John Mueller Offers Suggestions On Ranking Product Pages

Ecommerce SEO agencies often have trouble getting their product pages to rank. A person recently discussed the matter with Google’s John Mueller, asking him about the best methods for ranking product pages and improving one’s search visibility. In response, Mueller told them his thoughts on the best practices that any SEO agency can do.

The person who asked the question created blog content for a new e-commerce website that sells green tea and herbal tea. They shared that the site is around eight months old and is small, with only 30-40 products in total. Their blog articles had a high ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs), but they found that this does not help product pages rank well.

The person also said that they were working hard on improving their blog section because all the other competitors are doing the same. After investing time and effort in their on-page SEO, regular back-linking process, and structured data, they have noticed some progress. The problem is their products pages; these simply do not rank well.

Mueller Admits Ranking Product Pages Is Challenging

Many ecommerce SEO agencies and online businesses feel that it is nearly impossible to obtain links to product pages. But unless they promote these pages, they will have a hard time ranking them.

Mueller also agrees that it is always challenging to rank product pages and that there is no simple trick to do this successfully. He then suggested that e-commerce sites use the Google shopping feed as some content may appear in the organic search results.

However, he tells the SEO community to be cautious and double-check if these are products of their e-commerce website. Therefore, one should correctly set up their Merchant Center and submit their products so Google can show them in the Shopping Search results. Doing so is entirely free.

Sometimes, Google mixes the products with the normal search results, allowing merchants and online businesses to get more search visibility for their products.

Optimise Internal Linking To Rank Products Pages

Mueller suggested internal linking from the blog articles to the product pages. This method is a helpful SEO tactic that helps distinguish the kind of content that other publishers like linking to. Once an online business or e-commerce site has identified the popular topic among other publishers, they can create a lot of that content and ask for links.

Publishers can embed a product page link within the content, and the said links can then trickle down to the important product pages. Mueller advised the person to ensure there is clear internal linking between their blog posts and product pages.

Mueller also mentioned how tempting it is to link blog posts to different product pages, but this method does more harm than good. This practice is like telling Google’s search engine that everything is a little relevant, and the system perceives it as “nothing is relevant”.

On the other hand, if one links several blog articles to a few product pages, Google’s system will see them as important products.

With that said, it is crucial to link strategically and only choose the most important products.

Mueller also told SEOs and ecommerce sites to focus on things they care about instead of fixing their eyes on pages that are ranking poorly.

To distinguish the most important product pages, businesses should choose the products they earn the most money from. They should also select the most visited pages or the easiest or fastest-selling items. These pages should get more emphasis than others. Mueller added that the product pages’ rankings would change over time, provided that they approach the scenario with strong internal linking.

Things To Do If Internal Linking To Product Pages Are Optimised

The person who asked the question said they’ve already used the Google Shopping feature and linked to just one product from each relevant blog post. Mueller commended them, saying that it seems they’re doing everything right.

He then recommended taking a second look at the site’s internal linking. Mueller said that if things are going well for their SEO, it means that their hard work is paying off. However, their problem indicates that different aspects are involved, and the person has only one angle covered. He also encouraged the person to continue in that direction and think about internal linking for their product pages, blog posts, and the rest of the website.

Mueller confirmed that there are benefits that come from linking to several product pages from the home page. Many small e-commerce sites are tempted to link their blog posts to all of their products because they have few product pages at the moment, so he emphasised choosing only the most popular or best-selling items for stronger promotion.

As for the person’s issue regarding their rankings, it could be that there is nothing wrong with their SEO at all. In some niches, many tough competitors are simply ranking better and harder to beat.

Therefore, trying to find what’s wrong with a page is not always the best way to optimise pages for better rankings. In cases where there is strong competition, online businesses and e-commerce sites should identify what’s missing from the page. For instance, better descriptions for product pages or product comparisons could be more helpful.

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