In today’s competitive surf industry, having a standout website is no longer just an option, it’s essential. With the surge of new brands and heightened consumer awareness about cost and environmental impact, surfers are facing more choices than ever before. Gone are the days when loyalty to a single surf brand was the norm. Today’s surfers are not only looking for the best gear but also for brands that align with their values and lifestyle.
In this digital age, investing in a strong website presence can help build trust with consumers navigating a sea of options. As such, I’ve dived into some research into popular keyword terms relating to surfing wetsuits. This breaks down the metrics behind these keyword terms such as their search volume, keyword difficulty and which brands rank highest on the SERP. I also provide insights into why some brands perform better than others.
Please note, the metrics have been sourced from Semrush and are AU-specific. The keywords I have selected only represent a small portion of wetsuit-related searches as there are too many popular terms to consolidate into a single article.
For the most coveted keyword term, “surfing wetsuit“, it is no surprise that Wetsuit Warehouse has taken first on the SERP. Beyond their highly advantageous website name, the webpage contains the term in its title, meta description and slug.
They also use a strong internal linking structure, improving crawlability and user navigation. Their content is keyword-rich and relevant to the search intent, however, this is consistent across all competitors. If I had to pick a weakness of their website it would be their domain authority score of 26. It appears that poor backlinks may be a significant contributor, although, this score reflects various factors. However, their website is still so keyword-optimised that they appeared across 3/4 of the keyword terms I selected.
Closely following Wetsuit Warehouse is O’Neill Australia. Despite having significantly larger global traffic, their organic search traffic in Australia comes in at 26.7k. From a metadata perspective, they are also tailing Wetsuit Warehouse as they haven’t included the keyword in their title, meta description or slug. Where they make up ground is having a strong domain authority of 55. This can be attributed to highly reputable backlinks, namely other key surfing websites like Tracks Magazine. The product pages on their website are also high quality, using excellent images and videos to enhance the user experience.
In particular, I loved that O’Neill Australia built a blog webpage for their HyperFire wetsuit which won Stab’s Best Wetsuit of 2024. This is the perfect example of utilising an award for a content piece. On this page, they embedded a YouTube video above the fold to improve the user experience and maximise session time. Under the video, they briefly summarised the award and provided a little more context surrounding the wetsuit design.
Although this webpage ranks them fifth on the SERP for “best wetsuits for surfing“, this is a great outcome given that most websites ranked higher are blogs that are highly optimised to rank for terms of this nature. This includes Reddit, given the question intent of the search term. It also includes The Inertia, a news source fittingly described as a “voice of surf and outdoors.” Given the nature of their website, it is no surprise to see 689.4k backlinks and organic search traffic of 144.7k. Their schema markup helps to rank for “top stories” in the SERP meaning their content often appears as a related news piece when the search has a news-orientated intent.
Although “cold water wetsuit” is a less popular search term, I found it fascinating to see which brands placed precedence in ranking their cold water wetsuit range. It was no surprise to see Wetsuit Warehouse first, however, the other four brands were unique to this search term. This included Isurus Wetsuits who market their “Ti Alpha” cold water wetsuit as their premier product and XCEL Wetsuits who have built an extensive product page for their cold water surfing range. These smaller brands have strategically created keyword-rich content to rank highly for longer tail keyword terms. For context, Isurus Wetsuits only has an organic search traffic of 16 and 149 ranked organic keywords. Likewise, XCEL Wetsuits receives slightly more traffic at 1.9k organic search traffic and has 473 ranked keywords, still considerably lower than the industry’s largest brands.
This trend continues when observing the “eco friendly wetsuits” term. Despite its low search volume of 20, surfers are becoming increasingly conscious of their environmental impact. As such, this is a term that I can see increasing in volume. The top-ranking result for this term is Project Blank, a surf wetsuit and apparel brand that is dedicated to creating a more sustainable planet. Their products are designed with sustainability in mind, and this is reflected in their website content. They have a dedicated tab for sustainability awareness and education, along with keyword-rich product pages.
Despite having an authority score of 23 and 2.7k organic search traffic, Project Blank has outperformed its competitors for this term. Vissla Australia comes in second with a similar authority score and organic search traffic. They also have an extensive sustainability section on their website, which includes topics such as how to upcycle old boardshorts. One key point of difference to many of its rivals is Vissla’s high-quality content, namely through its active blog. This provides valuable and relevant content for users, covering its sponsored surf competitions and dedicated strike missions.
Other brands that ranked highly for this keyword term included SRFACE Wetsuits and Abysee Australia with the common denominator often being the use of Yulex fabric.
Overall, it is clear that many surf brands are actively embracing the digital age and working on building robust SEO strategies. Established brands like Ripcurl and Billabong can leverage their strong reputations and endorsements from top surfers. On the other hand, smaller brands can increase their market presence by focusing on targeted SEO efforts, especially by concentrating on longer-tail, high-intent keywords that offer a lower barrier to entry.