In the competitive world of bridal boutiques, your breathtaking collection of dresses is just the start. As a brick-and-mortar store, an e-commerce site, or both, you’re faced with a unique challenge (and opportunity): how to show up in front of your perfect-fit brides, wherever they are.
SEO (search engine optimization) is the not-so-secret solution, but while the idea of SEO is easy to grasp — its implementation, the way it will actually help you attract new brides and grooms to your bridal boutique, on the other hand, is shrouded in mysteries and technical jargon.
Instead of forcing you to comb through every blog post, course, and resource to find what your looking for, I’ve compiled a list of all the Bridal Store SEO essentials
What’s Different About SEO for Bridal Stores?
When marketing your bridal store online, you have to consider your bride’s location and style and connect with brides at a very specific point in their wedding planning process. You have to match the intent of their searches when they’re ready to buy and bring awareness to your shop before they even get engaged.
Many in the wedding industry — florists, planners, photographers, and venues — have a very niche audience because weddings are a very significant, often singular, event in someone’s life.
Add to this being niched even further with specific interests, styles, and price points of your boutique (and brides), and you’ll have the carefully balanced ‘box’ that is bridal store SEO.
How to Get Started With SEO: 4 Key Areas to Focus on to Attract More Brides
If you’re thinking about starting to implement an SEO strategy for your bridal boutique, you should focus on a few areas of SEO — some of which may surprise you!
Here are four SEO strategies that you should consider starting with to get the most visibility (and attract more brides to your business):
#1. Local SEO
One of the first searches a bride makes is for “wedding dresses near me” or “bridal stores near me” and the way you show up is by focusing on your local SEO. You’ll want to ensure your Google My Business profile is set-up and up to date with your store’s current location, hours, and contact information.
Encourage past brides that have already said “yes to the dress” to leave reviews to establish trust with potential new brides — and Google!
#2. PR and Marketing
A strong PR and social media presence can give a boost to your SEO efforts — collaborate with local wedding professionals to build backlinks to your website (think podcast episodes, blog posts linking back to your website, and tagging your accounts on socials).
Getting featured in bridal blogs, online magazines, and directories are also great ways to build authority and drive more traffic to your store (if you want the technical term, this is considered off-page SEO).
#3. Optimize Your Images
You’ve already noticed how impactful high-quality images of your dresses, accessories, and shop are — now, you’ll take it a step further by adding metadata on your website. Metadata, or, more specifically, image alt descriptions, help optimize your images for SEO.
Image alt descriptions are used to describe the image in your backend, making it more accessible for users and for search engines.
You’ll want to thoroughly describe your dresses in your alt descriptions for a better chance of showing up in the right place in search results. Mention details such as the color or shade, material, dress style and shape, and designer.
#4. Focus on Your Foundation
If your main pages — technically, your entire website — are not optimized for SEO, this should be where you start. Your website’s foundation needs to be optimized for your primary keywords (the searches you really want to show up for) and user-friendly to engage with potential brides.
This means making sure your site loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, and has an easy-to-navigate structure. Without a solid foundation, even the best SEO strategy will struggle to bring in long-term results.
How to Find the Right Keywords (with Examples)
I’ve mentioned keywords a few times here and there, but how do you actually find said keywords? It all comes down to your keyword research — and how much you understand your brides.
Keyword research works best when you use an SEO tool, I recommend Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest, it comes with three free searches per day (which is perfect when you’re just starting out).
Now, think of what a bride what type into Google when searching for her dream dress? Try and think of a long-tail keyword, these will be easier for you to rank for. For example, think of searches like “best bridal stores in [your city]” or “luxury wedding dresses for modern brides.”
Keywords should be used throughout your website’s copy, content, and metadata for the best results! Remember, only use a keyword on ONE page of your website or it’ll lead to keyword cannibalization (you’ll be competing with yourself to rank).
How to Track Your SEO Success and What to Do If You’re Not Seeing Growth
Once you start spending time improving your SEO, you’ll want to start tracking your results (and see if your efforts are actually paying off). Thankfully, Google offers a few free tools you can sign-up for to track your website traffic and how you’re ranking in Google Search:
The best way to learn how to navigate these platforms and check your results is to spend some time exploring. If you need any help checking your page ranking, I have a quick guide you can reference here.
Once you get comfortable reading and interpreting your analytics, check regularly to see how your website is performing. If you’re not seeing any growth, it may be time to consult with an expert for a full website SEO health check or audit to see (and fix) any underlying issues that may be impacting your performance.
And, remember, SEO success doesn’t happen overnight — but it does pay off with persistence!
About Âme Creatives
I’m Kelli, an SEO Strategist & Showit Web Designer — I’m on a mission to help female entrepreneurs (like you) have a purpose-driven, strategically optimized website that helps you be SEEN, HEARD, and PAID. It’s about more than just pretty websites, keywords and first-page status; it’s about giving your brand the spotlight it deserves by bringing in your ideal audience organically. Ready to take the next step? Send me a message!
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