9 replies to this topic

[kjonas]

Now I know what some people are going to say; You need to write for people and not for the search engines.

But my question is how to create good content for physical products, where to put the content pages and what is the best way to create your internal link structure

This is my idea about creating content and how to structure the internal links. Is this correct?

I have a website that sells printed t-shirts. My goal is to have my page that sells wolf t-shirts come up on the first page of Google
for the keyword "wolf shirt"

Content:
Since you can only write so much about a wolf t-shirt I have created a wolf information page. My thinking is that people who buy wolf shirts might also enjoy reading about wolves
This page has information about wolves, their history, misconceptions etc. Links are embedded within the content directing people to
specific wolf shirts.
I will be adding links to other wolf sites that people might enjoy. I will be asking those sites to exchange links with me. Those links will go straight to my wolf t-shirt page.


Internal link structure:
On the wolf t-shirt page there will be a link to the wolf information page along with a brief overview about what that page contains.
On the wolf information page there will be links within the text pointing to specific wolf t-shirts along with a link back to the wolf t-shirt page.

[adibranch]

seeing as the market for 'wolf t shirts' is probably stupidly low, that may be your best chance, and yes it will work to a degree i guess once you've planted the seed in their head.

its just a lot of work to go to for a handful of sales a year, when your competitors for 'wolf t shirts' will be so low you're almost guaranteed a place in the top 3 anyway for that page. Are you going to do this for every type of t shirt you stock? You're creating a huge amount of work for yourself.

[kjonas]

I am doing this for Each category (not for each t-shirt) and only for the categories that have been converting. I am also exchanging links with the links pointing directly to specific category pages and not just the home page.
We own 2 brick and mortar retain t-shirt shops so putting our designs on the internet only seemed natural. Even though the search volume on some of our keywords are low it still helps to pay the bills.

[Jill]

Since you can only write so much about a wolf t-shirt I have created a wolf information page. My thinking is that people who buy wolf shirts might also enjoy reading about wolves
This page has information about wolves, their history, misconceptions etc. Links are embedded within the content directing people to
specific wolf shirts.

A lot of folks do stuff like that, but I don't agree with it as a good method. All it typically does is add a lot of crap noise to the internet that no one really cares about.

[Michael Martinez]

Actually, you're trying to get into a competitive query (with your example). That will take quite a bit of work.

I don't know if simply creating a "wolf info" page will help that much, although it would certainly create value in your site that may not exist on the other wolf t-shirt sites (of which there are way too many for me to go looking).

Who buys these kinds of shirts? Apparently there are tens of thousands of queries about them every month (although the peak period appears to be around Christmas). Do you have a market profile? You may be able to leverage content that appeals to their other interests (and I suppose that is what you are trying to do with the "wolf info" page but I don't think it will be enough).

Maybe what you want to do is create a resource that ranks well in many secondary but related queries that drives traffic to your ecommerce site.

[kjonas]

In some markets, creating good content for an ecommerce site can be difficult. This is why I came to the experts here for advise.

Should I spend less time on content creation and more time on link building?

This site is 3 years old and has first page rankings for some of its keywords. It is the keywords that do not rank well that I am working on.


As far as my market profile. I have looked at my customer base and have made some changes to my navigation to help people find the type of shirt they are looking for.

[adibranch]

i stand corrected about the low search rate wolf fans must be proud of being such.

in which case, dont fret creating generic wolf pages etc etc, just work on your product and category pages, and links into them, and you should be fine.
What ecommerce package are you using?

[Michael Martinez]

I would try the wolf article as an experiment. I would not build out a lot more content until I knew whether people would link to the wolf article.

The thing about link building is that it's always easier to do with good content. The thing about good content is that you never know until after it's deployed whether people agree with you that it's good.

You need to be decisive: make a plan, stick to it, and measure its effectiveness every couple of months. If after six months you see no improvement, try a different plan.

[portentint]

A little creativity may be in order.

What has entertainment value around your product? Think of weird promotions that would generate content for you:

1. Photographing the shirt on different statues, with a description of what you went through getting it there (I'm not suggesting vandalism here - some cities, like my own West Seattle, allow you to do this).

2. Do something making fun of the whole viral phenomenon that made this shirt popular. Write one article tracking the history, a top 10 list of reasons the shirt is so popular, then maybe "Folks who'd look good in a Wolf Shirt" where you photoshop over random photos. You get the idea.


One other caution: This particular product is competitive right now because of a gag gone viral:

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole/blog/2009/05/22/americans_can_do_irony_wolf_moon_t_shirt_goes_viral

Don't put too much into this effort if you think it's a flash in the pan.

[copywriter]

You need to write for people and not for the search engines.

Actually, I don't say that. I say you should write for the visitor first. Of course you have to write for the engines or it wouldn't be SEO copy... it would just be copy.

Did you read the latest article in Jill's High Rankings Adviser? It may be of help to you.

I don't know that people who like wolves would all be interested in buying a wolf tshirt. I love dolphins, but I don't want dolphin tshirts or dolphin figurines, etc. I only like the real ones

But, like Michael said, test it and see how it does. I think you'll get a good amount of unqualified traffic that won't buy, but I could be very wrong. Test it and see.

Another thing you could do is donate a portion of your proceeds to helping wolves (or dogs or cats or bearded dragons or whatever). That would make people interested in wolves more likely to buy a shirt because they care about wolves. Then they can give the shirt as a gift, etc. It would also make for good fodder for a press release.