Beauty SEO Tips

Beauty is a multi-billion-dollar industry worth over $445 billion globally, and according to analysts, this will continue to grow faster than ever compared to other industries. Digital marketing has greatly impacted the beauty industry by making it easier to reach customers worldwide through marketing channels and online platforms.  It’s all anyone can blog about, post about or talk about in real life. There are so many influencers, bloggers, and vloggers who are disseminating information. With Google’s first page capturing 95% of all search traffic, beauty brands that neglect SEO risk being invisible online.

The beauty market is incredibly influential in skincare. More and more new beauty brands are popping up because it is a booming industry. Most beauty brands invest a lot of marketing budget on social (especially TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube) as that’s where the bulk of their audience spends time the most in researching skincare, personal care, makeup, fragrances, toiletries, hair care & grooming products, accessories for eyes, face, lips, nails, colour cosmetics and more. With SEO, however, customers will be able to visit your site online for free if you dominate high-volume beauty keywords.

Let’s look at some of the big players in the beauty industry that dominate SEO. Below is the recently released leader board released by PI-Datametrics for the Beauty Industry, showing brands that dominate in Google UK.

Beauty is one of the most competitive industries when it comes to SEO presence. The SERPs are dominated by multi-brand retailers like Boots, Superdrug, legacy brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, fashion magazines like Cosmopolitan, independent disruptors like Beauty Bay and Cult Beauty, and YouTube videos. Before you start building your SEO and content strategy for your beauty brand, it’s essential to understand your audience/buyer personas. This guide is designed to help beauty brands dominate SEO from keyword research to technical, local, and social search strategies.

SEO tips for Beauty Industry websites

So, what’s the objective of this Beauty industry search engine optimisation guide?

• Improve page rankings for beauty terms on major search engines and outrank the fierce competition.
• Show up for your brand name for “beauty term + city” searches in your local area.
• Make some savings from otherwise expensive high CPC beauty search terms. An increase in organic traffic and better rankings would mean increased ROI.

STEP 1: Beauty Keyword Research

Keyword research is the most important step when it comes to eCommerce Beauty SEO. The right keywords shape your entire SEO and content strategy, helping you connect with users actively searching for your products. Your keyword research will depend on the type of beauty website and your target audience. The objective is to optimise for high-volume, high-intent keywords relevant to your audience, who may fall under the following segments:

• Younger age demographics / Millennials
• Ageing population
• Gender-specific – for men, women, or unisex beauty and grooming products
• Environmentally-conscious shoppers
• Cruelty-free, vegan, or 100% organic beauty buyers
• High-end luxury consumers

Beauty keyword research often goes beyond generic terms. Consider:

• Concern-based keywords: e.g. “dryness reducing moisturiser”, “acne treatment for adults”
• Product-specific queries: e.g. “best volumising mascara for long lashes”
• Ingredient-led search terms: e.g. “vitamin C serum for oily skin”
• Lifestyle-aligned phrases: e.g. “vegan lip gloss”, “zero waste soap bar”

Based on the target audience, this step involves identifying the target search terms to feed into your SEO & Brand Content strategy.

Let’s take a look at some of the top-level search trends (Google UK) in the Beauty industry:

• “Make up” related keywords receive around 6.8 million searches per month.
• “Skincare” variations get around 600,000 monthly searches.
• “Beauty” variations generate over 11 million searches monthly.

Below is the 12-month trend for high-volume keywords like skincare, makeup, and beauty. These keywords were sourced using SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner. You may also explore tools such as Ahrefs, Soovle, Ubersuggest, KeywordResearch.io, and Moz Keyword Explorer for deeper insights.

Skin Care SEO Keywords

The term “tropical skincare” has the highest average monthly searches, which peak in December. Click here to view the complete list of Skincare SEO keywords. Please note, I have excluded keywords with an average search volume of less than 100.

Makeup SEO Keywords

The term “makeup” has the highest average monthly searches, which peak in November. Click here to view the complete list of makeup SEO keywords. Please note, I have excluded keywords with an average search volume of less than 500.

Beauty Keywords List

The brand term “Beauty Bay” has the highest average monthly searches, which peak in November. Click here to view the complete list of beauty SEO keywords. Please note, I have excluded keywords with an average search volume of less than 400.

STEP 2: Have a Solid Keyword-Driven Content Strategy

Shoppers are purchasing more beauty products online than ever before, largely because they want to research before making a decision. Let’s not forget the pandemic. 2020 was a crazy year for all of us, and the ripple effects still linger. It accelerated online shopping trends and forced beauty brands to rethink how they connect with customers. Now more than ever, it’s essential to create content that speaks to the needs, questions, and interests of your audience.

There’s a huge opportunity for beauty brands to produce engaging, educational content tailored to every stage of the purchase funnel. Whether it’s building awareness, answering specific ingredient questions, or showcasing how-tos for product application, content is key to driving engagement and conversions.

