We all know that product reviews are incredible sources of search engine traffic. Web searchers are researching products for pleasure or research by the millions on a daily basis. If you follow these steps…you too will have product reviews that appear on the top of the front page begging for views by the general browsing public. It is not a hard process…you just need that leg up on your competition…and here is how.
5 Steps To SEO Product Reviews
Step 1 – Multiple Post Product Reviews
In most cases, you will see blogs and product review sites release one product review article at the end of the reviewing period and move onto the next. Google and other search engines spider your content looking for sites that are an authority on the keywords that people are searching for. I have adopted a multi-post process that has brought my product reviews above the typical one post only reviews.
- Introduction Post – Create a post introducing the product that you are reviewing. Tell a little background on the company and provide simple stats on the product and what you hope to accomplish through your review. This gives your readers a preview of what will be coming to your site in the future, and it gives you content on the specific product review. Create returning readers by inviting them to your rss feed at the end of the post so they do not miss out on future content!
- Mid-Cycle Review Post – Midway through the review period, write a short mid-cycle review post that summarizes what you have discovered about the product up until that point. Do not giveaway your entire results, but give insight on how the review is progressing. In this post, you should 1/2 review the product and again…invite them to your rss feed so they do not miss out on the rest of the review!
- The Final Review – This final review post should be your longest of the three. It should recap the previous two posts and provide a complete product review. Link to the previous two posts and share all conclusions…good and bad.
Now…what happens when Google spiders your site versus the one product review post on your competitors? It sees your site as the authority due to the increased amount of valuable content on the related subject matter. Your 3 specific posts vs. the one post provides a much better overall user experience and as the Google algorithm continues to advance…this will become increasingly important.
Step 2 – Pictures…Pictures and More Pictures
Pictures can be a bloggers best friend when it comes to product review. Not only do they protray the product much better than words ever could, but they provide excellent SEO characteristics. They key is how you format your pictures.
- Properly Name The Picture File – Get rid of the DSC001 file name. Name your file appropriately. If it is a picture of a chair…name the file brown-chair-top-view.jpg.
- Captions and Meta Data – Wordpress makes it extremely easy to properly name your files so that search engines can identify what they are. Simple fill in the Title and Caption fields with as many keyword dense descriptions as you can while still making it useful and readable. The key is not going overboard…just very specific.
The result from using more pictures in your reviews (this an include screenshots for software reviews) is more keyword dense reviews that search engines find more useful to their audience. Another side effect is the additional traffic from image search results.
Step 3 – Keyword Dense Articles – But Be Careful…
Step 3 is a very fine line between using keyword dense articles and sounding like your entire article is nothing but keywords. First and foremost…your article should be written for the reader…not search engines. If your article is written solely for search engines and sounds like nothing but a bunch of keywords strung together…you are not going create long lasting, returning readers that will subscribe to your rss feed. Your goal should be to create these kinds of readers.
A little tip that has really hit home with me is this…write the review to the reader first. Then…after you have completed this task, go back through the article and in places where you used words like “it”, replace it with the product name. Here is an example…
Original
While I was wearing the sunglasses, I noticed they stayed securely on my head…even during running and biking. Even in low light conditions, they provided adequate light emission and I never felt like they were too dark.
Revised
While I was wearing the Oakley Straight Jacket sunglasses, I noticed that the the Oakley Straight Jackets stayed securely on my head…even during running and biking. Even in low light conditions, the Oakley Straight Jackets provided adequate light emission and I never felt like the Straight Jackets were too dark.
As you can see by this example, you created a keyword dense article without taking away from the message or overall user experience. When search engines spider articles looking for the authority on specific keywords, your article will stand out from your competitors.
Step 4 – Proper Use Of Tags
This one is pretty straight forward. Use your H1, H2 and H3 tags properly and use the review product in every single one of them. A lot of product review writers (me included) like to summarize the good and bad at the end of the article. This is a great way to get article scanners your message. Instead of just saying Positive/Negative or Good/Bad on your summary tags (h2 or h3 normally)…say Good Product Name/Bad Product Name. This provides you with more targeted, keyword dense material, and it doesn’t take away from the overall user experience.
