2nd Academic
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Second Academic is a UK-based multi-brand fashion retailer specialising in Ivy-League-inspired apparel. The brand curates premium clothing from several contemporary labels, aiming to create a strong presence within the competitive UK fashion market.
Challenge: Second Academic struggled with low organic visibility despite hosting several in-demand fashion brands. Strong competition from established UK retailers made it difficult to rank for both branded and non-branded searches. Without structured landing pages, optimised metadata, or focused keyword targeting, the site lacked presence for relevant queries, limiting traffic and product discovery.
Process: We began by identifying high-intent transactional keywords and complementary informational queries across all brands listed on the website. Dedicated landing pages were created and optimised to target brand-specific, category-based, and broader Ivy-League fashion searches relevant to the UK audience.
On-page improvements included refining metadata, restructuring H1–H3 tags, implementing keyword-aligned internal linking, and enhancing page content to strengthen search intent alignment. Technical updates ensured clean crawlability and indexing, especially for newly added landing pages.
A full 360-degree SEO approach supported the strategy—combining keyword expansion, content optimisation, and ranking stability measures. This allowed Second Academic to improve visibility for competitive brand keywords while steadily expanding its organic footprint across wider search clusters.
Result:
Keyword performance became the clearest early indicator of the site’s accelerating momentum. What began as a scattered visibility profile—keywords sitting between positions 18 and 28 in May—quickly transformed into a dominant presence across high-intent product clusters. By July, flagship queries such as “jpress oxford shirt,” “j press t shirt,” and “beams plus sperry” surged into the top 3–6 positions, securing premium ranking real estate normally reserved for top-tier UK retailers. Even more competitive branded queries, including “drake’s waxed jacket” and “engineered garments jackets,” climbed steadily into the 8–14 range by November. Notably, despite the heavy August rollout—typically a period of algorithmic turbulence—rankings not only held steady but continued strengthening, signalling the resilience and precision of the new SEO architecture.
Impressions and clicks painted an equally compelling picture of growth and stability. While impressions dipped post-August as Google re-indexed the newly expanded landing pages, the quality of traffic surged. Clicks remained consistently strong throughout the rollout, defying the typical pattern of temporary drop-offs. By November, impressions had climbed back to 1,959, and clicks reached an impressive 104, marking the highest engagement point in the entire period. Instead of chasing volume, Second Academic began attracting more qualified visitors—an unmistakable sign that search engines were aligning the site with users who genuinely intended to browse and buy Ivy-League-inspired apparel.
Position and CTR trends completed the story of a brand transforming its digital footing. The site started with an average position hovering between 22 and 26, struggling to break through competitive UK search environments. But as the August rollout settled, rankings tightened dramatically and ascended with authority, stabilising at 7.57—a decisive shift into reliable first-page dominance. CTR, once volatile and often slipping below 1%, surged to 5.31%, powered by stronger metadata, tighter intent alignment, and more attractive SERP snippets. Even more impressive: both position and CTR not only recovered after August—they exceeded every previous high, proving that the strategic foundation put in place was built for durability, not just short-term wins.
Second Academic’s SEO revamp delivered sustained, measurable improvements across rankings, visibility, and engagement. Despite the major August rollout, the site not only preserved but improved its positioning—ranking on strong page-one positions for multiple brands and maintaining stability across high-value BMS keywords. We ensured ranking sustainability across brand clusters so purchase-driven queries converted in the following months, which was reflected in several product pages achieving consistent organic sales. With strengthened keyword dominance and elevated user engagement, Second Academic now stands firmly positioned within the UK’s competitive fashion landscape.
- SEO