The keyword research from Step 1 plays a crucial role here. Use those insights to guide your content strategy and address search intent at scale. Today’s beauty brands are investing in content across blogs, social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, influencer collaborations, and videos to get in front of their target audience. A blog isn’t optional anymore, it’s essential for sharing valuable content and ranking for both primary and long-tail keywords.

Beauty SEO Content Strategy Tips

• Reach shoppers at the research stage with homepage links to high-value blog content.
• Build a content framework aligned with your brand identity. This helps with consistency and encourages repeat visits. Common pillars in the beauty industry include: Makeup, Skincare & Beauty, Haircare, Wellness Trends / What’s Trending, Culture & Celebrity Fashion, Brand Events / Behind-the-Scenes Looks & Product Picks, Tips, How-To’s & Tutorials.
• Create content to answer user content by targeting your keywords in all your content pieces. For example: “How to apply foundation for oily skin.” Informational content builds trust and organic visibility.
• While makeup and skincare are core, lifestyle topics such as fashion, travel, and wellness can help build brand affinity, just make sure they stay true to your brand’s identity.
• Prioritise evergreen, helpful formats. Tutorials, ingredient explainers, gift guides, and how-tos continue to outperform generic product write-ups.
• Blog content should strategically link to category and product pages to support transactional intent and build topical authority.
• Guest posts from beauty creators can help bring fresh perspectives and their followers to your brand. Encourage user-generated content like product selfies, reviews, and before-and-after shots. Showcase them on product pages, Instagram embeds, or blogs. UGC boosts trust, time-on-site, and even keyword diversity.
• Add high-quality videos and images to blog posts. These visual assets not only enhance engagement but can also be repurposed on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest.
• And lastly, don’t forget YouTube. Tutorials like “how to use a face roller” or “get ready with my summer skincare routine” are highly searchable. Optimise titles, tags, and captions for SEO. Repurpose for Reels and Shorts.

Let’s now look at the top-performing blog posts of popular online brands

STEP 3: Perform a Technical SEO Site Audit

Beauty retailer sites are typically large eCommerce platforms with thousands of product and category pages, making it essential that the technical foundations are implemented correctly. A well-optimised technical setup not only improves user experience but also helps Google crawl, index, and rank your pages more effectively.

Tools like ScreamingFrog, Botify, Deepcrawl, Oncrawl, and Sitebulb allow you to audit the technical health of your site at scale. Some key areas to focus on for improving your visibility online include:

1. 1. Having the right site structure affects the website’s visibility in a positive way by improving discoverability and helps search engines understand the relationships between pages. Use clean, crawlable URLs and ensure internal links support key product categories and product pages.
   2. A fast-loading site enhances user experience and is a confirmed ranking factor. Tools like Google’s Page Speed Insights, WebPageTest, and GTMetrix help diagnose performance issues. For example, I analysed Core Web Vitals for Cult Beauty and found it failing for LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). Using WebPageTest, I visualised the CLS instability on their homepage, a common issue in beauty eCommerce due to large media and dynamic content.

3. Core Web Vitals – These metrics, LCP, CLS, and FID (First Input Delay), became ranking signals in June 2021. They’re both a risk and an opportunity for beauty brands to improve technical performance. Embed performance reviews into your dev process, not just post-launch.

4. Crawl issues and broken links: Use Google Search Console’s Crawl Stats and your audit tool to identify 404 pages, redirect chains, or orphaned content that could hinder crawl efficiency.
5. Mobile-first design: As most beauty customers browse on mobile, ensure your site is built with responsive design, touch-friendly navigation, and mobile performance in mind.
6. Image optimisation: Beauty sites often rely on high-resolution product and model imagery. Compress these assets using lossless techniques and serve appropriately sized images with srcset for different devices.
7. Schema markup: Help search engines understand your content and improve your appearance in the SERPs. Beauty eCommerce sites typically benefit from schema types such as: Product (for price, availability, ratings), Review, Breadcrumb, FAQ/HowTo (especially for content-rich tutorials and blog posts).

Step 4: On-page Optimisation

Make sure you optimise each site page with the right keywords. If you’re a new brand, start by targeting long-tail keywords before progressing to broader, more competitive terms.

1. URL Structure: Descriptive URLs help both users and search engines understand the content of a page. Keep URLs short, include primary keywords, and avoid dynamic parameters where possible.

   Example:
   Bad: yourbrand.com/p1234?id=987
   Good: yourbrand.com/skincare/vitamin-c-face-oil

2. Optimised page titles, headings, meta descriptions, body text, and URLs using relevant target terms.
3. For product listing pages and product description pages, use keyword-rich headings and write unique, benefit-driven descriptions. Add plenty of product details to help answer potential customer questions. Brands like Glossier do this well, with rich content, clear visuals (photos and videos), and integrated reviews that help build trust and drive conversions.
4. Don’t forget your image SEO. Use descriptive filenames and alt text for all images (e.g. vitamin-c-serumdry-skin.jpg, with alt text like “Vitamin C serum for dry skin – 100ml bottle”). Also, ensure images are compressed for faster load times.
5. Use internal linking to pass SEO value from your top-ranking blogs to PDPs and PLPs.