Step 5 – Correct Article Titles
Your article titles should be very specific.
Product Year (if applicable)/Product Brand/Product Model/Description with the word Review
Example using 3 post method:
2009 Fox Talas 140 RLC 15mm QR TA – In For Review
2009 Fox Talas 140 RLC 15mm QR TA – On The Trail Review
2009 Fox Talas 140 RLC 15mm QR TA – Final Review
Try not to deviate from this formula as much as possible. Your article titles need to be very specific. It really surprises me how many product reviewers try to get really creative with their titles, and their reviews fall off the front page. Remember you are competing with the actual manufacturer and retailers for that front page spot. They are going to be very specific and you need to be to.
Those Are Your 5 Easy Steps To SEO Explosion Via Product Reviews!
If you follow those 5 easy steps, you too will have extremely SEO friendly reviews that will bring you more search engine results than you can possibly imagine. Just remember to write to your readers first. Your goal is to build long lasting relationships, but if you follow these 5 easy steps…you can turn search engine traffic into return readers. Another key element that is not one of the 5 easy steps should be incorporated into your site as much as possible…linking back to previous articles. Any time you mention that product in a future blog article…link back to your final review post. This increases page-views and the overall reader experience.
P.S. – One More Tip That Will Bring Your Results Off The Charts!
Video! Use as much video as you possibly can. At the beginning, end and throughout the video…put your logo and website url. Submit that video to all of the video share sites (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) and watch your results soar even higher. Video is the future of the web, so get used to using it now!
8 comments
Hey Robb, Diogo here. (Yaro student as well.)
I like your approach for reviewing products. I think your keyword approach is a little too much — instead of mentioning the product 4 times in such a short paragraph, I’d have gone for just two instead of the original one. From a reader’s point of view, I mean.
But, hey, you have reviewed over $10,000 worth of products and me, zero. You are surely doing things right, my friend! 🙂
I like your small twist of splitting the review in three posts. It also creates a bunch of inbound links and gives the audience the sense of “I am taking the time to review this properly.”
And the way you use video to bring visitors to your website is also cool. Remembering to tag photos properly is always welcome, too.
Cheers, D.
Diogo…
The above example is admittedly an extreme case. Two would probably be a better solution to keep overall readability higher. It does illustrate the point that we should use the product name more than pronouns…
Thanks for the comment!
-Robb
Interesting strategies. I’d be interested to hear more of your thoughts on video though – harder to index in search engines, and totally reliant on views to propogate.
Patrick
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I use video inside blog posts to further add to the content. At the beginning and end of every video, I use my logo and web address. Often times, I will also add the web address to a title during the video itself.
Once I finish the video and post the article, I upload the video to YouTube, Vimeo and other video search sites for increased exposure to my blog.
The exact metrics for traffic are hard to manage because they are not clicking a link to get to your blog, but it does introduce your content to a searching audience that may not have found it through conventional search methods.
Just another way to increase exposure and interaction with your site.
There will be a more in-depth post about this at a later date…but that is the bare bones of it.
FINALLY! I have been looking for in depth info on doing product reviews and I have learned a lot but you explain it very well. I never thought to do it in 3 sections (I can’t even get one review written ha ha). Great tips!
I will be implementing these tips right away. The tidbit that was new to me is your idea of breaking the review up into three parts. That’s a great idea! Internal links, more keywords, repeat traffic…bravo!
Thanks Tim…the multiple post process also gets your readers more involved in the content. I like to think of it as a long term review like you see in car mags…just more involved as you actually have interaction with your readers.
Video is going to be big on search in the future. The keyword Candy is searched over 30 million times a month!. At the moment I’m on page 13 of “YouTube” for the keyword but over time if enough people click the thumbs up then I could get to page 1 which also means page 1 on Google!…
Thanks Robb.