Let\u2019s rewind and clarify what I mean by landing page.<\/p>\n
Viola Eva wrote an excellent article for Ahrefs about landing page SEO<\/a>, and defines landing pages as \u201cweb pages designed to convert traffic into leads.\u201d<\/p>\n This includes feature, product, and solution pages, as well as competitor pages, use cases, or lead magnets.<\/p>\n While we can argue about the linguistics of it all, the point is that solution, industry, and feature pages can be optimized for organic reach. In fact, they\u2019re quite powerful converters.<\/p>\n I dug into over a hundred feature pages to study what it takes to rank on the first page, and the results are quite compelling.<\/p>\n Disclaimer<\/strong>: I work for Flow SEO, which helped support this research through access to Ahrefs, and some of the companies included in the list are our clients.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, we can\u2019t be Salesforce or Oracle \u2013 which people know by name, and search their products with branded queries.<\/p>\n Optimizing your feature page for non-branded keywords<\/a> is an opportunity to drive organic traffic for those who are not brand loyal yet. This is a chance to really let your product features shine.<\/p>\n Should all features receive a page? Probably not.<\/p>\n I advise creating one all-features page as a hub and creating feature pages for strong contenders.<\/p>\n So how do we identify the right feature pages?<\/p>\n We get our hands dirty in keyword research and search engine results pages (SERPs).<\/p>\n This is a \u201cput yourself in their shoes\u201d exercise. Make a list of all the words or phrases around that feature while also imagining what one would search for if they were in the market for that product.<\/p>\n How is it used? What industries does it apply to? What problem does it solve?<\/p>\n This is where you will compile a list of potential keywords and use those to investigate whether the search intent<\/a>, as depicted in the SERPs, matches the website\u2019s feature page.<\/p>\n Tips for identifying pages and keywords:<\/p>\n Now, simply seeing that other brands have feature pages on the first page doesn\u2019t mean your site will, too.<\/p>\n Click through the pages, and try to understand the audience and industries they are targeting.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t have to be difficult.<\/p>\n One of my favorite ways to do this is simply to ask my clients about their product, noting specific phrases and the language they use, and also ask about how their clients are using the product or specific feedback around that feature.<\/p>\n Interviewing your client<\/a> or target audience is the single best way to connect through a shared language and perspective.<\/p>\n These recommendations are based on studying an endless number of feature pages, which resulted in a final list of 30 SaaS and software feature pages with first-page rankings for non-branded keywords.<\/p>\n Previously, I mentioned how some people might not consider a landing page as an SEO opportunity.<\/p>\n One of the main reasons for this is that there is a false belief that the page needs to have a lot of text to rank.<\/p>\n My research shows that this is a completely false assumption.<\/p>\n The estimated word count of the 30 feature pages examined is 170-2,600.<\/p>\n As you can see in the chart above, the highest word count is for ZenDesk\u2019s feature page.<\/p>\n This page is in the bottom half of the 30 regarding total keywords and referring domains.<\/p>\n While Grammarly and Adobe dominate total keywords, their word count is relatively low.<\/p>\n Breaking this down further, the chart above shows those sites with non-branded keywords ranking number one.<\/p>\n Once again, word count does not significantly rank these pages, as word count ranges from 170 to 970.<\/p>\n Rather, this suggests those pages are content-specific and answer someone\u2019s query adequately.<\/p>\n The good news doesn\u2019t stop with a lower word count.<\/p>\n This research also shows that referring domains is not a priority or not necessary.<\/p>\n At the absolute lowest, one feature page had 3 referring domains, and the highest had 2,400.<\/p>\n The above chart may look familiar, but I included a line for referring domains to the URL this time.<\/p>\n Interestingly, it doesn\u2019t show a strong relationship with the total number of keywords on the page or word count.<\/p>\n One thing that stood out the most to me while doing this research is that leveraging a feature of your overall product and making it available as a free tool is a great strategy.<\/p>\n This free tool doesn\u2019t have to have all the same capabilities as your paid tool, but just enough to be useful for people actually to use, maybe even more than once.<\/p>\n Grammarly is a great example of this strategy.<\/p>\n Its feature page for plagiarism features a free tool for scanning a document or text, and it\u2019s the first thing you see when you land on it.<\/p>\n This page doesn\u2019t stop there as it continues down to explain \u201cwhy use a plagiarism checker?\u201d and who its product is for, while ending with a call-to-action (CTA) to \u201ccheck your text now.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a common strategy used by other well-known companies like Adobe or Canva.<\/p>\n It works because visitors to your website are being presented with an immediate solution without even having to sign up.<\/p>\n It creates a positive user experience with your brand and begins the dance of reciprocity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Your feature page is a landing page, so you want it to convert.<\/p>\n You want to draw in eyes from the very first moment search results populate.<\/p>\nIdentifying Opportunities For Non-Branded Feature Pages<\/h2>\n
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![\"List](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene.jpg\")
Screenshot from Ahrefs, December 2022<\/span><\/div>\nSEO Tips For Optimized Feature Pages<\/h2>\n
There Is No Recommended Word Count<\/h3>\n
![\"Sum](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene.png\")
Screenshot from Ahrefs, December 2022<\/span><\/div>\n![\"non-branded](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene-1.png\")
Screenshot from Ahrefs, December 2022<\/span><\/div>\nBacklinks Won\u2019t Make Or Break Your Page<\/h3>\n
![\"total](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene-2.png\")
Screenshot from Ahrefs, December 2022<\/span><\/div>\nCreate A Free Tool<\/h3>\n
![\"Grammarly](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene-3.png\")
Screenshot from Grammarly.com, Dec 2022<\/span><\/div>\nSchema Helps Produce Rich Results<\/h3>\n
![\"Domain](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/feature-page-seo-for-saas-non-branded-keywords-for-organic-traffic-via-sejournal-wanderinghelene-4.png\")