Visibility Leaders in Women’s Fashion – SEO Content that Works!

From millions of domains and directories analysed, our fourth Visibility Leaders report has found over 80 content projects that Google loves across the women’s fashion sector. This list of leaders will help you identify and optimise your own content opportunities. Here’s an overview of our findings, trends and links to more detailed research and data.

We start by celebrating the four winners across Do and Know categories of content intent.

boohoo.com

Visibility Leader
“Do” (large)

Page 1 ratio:65%
Monthly clicks51.5k
Content VI1.31

bravissimo.com

Visibility Leader
“Do” (small)

Page 1 ratio:86%
Monthly clicks40.6k
Content VI0.19

realsimple.com

Visibility Leader
“Know” (large)

Page 1 ratio:21%
Monthly clicks64.1k
Content VI1.51

vogue.com

Visibility Leader
“Know” (small)

Page 1 ratio:44%
Monthly clicks7.5k
Content VI0.9
  • Ratio – the percentage of ranking keywords that are on page 1 of the SERP as measured in August 2023.
  • Monthly clicks – as estimated using SISTRIX CTR model. (Sept 2023)
  • Content VI – the Visibility Index, or footprint size, of the content directory. (Sept 2023)

The complete set of high-performance directories has been published here.

Women’s Fashion – huge traffic, short funnel

The key finding from our research: With an average 4.7 million searches per month for a core of 927 keywords, this is a very active segment with a huge ‘Do’ intent. There are few info, or know-intent SERPs in the core of the keyword set but trends do appear with more informative SERPs towards the longer tail. Clearly, this is a trend-led business but trends can be quick, created by PR or news, and may not appear immediately in search keyword databases. Brands obviously pay an important part in this sector.

Traffic for the keyword set (linked below) peaks in October and November with over 6 million searches per month.

Traffic for the sector peaks in October and November with over 6 million searches per month. UK data.

The top 5 searches in women’s fashion

For this study we harvested and curated 5896 search terms, refined these down to 927 by removing irrelevant search terms, brands and locations, and identified the following top 5 searches:

  1. dresses
  2. bikini
  3. lingerie
  4. jeans
  5. dress

Boots is actually the #1 fashion item search term but it has a website / brand intent in the UK making it difficult to rank.

The best women’s fashion URLs

Across the keyword sets we found the most visible ‘do’ URLs:

  • www.next.co.uk/shop/gender-women-productaffiliation-coatsandjackets-0
  • www.newlook.com/uk/womens/clothing/coats-jackets/c/uk-womens-clothing-jackets-coats
  • www.marksandspencer.com/l/women/swimwear

Top women’s fashion domains

By processing and weighting the rankings and search volumes for 927 curated fashion keywords we reach a visibility index for each domain.

Here are the overall top 5 retail domains for women’s fashion

  • newlook.com
  • next.com
  • marksandspencer.com
  • asos.com
  • boohoo.com

All of the top five are multi-brand retailers. Here are the top 5 D2C domains for women’s fashion

  • pourmoi.co.uk
  • roman.co.uk
  • clarks.com (was clarks.co.uk)
  • gymshark.com
  • dunelondon.com

What is very clear from our core list of is that very few informational domains have any visibility at all. Only by harvesting a specific set of informational queries can we find informational sites.

  • instyle.com
  • youtube.com
  • wikihow.com

The search volume for these informational searches is relatively low but there could be a good reason for that. See below.

General news media domains for women’s fashion

  • nbcnews.com
  • theguardian.com
  • independent.co.uk

News, PR and real trends in the world of women’s fashion

It says it in the heading above – fashion; the sector deals in highly trend-focused terms and it doesn’t take too much research into the industry to find that some trends are, in fact, attempts to seed a trend. The portmanteaus of mankini, monokini, tankini, jeggings, jorts, coatigan, shacket are recent editions to the English language. Some words stand the test of time, others don’t. The point here is that you won’t find new fashion trends in an SEO keyword database until they mature into real trends.

The informational searches, according to separate trend data used for this report, appear to be occurring in this new terms space. Read more about the trends later in this report.

Non-retail fashion domains (browse only)

The key example here is Primark who are on the record as saying that they are not going to offer their products online. A new website was launched in late 2022 and it included in-store availability information but the evidence in the data since then shows that, while there was a boost, it hasn’t changed the long-term visibility of the website which is now back to 2019 levels of visibility.

With so much ‘do’ focus in the sector, it’s hardly surprising. The domain primark.com remains a small, fan-focused website.

Primark website visibility
Primark website visibility compared to Next

Compared to the Next website, Primark has what looks like a pop-up shop in the huge Google high-street.

Women’s Fashion Trends

Using a separate data-set we’re able to find trends in the sector. These aren’t last-weeks breaking news trends, but the data could be valuable for landing-page creation, informational content focus and competitor analysis.

  • demin tears (brand)
  • baggu (brand)
  • barbie outfits
  • body suit women
  • tween girls clothing

You can find out more about these trends by viewing the special TrendWatch – Women’s Fashion report.

