Mindy Weinstein | SEO |

How Can You Rank for Informational Keywords on Product & Educational Pages?

There may come a time when you need to use the same keyword on your website’s product and informational pages, such as when both types of pages discuss the same product. But what happens when the information page—such as a glossary entry about a product on your website, for example—ranks higher than the corresponding product page, which is what you want to rank higher on Google?

While you may feel discouraged when you notice this is happening to your product pages, it’s important to take a step back and realize that all hope is not lost. There are several things you can do to help improve your product pages’ ranking when this happens, most of which can also be applied to situations where you want to see your landing pages ranking higher. Let’s look at each step you can take in detail to help your product pages rank for their target keywords without competing against your informational pages.

Analyze Your Site’s Top Ranking Pages

One of the first things you should do is figure out which of your pages have the top 5 to 10 rankings in Google search results. You should use an SEO tool to make this process as fast and simple as possible. Some examples include Ahrefs, Semrush, and SpyFu, to name just a few. These sites and others can help you see which pages rank for your target keyword.

Once you have found the top ranking pages, determine the following for each one:

Search Intent

What is the purpose of each page—to provide your audience with information or to sell something? You can use Google Search Console to determine the search query or queries related to each page to determine the intent that Google links to them. Looking at the “Performance” section of Google Search Console and viewing the last three months of data can also help you see how Google views and categorizes your page content.

If most of your highest-ranking web pages are informational, that means that search engines have determined that your keyword is informational—which means that it is meant to help people “know” something. If this is the case with your pages, you will need to come up with new and creative ways to get your product pages to rank higher on Google, which we will get to in a moment.

Word Count

While many marketers will tell you that word count is vital to any organic search strategy, the truth is that it’s hard to come up with any rules on what word counts are needed when you are ranking for keyword searches. The answer depends on your website, your products, and other factors that vary for each business. John Mueller has also said that word count is not one of the quality ranking factors that Google measures for websites.

However, top-ranked pages tend to be full of content, so they typically have higher word counts. If your information pages are outranking product pages, the length and density of their content could be why, as product pages often tend to be shorter and more to the point. Adding a longer word count and more detailed information to your product pages can be helpful when it comes to boosting your Google rankings.

Adjust Your Content

Once you know what’s making your informational pages rank higher on Google, you will need to figure out how to include informational content on the product pages so they will rank for the informational keywords you have chosen to focus on. This will likely require some creativity and unique thinking on your part.

One way to add more information to product pages is to add a Frequently Asked Questions section to each product page and related category page. Make sure the questions are relevant and the answers are information-rich. You will be adding relevant, helpful information to each page while also increasing your likelihood of having improved conversions. Marking up your page with structured data and using this content opportunity to include more keywords will likely boost your performance.

It’s also possible that your home page is competing with your product pages. By paying attention to what content is really needed on your home page, you can avoid stuffing it with keywords to help balance the traffic this page gets compared to your more targeted product pages and boost your site’s overall SEO at the same time.

Work On Your Links

Once you have a new content plan in place, you need to focus on your pages’ links—specifically backlinks and internal links. Having strategically placed links can give your product page ranking a boost. Let’s look at both types of links in detail.

Internal Links

You can start by looking at internal linking, which is linking to your website’s internal pages. You should always use optimized anchor text for internal links, which means you should link to your target keywords. Internal links also help you build a clear structure for your site—which is great for user experience and your individual page SEO—while building authority for the topics you are trying to rank for.

One way to avoid ranking for keywords between product pages and glossary articles is to ensure you are not linking through the same keyword as anchor text on both pages. You might also want to link your product page from your glossary article for an extra boost to ensure that you continue to use optimized anchor text.

A keyword map can help you assign keywords to pages if you find it difficult to complete this step without a guide.

Backlinks

Once your internal links are under control, it’s time to look at your informational and product pages backlinks. If one of your informational pages has stronger backlinks than your product pages, that could be part of the reason it is getting more search traffic and better results on Google. Develop a new strategy for getting high-quality backlinks on your product pages for a better chance at improving your rankings.

Revisit Your Keywords and Their Intent

It’s possible that getting your product pages to rank higher than your informational pages is not always the best move. You might want to revisit your keywords altogether and update your keyword map. This is especially true if you’ve tried the three steps above and haven’t seen much change in Google rankings.

If the intent behind your keywords doesn’t match your website’s pages, you might have figured out part of your ranking problem. Revisit the SEO tools mentioned above and research the queries and keywords you are targeting for your product pages to see how Google views their intent.

Most SEO tools will show you the top-ranked pages for your chosen keywords. Look at the top ten results and try to figure out their intent. If most of them are informational pages, you may want to find new keywords that are more appropriate for your product content, especially if adding FAQs and higher word counts have not worked so far.

There are also times that keyword cannibalization has occurred and you need a new strategy because your keywords are competing with each other for attention from Google and thwarting your larger SEO strategy. Remember that other elements of your website, such as blog posts, the home page, and all of your title tags, can also affect your overall SEO across pages.

If you need help finding new target keywords that will be more likely to bring you the organic traffic you are looking for, our Keyword Research Tips should help. You can also reach out to our team for more dedicated assistance.

Keep an Eye on Your Pages

Once you have followed the first four steps above, you will want to monitor each page’s ranking as time goes on. As with all marketing elements, your website’s keyword ranking may be subject to change due various factors. To give an example mentioned previously, if you have tried adding FAQ content to your product pages but still see better rankings on your informational pages, you may need to go back to Step Four above and work on the keywords you are targeting.

You can also continue to monitor clicks and search queries within Google Search Console to see if your new changes are hitting the mark or if you need to make new adjustments. You might also want to keep an eye on the bounce rate for your pages to ensure you include relevant and useful information on all of your pages, as user experience is always an important part of any content and keyword strategy.

Conclusion

While you may feel discouraged when you notice that your product pages aren’t performing as well as you’d like, it’s better to take action than to lose hope. Taking the steps above can help you improve your chances of getting more traffic to your product pages.

If you need more with getting your content to rank higher on Google, reach out to Market MindShift. Our marketing team would be happy to help you meet your goals, whether you are just getting started on your marketing strategy or need help with something like the keyword dilemma above. Call us at (480) 750-2252 or visit our online contact form to get started.