The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO - The secrets behind ASOS' dominance of online fashion
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The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO
The secrets behind ASOS’ dominance of online fashion
July 2014
www.onehydra.com
Executive Summary
Online fashion has been dominated by one Amazon and eBay actually have more terms
key player for the past few years - ASOS. ranking in the top 20 as their websites cater
In order to understand how the e-tailer for better product searches. The good news for fashion
achieved such phenomenal success we retailers is that ASOS hasn’t
analysed the fashion keyword universe before ASOS has competitors when it comes to
stolen the “Holy Grail of
analysing ASOS’ website against what Google online visibility. Debenhams is edging closer
Fashion”; it simply is a
really wants: accessible and relevant websites to ASOS (59% and 46% respectively). Google
good website and has a
that have an excellent and meaningful wants only a few things & ASOS serves them
fantastic integrated online
information architecture, that offer great right up!
marketing strategy. Its
content and an even better user-experience focus is in the right areas
From a technical and accessibility point of
in a way that compels other websites to link and SEO is in its DNA.
view, their website is one of the best.
and endorse them.
ASOS doesn’t only create great fashion
The size of the prize is enormous:
content, but also lots of it.
Over 16.1 million searches per month and a
vast keyword set containing 53k high street Simple steps to improve your website success:
fashion terms.
1 Pick your battles – a clear target strategy
is essential
Consumers start their research journey with
the most generic terms such as ‘dresses’,
2 Get the basics right – technical SEO in
before narrowing it down to a particular
your DNA
style or brand search term.
3 Engage
with your customers – create lots
Big players are monopolising head terms
of great content for your audience
such as ‘jackets’ and ‘dresses’. If you’re not
one of the bigger players, you will certainly
find a niche in this vast keyword set that is
worth claiming and penetrating. There is life
after ASOS domination
2 The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO
The Holy Grail
of Fashion SEO
If you are searching for the Holy Grail of Fashion SEO, you’ll
probably look to the big player: ASOS. ASOS is to fashion,
what Moneysupermarket is to finance terms, what Amazon
is for most generic terms and what Wikipedia is for simply
all terms you can possibly think of.
So how has ASOS managed to become the most successful fashion e-tailer of our time in
just a few short years?
To help us understand how it achieved such phenomenal success, it’s necessary to
understand what really Google wants, which is simply: accessible and relevant websites
that have an excellent and meaningful information architecture, that offer great content
and an even better user-experience in a way that compels other websites to link and
endorse them.
ASOS’s advantage is that it is built for Search rather than it being a retrospective change
(and shock) to the system. ASOS is and always has been very flexible and evolves with
Google when other websites dwell on agile IT, content marketing, social link building and
keyword density. But that doesn’t mean that you should give up – quite the opposite. The
example of ASOS should be inspiring and show you how far you can go with the right
strategy. In this white paper we explain why every little percentage of the market share is
worth fighting for and what you can do to start claiming more.
The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO 3The Fashion Keyword Universe
– What is the size of the prize?
Figure 1: 53k fashion related search terms categorised and in OneHydra’s 30,000ft view (exact match, Google UK, Source: OneHydra)
If over 16.1 million searches per month¹ doesn’t get you excited as an online marketer, I am
not sure what will! The search volumes for fashion keywords are constantly rising and the
industry is not only one of the biggest but also the most diverse search landscape out there
with new styles, colours and trends every month.
In a nutshell, you really have to start looking at the bigger picture.
We have created the “30,000ft view” of your world using our data
integration and analysis software, www.onehydra.com.
How to look at this ‘tagmap’ is fairly easy: the bigger the box, the bigger
the monthly exact match search volume in Google² UK. It comes as no
surprise that over 80% of the demand is for women’s clothing-related
terms whereas less than 20% is for men’s clothing. It is little wonder
that men don’t shop online (or offline) for clothes because they can
never find what they are looking for. It’s either hidden in a corner of a
retail shop or on the 3rd results page in Google (and whatever it is you
wanted you certainly won’t bother looking for it there!)
¹Source: OneHydra
²Up to 80% of not gender specific search terms return women’s results
4 The Holy Grail of Fashion SEOFigure 2: Volume for 53k fashion keywords from June 2012 to June 2014 (exact match, Google UK, Source: OneHydra)
The investigated keyword set contains over 53k
high street fashion terms with a monthly volume
of 16.1m searches in the last 30 days (from 1
June 2014 – 30 June 2014) and it is constantly
rising with a massive peak in the festive season
(+30% volume increase).
