to help shoppers find lower-cost items. Google displays the carousel, which is a row of images across the top of the SERPs that matches on a keyword phrase that may include the word “cheap.” The carousel shows up to 20 results that match the search parameters of the querent.
This added feature gives a chance for local or smaller businesses to appear in the first position on more searches. To increase your chances of appearing in the carousel, make sure your images are high resolution, and your image alt text includes keywords. Additionally, encourage satisfied customers to give your business a Google review as research has shown that positive reviews play a significant role in carousel placement. If you own a small business this SEO trend for fashion in 2022 is perfect for you, so don’t forget to get ready for it!
Content is Still Important but the Search Intent is a King
Quality keyword-optimized content that is targeted to your core audience will still be relevant as a part ofSEO for Fashion industry strategy in 2022. Content helps to position your brand as a trendsetter or authority in the fashion industry—the best way to do this is to create pertinent and catchy content that converts and that your shoppers can identify with.
Content Optimization and Search Intent in Fashion Industry SEO 2022
An SEO-optimized content strategy is important because Google continuously tightens its guidelines around serving quality, authoritative and trustworthy content that answers a querents intent. This is nothing new, but if you’re not investing the time and effort needed to create high-quality content, you will see an organic decline in SERPs. This content requirement will continue in 2022 and beyond.
It’s also important to note that content will perform well as long as it responds to the query intent, not the keywords themselves. Search intent becomes a crucial factor that Google addressed during the November 2021 algorithm update. So, it’s important to know what your target audience is searching for in fashion and what search terms they are using.
Tailor your content to what your audience is searching for, such as current fashion trends, perhaps the current color that is popular such as “grey is the new black,” etc. Talk about a new line of clothing your brand is introducing or how a certain brand of tights is selling like hotcakes. Make your copy pop by addressing what your shoppers are currently searching for this season. And be sure to include colorful images throughout that are optimized. As mentioned earlier, images draw more traffic and can help to rank your business higher in SERPs.
Note: Search intent becomes so crucial for modern SEO strategies that it influences SEO tools to update their offer. For example, SEMrush already added keyword intent analysis to their tool, and others are likely to follow this path.
Additionally, include a variety of content to perform well. Your blog is where you can really demonstrate your expertise and authority to Google as well as your shoppers. It would help if you had a 2022 content plan ready to provide in-depth, long-form content around your products each week to stand the best chances at b organic growth.
User Generated Content Gaining on Importance
Speaking of new content trends to follow in SEO for the fashion industry in 2022 it’s worth mentioning the increasing importance of user generated content. The content provided by shops’ users becomes an important factor for evaluating the site’s value as two of 2021’s Google algorithm updates (in April and December) aimed at product reviews.
It’s clear that social proof can influence fashion e-commerce SEO efforts even more since Google focused on reviews in its updates. With this in mind, it’s advisable to provide users the possibility to review products on the website and make the process well-designed to improve the user experience. Definitely, a point to add to your fashion industry SEO to-do list in 2022.
Google’s EAT Principle is Still Important in Rankings
Google hasn’t let go of its EAT principle, and in 2022 it’s even more important with more online businesses competing for shoppers’ attention. It’s important to remember the EAT concept while increasing the quality of your content for SEO purposes. EAT that stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness affects all website content. Google uses EAT to determine whether a web page provides excellent content that answers the querent’s questions. So, make sure your content has the most up-to-date and pertinent information for your customers as well as for Google ranking purposes. They really are one and the same as far as Google is concerned.
In order to write copy geared towards shoppers’ wants and desires, creating and revisiting your buyer persona is critical to ensuring that you are providing high-quality, authoritative content. With the use of a buyer persona, you can better understand what kind of content your buyers want. That becomes critical in an effective SEO strategy and selecting pertinent keywords. Personas can help create content that entices and holds your shopper’s attention and encourages them to buy your products or see your brand as an authority in the fashion industry.
Additionally, to show authority and trustworthiness, make sure you include facts and figures, and if appropriate, a link to credible sources. Authoritative links are a great way to meet all of the EAT principle’s criteria.
Remember, content that meets Google’s EAT principle will rank higher.
SEO Trends for the Fashion Industry in 2022 – The Takeaway
In 2022, to significantly increase your fashion brand’s visibility online and drive sales, it’s important to
- Add live shopping to increase sales
- Use high-resolution optimized imagery with pertinent keywords in alt text
- Institute a cross-selling and upselling strategy
- Consider mobile searches in your SEO strategy
- Utilize Google’s latest shopping features
- Create high-quality content using the EAT principle
Overall, all these tactics respond to what shoppers truly want – an interactive experience that helps them make better decisions on purchases. The more you adapt your SEO strategy to your buyer persona coupled with the use of Google’s latest shopping features, the better your chances of increasing your traffic and your sales. Choose those SEO trends for fashion in 2022 that best suit your need and don’t be afraid to combine them! This will help you achieve even better results.