Additionally, here are some newer, potential trends that have been found in data from April 2024. These haven’t been cross-checked or researched.

ugg mini boots, sparkly skirt, ami jumper, ami paris sweater, basic pleasure mode, black ralph lauren tracksuit, blakely hoodie, blakely jumper, branded fashion, jack willis slippers, leopard jeans, leopard print jeans, lingerie near me, new balance black, nike miller jacket, ralph lauren sweater, represent hoodie, sparkly skirt, ugg mini boots.

Trend development for the term, sparkly shoes

An additional search marketing report can be found on the sub-sector of women’s sport shoes.

High occurrence of words in search terms

Here are the highest occurring words in the data-set, which gives a different perspective on what’s searched the most in the sector.

  • boots
  • coat
  • black
  • jacket
  • for
  • size
  • winter
  • leather
  • sale
  • shoes

(Ignoring simple numbers, multiples and the obvious terms womens, women and ladies.)

Other interesting terms

  • day drinking outfits (12246 ASVPM across 97 keywords)
  • nude blazer (cream blazer, white cropped blazer, nude jacket, nude cropped blazer…)
  • red laces for hiking boots (200 ASVPM)
  • fall [coats, jackets] (US terms in UK search)

ASVPM = Average search volume per month

Top 100 domains in women’s fashion

Here’s a list of 20 domains leading in visibility for the ‘know’ keyword bucket:

Visibility Leaders Top 100 domains in Women's Fashion. Study: SISTRIX Visibility Leaders Women's Fashion 2024
DomainProject Visibility IndexKeywords from list in Top 10
newlook.com775.48548
next.co.uk765.04644
marksandspencer.com599.38497
asos.com591.7521
boohoo.com476.44483
hm.com451.98408
amazon.co.uk412.94394
johnlewis.com257.68300
sainsburys.co.uk141.79147
prettylittlething.com139.96129
matalan.co.uk113.84127
very.co.uk111.25126
zara.com110.25115
bouxavenue.com108.0589
clarks.com9874
riverisland.com95.7690
debenhams.com86.97103
asda.com82.6493
houseoffraser.co.uk76.4293
sportsdirect.com75.0677
pourmoi.co.uk71.464
schuh.co.uk63.5754
office.co.uk52.4557
roman.co.uk51.8658
dunelondon.com45.2943
ebay.co.uk45.1545
gymshark.com43.4732
quizclothing.co.uk41.1542
swimwear365.co.uk38.4245
speedo.com36.4937
tog24.com34.8140
tkmaxx.com34.6138
hawesandcurtis.co.uk33.929
frenchconnection.com33.4738
simplyswim.com32.1332
pavers.co.uk30.6728
lovall.com30.4930
clubllondon.com30.2228
jonesbootmaker.com29.2333
isawitfirst.com28.831
blakelyclothing.com27.7827
crewclothing.co.uk27.229
boden.co.uk26.325
dorothyperkins.com25.8731
billabong.co.uk25.7426
gap.co.uk25.2227
shoezone.com24.8722
na-kd.com24.8127
etsy.com24.2223
jackwills.com24.1525
pullandbear.com23.5724
silkfred.com22.9515
monsoon.co.uk22.8522
damart.co.uk22.7620
bonmarche.co.uk22.4919
ohpolly.com21.7219
oneill.com21.5922
saltrock.com21.3324
thenorthface.co.uk21.2922
primark.com20.9420
bluebella.com20.9119
pinkboutique.co.uk20.9123
hunkemoller.co.uk20.322
bonprix.co.uk19.5820
inthestyle.com19.5713
bravissimo.com19.4122
cyberjammies.com19.0419
landsend.co.uk18.9419
uniqlo.com18.8216
ego.co.uk18.2720
lounge.com17.9220
apricotonline.co.uk16.9919
nastygal.com16.6418
sweatybetty.com16.6116
yoursclothing.co.uk16.5612
jdsports.co.uk16.3221
zoggs.com15.5521
selfridges.com14.969
calvinklein.co.uk14.7313
peacocks.co.uk14.7215
roxy-uk.co.uk14.5114
simplybeach.com14.4715
oxfordshirt.co.uk14.4115
mandco.com14.0713
boandtee.com13.9114
cottontraders.com13.8811
phase-eight.com13.812
lululemon.co.uk13.7811
kurtgeiger.com13.6816
hushpuppies.co.uk13.5515
playfulpromises.com13.512
laredoute.co.uk13.3216
victoriassecret.co.uk12.7713
wikipedia.org12.7212
whistles.com12.4813
vogue.co.uk12.419
superdry.com12.1910
motelrocks.com11.9412
missguided.co.uk11.8813

Top 100 domains for informational searches

As mentioned above, we harvested a separate know-focused list of searches for this list. The search volume for this list of keywords is two orders of magnitude smaller than for the main keyword set. High activity around very new trends might have also had an effect on this keyword set. The 20 domains

