SEOUKFashion discovery siteLarge website

A UK fashion discovery platform grew its visits from Google by 50% in three months.

A fashion site for UK women, with hundreds of thousands of products, had to compete with the big online stores Google usually prefers. We rebuilt how its pages are set up, and visits from Google grew 50% in three months.

+50%
more visitors from Google
Within three months
100,000s
of product pages
Set up again from the ground up
3
sections tuned separately
Categories, brands and blog
The short version

Where they started, what we did, where they are now

1Before

Up against the big stores

The fashion platform points shoppers to products in other shops, and Google usually prefers to show the shops themselves.

2What we did

Rebuilt the pages from the ground up

Technical fixes so Google could read the whole site, the right page for each search, and a new layout for product pages.

3Now

Half as many visitors again

Visits from Google grew 50% in three months, mostly to categories and products.

The full story

UK Fashion Discovery Platform, in plain words

The client is a fashion discovery site launched over a decade ago. It helps shoppers find products they will love, and sends alerts when items go on sale or come back in stock. It was made for busy, fashion-minded women in the UK, so the quality of its visitors mattered as much as the number.

Its problem was a tough one. The fashion platform shows products but does not sell them directly, and Google generally prefers to rank shops over sites like it. With hundreds of thousands of products, and thousands more added each day, small technical faults could hide a lot of pages.

We checked the whole site, picked the best searches, and gave each section its own plan. We also rebuilt the product page layout from the ground up. Within three months, visits from Google grew by 50%, and the new app Wantlist was welcomed by a bigger audience.

The problem

What made this hard

1

More visitors, but the right ones

The site targeted UK women who like fashion, so quality of traffic mattered as much as quantity.

2

Good rankings, not top rankings

It ranked decently for many searches, but most clicks go to the top results.

3

Not a shop

The fashion platform did not sell products itself, yet many people searching for them wanted to buy.

4

Facing the big stores

To grow, it had to take space from large online shops, which Google generally prefers.

The result

Visitors from Google: up 50%

Screenshot from the client’s own Google Analytics.

Google Analytics organic traffic for the fashion platform
Every result, at a glance

What it brought

+50% visits

Within three months, visits from Google grew by 50%.

Gains across the site

Every section grew, and categories and products brought the most new visits.

Better rankings for specific searches

The rise came from better positions for mid-length and very specific searches we aimed at.

A stronger launch

The larger audience helped new products do better, including the Wantlist app.

How we did it

Four steps that made the difference

Made sure Google could read every page

Duplicate pages, security address issues, breadcrumbs, page order and web addresses fixed.Like making sure every aisle of a huge shop is open.

Chose the right searches

The best keywords picked from thousands of options, each with the right page to rank.Be found for what shoppers actually type.

Tuned each section

Separate plans for categories, brands and the blog.Each part of the shop has its own customers.

Rebuilt the product pages

A new structure and content layout for hundreds of thousands of products, with a plan the client’s team could run as new ones were added.A system that works for every new product, automatically.

Everything we did

  • Ran a detailed technical check so Google could find every important page
  • Fixed duplicate web addresses and security address errors
  • Improved breadcrumbs (The trail of links showing where you are) and page order
  • Cleaned up the web address structure
  • Picked the best searches from thousands of options
  • Chose the right page to rank for each search
  • Gave separate advice for categories, brands and the blog
  • Rebuilt the product page layout and content from the ground up
  • Helped their IT team set up a plan that works for new products automatically
Why it worked

What other business owners can take from this

Fix the system, not each page

A new layout for product pages worked for the whole catalogue, including new products added later.

Different parts need different plans

Categories, brands and the blog each have their own customers and their own search needs.

Be found for what people actually type

Choosing the right searches, and the right page for each, matters more than chasing everything.

What this means for your business

The bigger the website, the more a small technical problem costs you. Fix it once, and every page benefits.

This is the same work we do for businesses in Australia, the UK, the US, the Middle East and Asia, for small companies as well as big names.

  • Every page readable by Google and AI
  • The right page for every search
  • More visitors to your categories and products
  • A clear report every month on what we did and what it brought

Is a big website holding you back?

Our free SEO & AI SEO audit shows where you appear on Google and in AI answers today, who shows up instead, and what to fix first.

Get a free SEO & AI SEO auditNo obligation. Results in plain English.
The detail

About this case study

Who is the client?

A fashion discovery site launched over a decade ago that helps shoppers find products they’ll love and sends sale and back-in-stock alerts.

How we measured (for the detail-minded)
  • Numbers from the client’s own Google Analytics at the time. This case study was first published in January 2017.