If you have a similar range of products to ASOS, this is exactly what you
should be aiming for. Over 50% of the volumes for women’s fashion
are attributed to clothing terms (41% dresses, 17% coats & jackets, 10%
swim and beachwear, 10% sportswear) whereas 37% are shoes related³.
But if you are not one of the bigger players, this keyword set is equally
encouraging because you will certainly find a niche that is worth claiming
and penetrating.
The most significant characteristic of search demand for fashion is that
consumers are starting their research journey with the most generic terms
such as ‘dresses’, before narrowing it down to a particular style or brand
search term.
Rankings for the big generics is almost a credibility factor in the eyes of the
consumer, who is looking for advice or a confirmation of choice. Whereas
‘dresses’ and ‘shoes’ were previously sneered at as overrated vanity terms,
they are now serious contenders for the top traffic drivers. And this is
exactly ASOS’s strategy. It simply monopolises these head terms!
The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO 5Does ASOS have any competition at all?
# Brand Ranking URLs Visibility % After all, the air starts to become
1 ASOS 32,568 59%
thinner at the top of the fashion league
2 Debenhams 32,029 46%
– but it’s not quite time yet for ASOS to
3 Next 33,446 38%
dress a little warmer.
4 New Look 21,329 31%
The table in figure 3 shows the visibility score
5 House of Fraser 22,476 27% based on the obtained rank for the 53,000 fashion
6 Amazon 43,560 25% keywords as well as the number of ranking URLs
in Google UK. Even though ASOS dominates the
7 BooHoo 10,726 20%
SERPs⁴ for ranks, eBay and Amazon actually have
8 River Island 19,310 20% more terms ranking in the top 20, as their websites
9 eBay 43,083 18% cater better for product searches (whereas
the other websites are obviously targeting the
10 Very.co.uk 15,443 17%
previously mentioned vanity terms). ASOS’s
11 ShopStyle 27,684 17%
objective over the past few years has been clear:
12 John Lewis 20,554 17% go out and target the big terms and don’t lose
time with smaller keywords.
13 TopShop 6,320 11%
14 MissGuided 5,968 11% ASOS does have competitors when it comes
15 Marks & Spencer 13,421 9% to online visibility – but it used to not be so.
Debenhams is creeping up on ASOS and whilst
16 SportsDirect 5,907 9%
arguably it is a different business in terms of
17 Matalan 10,591 8%
organisational set up, Debenhams is edging closer
18 Dorothy Perkins 5,478 8% to ASOS now. Is Debenhams a real threat to ASOS
19 Polyvore 12,475 7% though? Not yet, but it shows that there is life after
the ASOS domination.
20 Lipsy 2,484 6%
Figure 3: Leading websites by SEO visibility for 53k fashion keywords ⁴Search Engine Results Pages (here Google UK)
(Source: OneHydra)
6 The Holy Grail of Fashion SEOWhat is ASOS doing right?
Google wants only a few things & ASOS serves
Overall SEO Health
All on-page factors, by score them right up!
100% We know that ASOS is dominating the search landscape and we
90%
know that they are brilliant when it comes to links. This is not new,
80%
70%
N/A
but is that really the only reason? To check, we looked at ASOS’s
5 (Great)
60%
4 (Good)
on-page factors and the website’s ability to create and interlink
50%
3 (Average) great content, to engage with visitors and build up a relationship
40%
2 (Poor)
30% with them in order to become returning customers.
1 (Terrible)
20%
10%
Our first point in the beginning of the white paper was that Google
0%
ASOS UK wants accessible and relevant websites that have an excellent and
meaningful information architecture. This is exactly what this first
part of our analysis of ASOS’s UK website looked at including the
navigation, canonical tags, facet search behaviour, duplication,
language handling, geo-targeting, robots meta tags and much more.
The key question is: Has ASOS got the
basics right?
The answer is yes. From a technical and accessibility point of view,
their website is certainly one of the best. We just have to accept
that ASOS has a good website. It could be improved further, but with
Google’s constant changes this is to be expected.
This shows that you can increase your market share by getting the
basics right – and this is one of the key findings from this part of
the analysis.
The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO 7What is ASOS doing right?
Our second point was that Google favours websites that offer great content and user-
experience and have lots of endorsements on the web in a way that compels other websites
to link. Consequently, we looked at content relevancy, thematic depths and the use of
standard content elements such as micro formatting, URLs, metadata etc.
The key question is: Is this an example of ASOS’s
Content SEO Health
Content & Relevancy, by score dominance?
