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You can still dominate the long-tail in organic search
Yes, Google AI is making it's presence felt... but there's a big picture strategy here that most ecommerce brands are still missing out on.
Ian Rhodes
July 02, 2025
I bootstrapped my ecommerce guitar business dominating long-tail search in my industry. I spent my days talking to customers (we had a high street store). I spent my evenings writing articles based on everything my customers taught me about how/why they buy. Here's a similar process you can follow (without the need of a high street store).
All too often we’re happy to throw visitors onto product pages without addressing their key questions first. That results in poor conversion rates.
Product context pages form the link between the challenge your customer faces and the problem your product solves. DTC brands leave money on the table by not creating that link. Here’s a simple process you can follow.
Take the example of a new launch shampoo brand. Their core proposition is to help thicken hair. Now, there are dozens of competing brands already in the market place, so how to get found? Make it your mission to advise. Become the authority. Take ownership of all the ways that people seek a solution. It's a straight forward process.
Use a tool such as AlsoAsked.com to discover the current ways people search around the challenge they face.
- how do I thicken my hair naturally?
- can thin hair become thicker again?
- how long does it take to thicken hair?
- what foods make your hair thicker?
as just a few examples.
You can dig deeper into each question and quickly map out a series of articles around each specific core question. Evergreen content you can share that will help you gain traction through:
- better ranking on Google (organic traffic) for specific queries
- site link extensions (Google search traffic)
- email welcome flows email post-purchase flows (eg. ‘now I’m using your product, how long will it take?’).
The list goes on.
Create your product context pages using Shopify templates or a tool like PageFly. You can include product imagery/links/buttons with ease. Link to your new context pages from footer nav or below-the-fold content on your homepage... and of course your email flows.
Track ranking success through SEOtesting and keep a close eye on the data gathered through SEOtesting (their integrated AI tool which provides content ideation is brilliant) to discover more search terms customers are using. Rinse and repeat (no shampoo pun intended).
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