Visibility Leaders Top 100 informational domains. Study: SISTRIX Visibility Leaders Women's Fashion 2024
DomainProject Visibility IndexList keywords in Top 10
instyle.com342.38158
youtube.com292.1569
wikihow.com275132
pinterest.com236.38123
womanandhome.com221.6895
vogue.co.uk204.492
whowhatwear.com182.4285
wikipedia.org163.2554
reddit.com143.0577
harpersbazaar.com123.2951
masterclass.com91.1541
cosmopolitan.com84.6841
glamourmagazine.co.uk7336
bhg.com71.1433
goodhousekeeping.com68.333
vogue.com64.7927
nordstrom.com60.6718
stylerises.com59.6621
hellomagazine.com58.0826
thespruce.com58.0627
quora.com54.928
realsimple.com51.7123
amazon.co.uk49.7222
pinterest.co.uk45.624
purewow.com45.2321
howstuffworks.com42.7724
bosch-home.co.uk42.610
elle.com41.8618
instagram.com39.4614
nbcnews.com38.8216
silkfred.com38.6813
johnlewis.com37.8117
familybritches.com37.2210
fandom.com34.549
anindigoday.com34.1713
newlook.com33.6211
matalan.co.uk33.478
trilogystores.co.uk31.319
theguardian.com31.1715
stylecraze.com30.6218
nike.com30.498
na-kd.com29.411
refinery29.com28.913
levi.com28.298
independent.co.uk28.213
metmuseum.org26.7413
gq-magazine.co.uk26.1610
hellolaundry.co.uk25.7110
jesskeys.com25.4212
forbes.com25.2114
invalid.domain25.2241
vanish.co.uk25.1511
marthastewart.com25.0511
nytimes.com24.6311
merricksart.com24.5514
glamour.com24.3310
byrdie.com23.8312
prima.co.uk23.6210
graziadaily.co.uk23.5111
clarks.com22.969
whirlpool.com22.657
lovetoknow.com22.6112
love2laundry.com22.3210
businessinsider.com22.219
oliverbonas.com22.116
next.co.uk21.9210
helloglow.co21.8613
nymag.com21.269
popsugar.com21.069
rd.com21.0211
imdb.com20.5210
townandcountrymag.com20.299
brides.com20.299
homesandgardens.com20.1911
stylight.co.uk19.728
marieclaire.com19.719
tiktok.com19.569
theeverygirl.com19.5511
gabriellearruda.com19.18
no7beauty.co.uk18.328
marieclaire.com.au18.069
people.com17.257
lookastic.com16.999
britannica.com16.877
widefitshoes.co.uk16.444
stylist.co.uk16.018
gq.com15.738
ties.com15.729
aarp.org15.698
headcovers.com158
lookiero.co.uk14.97
yahoo.com14.836
lavenderhillclothing.com14.396
thegoodtrade.com14.385
today.com14.284
neon-star.com14.167
bravissimo.com14.033
etsy.com13.967
stylecaster.com13.97
asos.com13.898

We use the list of top domains to pick high performance content directories from a list of over 52000 directories that were identified in a separate process. Two data journalists check and curate the list and add it to the list of high performance content directories.

Leading content analysis – what makes them successful?

The full analysis is available in a separate report. Here are some of the key findings:

  • Category coverage is absolutely key for eCommerce
  • Adaptability to new trends and opportunities
  • Categories based on an aesthetic and not just product type
  • Customer service in eCommerce
  • Informational gap on retail sites

Presentation Video and Slides

Further reports and analysis

The Visibility Leaders project is about creating a resource for SEOs and Content Marketeers. Final, curated data can be found in the free, searchable resource and in this issue, covering retail, we’ve added over 80 examples to the list and removed some directories that are no longer present,

Three experts (and many others in the background) have put months of work into analysing and surfacing additional data. Those detailed reports are linked below.

Do your own analysis. Find leading competitors

Our data engineers have processed billions of data points to bring you the leading content directories, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some research for your own sector. Our SISTRIX Academy for Competitor Research shows exactly how to create lists of keywords, find leading domains and then analyse them for visibility leaders. New features such as 5-year search trend and clustering will help you make decisions about priorities in your content projects.

Methodology and source data

We’re always transparent about where our data comes from. We don’t synthesise anything, we just take ‘what Google says’ and present it in ways that help SEOs, for all domains.

In this research we used our core SEO data archives and searched many millions of site directories for those which perform well in search. We call these content directories High Performance Content Formats (HPCF) and you can read more about HPCF here.

After analysing the directories we ended up with over 50,000 candidates directories, across all domains, all content types and all sectors. (UK.)

In order to filter those down to relevant B2C examples, we used a ‘baskets’ of keywords. The keywords were sourced from SISTRIX databases and filtered using our keyword list features. The list was also curated by hand to remove any obvious errors and outliers. The list of 927 keyword is available here.

Through the SISTRIX list competitors feature the SERPs were analysed for top domains. These domains were then used as an initial pick-list. Only one HPCF directory was picked for each of the domains and each was checked by hand.

The final list of directories was tagged with intent and sector and, once again, hand curated to remove errors and sites which are not relevant as ‘blueprints.’ For example, marketplaces driven by user-generated content, wikis (also UGC), support pages from brand owners and sites where there’s really only one ‘owner’ of the content, such as government citizens advice sites and government law sites.

All data is available in Google Sheets. Feel free to take a copy for your own use.