At the 2023 BrightonSEO conference, our very own Nick Katseanes shared his expertise on the topic of improving product page rankings. His insightful presentation taught attendees valuable strategies and tactics for driving traffic and conversions to their websites through a funnel of content and links.
Nick opened the presentation with a universal question: Why do we want to drive product page rankings? He explains that this is how websites get ROI from search. How can we do this? By creating product keywords and tracking qualified traffic.
He explains that while we could make an optimized product page and target the right keywords, how do we compete with the likes of Amazon?
Using JBL as an example, Nick shows how on the surface, the page is doing great. However, if you remove the branded keywords, the metrics show a different story. In truth, they have 60,000 keywords, bringing in 4% of traffic.
Big opportunities missed.
Here’s the process he outlines:
Start with existing link opportunities.
Look for unlinked mentions of your brand in the news by using search modifiers. Then outreach to those articles asking them to link to your product page. “Hit different audiences and utilize what you have now before you really invest into a whole new link building strategy.”
Review existing content.
Review the content you already have for keyword opportunities. “How can we create better content, and capture keywords we recently sought out to achieve, but then forgot about?”
Create mid-funnel content for high-traffic keywords.
Foundational content helps bring qualified traffic to your site. By internally linking mid-funnel content to your product pages, you can help boost your product page’s visibility by telling Google, this is my money page, you should care about it.
“You need mid-funnel content to help build the foundation and the support for your money pages and what you're trying to influence.”
Create linkable content for relevant topics.
Create content that speaks to a broader audience. This content helps build a hub where you build most of your links. Connect these pages via internal linking to distribute link equity.
Nick goes on to express that you don’t just want to build links from relevant domains.
“It's not all about building links on relevant domains. That is good. But you want to build page-to-page relevance. That's what Google cares about— on this page, not this domain, this page, does the link make sense to the page that it is linked to?”
Taking that mentality, Nick says, opens up the door to finding more link building opportunities.
The trick is having the right content that websites actually want to link to.
Examples Nick used include statistical articles, long-form guides, and guest posting.
He does, however, emphasize that there is no magic button for link building. It takes time, patience, and a lot of hard work. He advises SEOs to take the time to look at different sites, their content, and their backlinks to truly understand why people link to a page.
Nick ends the presentation with these final words,
“The importance of internal linking is undermined. Funnel [the content] to the money page, and you will see your page improve.”
