The challenge
Vans is a household name across much of the globe, producing iconic shoes and trainers for generation after generation. Having worked with the wider VF Corporation since 2016, Croud started working with the Vans brand in early 2018, with the goal of driving more organic traffic and revenue for six of their key European websites.
As part of this objective, the Croud team wanted to better understand customers’ interests and needs when it came to purchasing and looking after their Vans, in order to drive both brand awareness and affinity. By taking a smart, data-driven approach to content production, Croud’s content team hoped to support their SEO counterparts in boosting organic search traffic for Vans across Europe – from the UK to Poland.
The Croud difference
We wanted to know what people were asking about the brand, but also how much effort it would take to rank for these specific queries, as well as what the potential reward would be. We therefore put together a framework to give our content creation true strategic direction, using ‘People Also Ask’ queries and analysing these using three key metrics:
- Search opportunity
- Difficulty
- Relevancy
Off the back of this, we put together a bubble graph to visualise where the biggest areas of opportunity lay for Vans. And we then worked with experienced copywriters on our Croudie network to produce 42 localised pieces of content (seven articles in six languages) to tap into these areas of opportunity – from ‘Are Vans vegan?’ to ‘How to clean Vans shoes’. With the articles live, Croud’s content team then worked closely with their SEO counterparts to continually optimise performance.
The results
The content produced to date has driven impressive organic visibility and traffic, contributing to a 24% year-on-year uplift in organic traffic for the brand. Not only that, but the content – which is largely post-purchase in focus – has contributed to a substantial amount of revenue, and has set the scene for the future of SEO and content collaboration for Vans.
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