Using Buyer’s Guides To Boost Your SEO

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Buyer’s Guide is a common SEO practice, particularly among e-commerce sites. However, if people can be a little more creative, they can be used in other types of site as well, like financial services for example.

Buyer’s guides are popular because they fulfill many criteria for effective on page SEO. They are naturally rich in keywords, compact in character count and original. They also enable you to link to your main target category and popular product pages with relevant anchor text, thus boosting their effectiveness. Potential customers also love buyer’s guides if you are doing them right. They are a great research resource in the early ‘information gathering’ stages of the purchasing decision process.

Buyer guides help your brand become embedded in the customer’s mind as trusted authority. Later on, when your consumers are ready to buy, you are already on the shortlist of the trusted vendors.

Six Tips to Create An SEO Strategy Based on Buyer’s Guide

1. Target  Your Audience

You may be writing for existing customers who have come back to your site. These people may also be completely new customers who have arrived at the site through a search engine query. What they have in common is that they are searching for information? Assume they know nothing. What would you tell a friend when they were just starting think about making a considered purchase? Picture this in your mind, and soon you will be starting to target the appropriate audiences.


2. 
Aim Your Buyer’s Guides

Essentially, the aim of buyer’s guides is to be an ‘How To’ guide, so that the customer can make consideration before buying something. Typical information may include:

  • Key A/B decisions to be made early in the decision-making process, e.g. for cars it could be manual or automatic, for suitcases it could be hard-shelled or soft-sided.
  • Main generic characteristics of the product category, e.g for electric toothbrushes, it could be oscillating rotary brushes and sonic vibrating brushes.
  • Features to look for. Explain the benefits and demonstrate why some items are more expensive.
  • Functional choices versus personal choices.  Make it clear when there is a reason to choose one type of product over another and when it is simply down to a matter of personal preference.

3. Additional Ideas for SEO

  • To target certain keywords, include them in the headings and sub-heads as these are given more weight by search engines.
  • If possible, include links inserted to other web pages on the site, either generic categories or specific products.
  • It’s not a good idea to link to off-site web pages, as this encourages the reader to leave your site. A typical example might be a link to a national database of recycling centres for electrical waste on a Buyer’s Guide for washing machines. This may be helpful for the customer, but resist the temptation.

4. Watch Your Tone of Voice

It is very important for your buyer’s guides to be impartial and neutral, so that it is a trusted source of information. For this reason the tone of voice may be less chatty and more passive than selling copy on other parts of the website. You should avoid any “signal words” that urging people to buy something. For example, instead of phrases like ‘Enjoy a blissful night’s sleep’, say ‘Many people find that an orthopedic pillow helps them sleep better and wake more refreshed’.

The tone should be:

  • Authoritative
  • Unbiased
  • Helpful and friendly, but not overly chatty
  • Concise yet comprehensive
  • Interesting. You want your customers to read to the end.

It is also helpful to incorporate bullet point lists, diagrams, tables and infographics where appropriate.


5. 
Make A Structure

Remember that the aim of the buyer’s guides is to provide informed, useful advice which positions your brand as a helpful expert and trusted vendor. To achieve this, a successful buyer’s guide presents options to the customer as a filter, starting with the main decisions which influence the purchase, exploring the options within each main options.


6.
 Make Several Parameters

Buyer’s guides are not expected to be updated regularly, so you should take a good care to write them. You have to make them ‘everlasting’ advice. Therefore, avoid talking about specific products where possible. Instead, you can focusing on generic types of products and key features to look out for.

Whilst your Buying Guide should be impartial, it is, of course, sensible to structure the content and refer to the information towards the products you actually sell. The main point should be on selling the expertise of your brand and encourage the reader to click-through to the products. Never try to sell any product within the buyer’s guide. By being a truly impartial and valuable source of information, the buyer’s guide is a great way to build a long term relationship with the brand and boost your SEO.