100% The answer again is yes, which means it’s even more significant
90%
than before. ASOS doesn’t only create great fashion content but
80%
70%
N/A also lots of it. And Google loves that of course, because content
5 (Great)
60% has claimed back the throne. The sheer amount of content on the
4 (Good)
50%
3 (Average) website and the cleverly created thematic depths using fashion
40%
30%
2 (Poor)
news is difficult to replicate quickly and easily. This is one of the
1 (Terrible)
20% main reasons why the fashion industry is reigned by ASOS and
10%
maybe rightly so.
0%
ASOS UK
What does this mean for you if you don’t have
the ability to create this content? There are
obvious options for you:
1. You can engage a digital agency to develop content for you.
2. You can use your own resources or hire experienced bloggers or
fashion editors to start creating this content in-house.
No matter what route you decide to take, start with one area of the
website and always remember that the content is not for Google
but for your users and the main objective is to engage with your
audience – your ranking positions will thank you for it!
8 The Holy Grail of Fashion SEOFrom ASAA (As Seen At ASOS) to your Website
You might not want to be the next ASOS and/or believe in SMART goals but if you
want your share of the market, you should. Here are some tips to make your life
easier and your website more successful in a few simple steps.
Current Status Quo: Reduce irrelevant choices such as price or size. Online
shoppers know that they can narrow down their search
Your search performance or SEO performance is only as
once they are on a website. Serve this with an AJAX
good as your last change. If you can’t remember when this
(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) functionality (since
was, you should change this NOW. Ideally convince the
JavaScript can be accessible these days) and don’t waste
business of a dedicated SEO release – this can easily happen
valuable Google bandwidth for nothing. If facet results
with the right business case.
return more than one page and are identical, tidy them up
by using the canonical tag to show Google that there is
1) Pick your battles – a clear target strategy another version of the page. A firm direction often has a
is essential much better result than leaving the decision of where to put
this tag to the developers.
We stated earlier that ranks for ‘dresses’ equals credibility in
the eyes of the consumer, but if you can’t rank for dresses,
don’t waste time on this term just now. Look at search 3) Engage with your customers
volumes, your stock, AOV, click-throughs and where you The fashion industry is amazingly chatty. The amount of
convert best. You can take this data from your Paid Search tweets, Instagram pics and Pinterest pins is overwhelming
campaigns on a keyword level. Then look at your ranks and and can put even the most fearless marketer under pressure.
group all attractive keywords into SEO campaigns. Once you But your customers are talking online and so should you
have these clearly defined, it will be much easier to focus be. Content Marketing is vital and compliments your other
and you won’t get lost in the jungle of 53k keywords. marketing efforts.
2) Get the basics right – Technical SEO in On top of this (yes, Social is not a competitive advantage, it’s
something you need to live and breathe), it is important that
your DNA
you have access to the right influencers.
Once you know your target terms, look at your site. Can
you effectively target them or are they buried in the site? The good news is that ASOS hasn’t stolen the “Holy Grail
Do they have categories and how are these categories, of Fashion”; it simply is a good website and has a fantastic
subcategories, styles, colours and sizes set up? You probably integrated online marketing strategy. Its focus is in the
use a facet menu that enables users and hopefully Google right areas and SEO is in its DNA. We can however learn
to deep-dive into your site. But with this great power, comes a lot from ASOS. There are no secrets and we can only
great responsibility – responsibility to avoid duplication! encourage every fashion website out there to pick the
Your facet menu can be the No.1 culprit for duplication. right battles and to go for it. But please, bear in mind what
Ensure that the same URLs are generated regardless of the Google really wants….
order of the facet selection.
The Holy Grail of Fashion SEO 9About OneHydra OneHydra is an SEO automation platform, that integrates directly with e-commerce sites to deliver on demand insight, recommendations and targeted website change. Based in London, the company uses big data technology and the cloud, to automate the discovery process of the keyword language used by online shoppers, to enable large e-commerce sites to be optimised for millions of search terms. OneHydra’s continuous approach also enables it to dynamically re-optimise to react to trends like seasonal stock changes and market opportunities, resulting in more qualified traffic, higher conversion rates and increased revenue. Customers that already trust OneHydra to drive their SEO performance include Currys, Debenhams, Expedia, Nisbets, River Island and Superdry. For more information Visit: www.onehydra.com Email: info@onehydra.com Call: +(44) 20 3326 1888 OneHydra, The Varnish Works, 3 Bravingtons Walk, Kings Cross, London, N1 9AJ
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