Check out my On-Page SEO checklist to explore other important on-page elements to help boost your site’s visibility.

Step 5: Off-page Optimisation

Backlinks remain one of the most critical Google ranking factors, alongside technical and on-page SEO. There’s a strong correlation between high rankings and pages with authoritative, high-quality backlinks. Develop a long-term, white-hat link-building strategy focused on earning backlinks from relevant, local, and niche-specific websites. These links not only act as ranking signals but can also drive targeted referral traffic.

1. Don’t just focus on the homepage; ensure your backlink profile includes deep links to product listings and individual product pages. These links help search engines understand and rank your full site structure.
2. Competitor backlink research: Use tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, SEMrush, and Moz’s Link Explorer to reverse-engineer competitor backlink strategies.
3. Beauty Influencer SEO: In the beauty niche, think beyond standard link outreach. Partner with influencers for product placements, collaborate on seasonal editorial features, and contribute to communities like Reddit or Pinterest for natural brand mentions. Beauty influencer reviews and unboxings often result in backlinks, brand mentions, and a surge in branded searches. These are strong signals for SEO. Encourage creators to embed product links.
4. Finally, consider outsourcing link building, digital PR, and influencer outreach to a specialist agency. These are time-intensive activities best handled by dedicated experts, allowing you to focus on mastering your on-page and technical SEO foundations.

Step 6: Local SEO

If you own a physical store and want to appear for brand name + city/near me searches, then there are a few things to consider to improve your local SEO ranking.

If you operate physical stores, optimising for Local SEO is crucial to appear in searches like “brand name + city” or “near me.”

Start by setting up and optimising your Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business, for each store location. This is essential to appear in the Google local pack and map results.

Enhance your GBP listings by:

• Adding high-quality photos of your storefront and interiors.
• Writing keyword-rich business descriptions tailored to local search intent.
• Actively collecting and responding to customer reviews.
• Linking to your social media profiles to strengthen credibility.

Local SEO for Salons, Clinics & Spas

Local SEO differs from e-commerce SEO. If you’re a service-based business, such as a salon, clinic, or spa, focus on “City + service” keywords (e.g., “laser facial in London”).

Make sure to:

• Manage reviews actively on platforms like Treatwell and Google. Online reviews (Google, Treatwell) directly impact your local map pack visibility. Encourage review collection.
• Create dedicated location landing pages with consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information and embedded maps.
• Use structured data like LocalBusiness to help Google understand your business type and location.
• List your business on industry-specific directories and beauty marketplaces to increase visibility and backlinks.

Step 7: Beyond Google: SEO on Social / Video Platforms

Google, as we know it, is designed to serve users the best and most relevant search results. Back in the day, it was the go-to platform for all your information needs. But today, there’s a clear shift; people now search for trends and information directly on social platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest.

This is especially true in the beauty space, where visual-first platforms often act as search engines in their own right. For example, Pinterest is a powerful beauty discovery engine. Long-tail queries like “skincare routine for dry skin” or “everyday makeup for blue eyes” tend to perform well, especially when you optimise pin titles and descriptions with keywords and hashtags. Video pins and how-to posts also see strong engagement, and Pinterest SEO can drive significant traffic back to your site.

People still use Google to search for short-tail keywords like “skincare serums,” but increasingly, they also search using long-tail, conversational queries like “best skincare creams for summer.” The SERPs for beauty and fashion queries now often include social results, video carousels, “people also ask” sections, featured snippets, and answer boxes. This highlights the need for a holistic search and content strategy, one that goes beyond your website and applies SEO best practices across key discovery platforms.

• Instagram: With improvements in in-app search capabilities, Instagram now functions more like a visual search engine. Use relevant keywords in captions, bios, and hashtags. You can also add alt text to your images for accessibility and discoverability.
• TikTok: A fast-growing rival to Instagram, TikTok is a hub for beauty tutorials, reviews, and trends. Optimise video titles, captions, and hashtags to surface in in-app search.
• YouTube: The second-largest search engine globally. Use long-tail keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Tutorial and review-style content tends to perform especially well in beauty.
• Pinterest: As a visual discovery engine, Pinterest rewards consistency and keyword-rich descriptions.

Emerging Trends to Watch

• AI SEO tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Perplexity and Gemini help discover intent faster than traditional keyword tools.
• Voice Search is rising: optimise for natural Q&A phrases like “What’s the best face serum for men?”
• Visual Search on Pinterest or Google Lens is growing. Ensure image file names and alt-text are optimised (e.g. hydrating-toner-for-oily-skin.jpg).

Step 8: Track Your SEO KPIs & ROI

To measure whether your Beauty SEO strategy is working, track:

• Organic traffic (Google Analytics / Search Console).
• Organic Revenue and Conversion Rate.
• Keyword rankings (Top 3, Top 10).
• CTR (meta titles/descriptions performance).
• Dwell time / Bounce rate (site engagement).
• Google Business Insights for local.