Lay the SEO Groundwork to Launch a New Product
Ideally, SEO should be part of the initial launch strategy discussions to allow enough lead time for implementation before release.
Start by Auditing Your Website’s Technical SEO Health
Conduct an SEO technical audit to catch any issues that might prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing your site. Look for:
- Broken links or missing images that result in 404 errors could negatively impact the awareness of your product
- Issues with site speed or mobile optimization
- Lack of semantic HTML markup and metadata can significantly impact the effectiveness of your product marketing efforts
- Old, duplicated, or thin content
Remediating these deficiencies prepares your site for the influx of new product pages and content.
Define Your Go-to-Market Product Launch Strategy
Create your GTM positioning and messaging strategy. This information will determine the terminology and themes you’ll want to optimize for during each stage of the product launch. Conduct market research to identify:
- Target customer demographics, interests, and pain points to tailor your marketing campaign when preparing to launch a product
- Customer needs can provide insight for product managers
- What motivates their purchase journey
Understand the Market Landscape
Research how people are searching for solutions in your space by analyzing:
- Buyer keywords and questions
- Search trends and seasonality can greatly impact the awareness of your product
- Competitors’ visibility for key terms
This intel exposes opportunities to rank for valuable search queries by filling the gaps left by competition missing the mark, providing a significant edge in your product marketing strategy and product awareness.
Model Out Content Mapping
Map out a prospective content plan and website information architecture that aligns with buyer journeys.
Determine whether you will update existing pages or create new standalone product pages as part of your go-to-market strategy. Consider crafting pillar content that educates around common pain points as lead gen.
Use this framework to ideate SEO-friendly content titles and layouts optimized for top, middle, and bottom funnel keywords, which is crucial for a successful go-to-market strategy.
Select a Product Launch Date
Choose a target launch date and work backwards to allot time for content creation and technical SEO to successfully launch your product. Building in a few months’ lead time allows new pages time to index and start ranking before launch day.
Research and Optimize Keywords
Identifying the search terms and questions your customers use during their buyer journey is imperative to connect with them during each stage of the product launch.
Follow this process to build your keyword research during the launch process:
- Brainstorm an exhaustive list of words representing product features, benefits, and industry terminology.
2. Expand the list with questions and keywords using tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to effectively launch your product.
3. Categorize keywords by theme and search volume to prioritize targets.
4. Identify 5-10 primary focus keywords to optimize for, aligned to your GTM strategy, to ensure an effective product launch. Selection criteria may include metrics relevant to product awareness.
- High search volume
- Good cost per click
- Low competition
- Purchase intent
5. Identify dozens of secondary long tail variations for depth.
By identifying hundreds of relevant keyword targets at the beginning, you have data to optimize pages for both primary lucrative terms as well as their long tail semantic variations to ensure a successful launch of the product.
Create an SEO-Optimized Product Launch Plan
Now that you’ve completed your technical site audit remediations, data-driven keyword research, and content framework, it’s time to create optimized content.
Craft Content That Answers Buyer Questions
Refer to your keyword research and create educational articles and FAQs that directly respond to the questions and terminology your potential customers use around problems/solutions.
Address their pain points with tips and how-to advice. Feature unique data or perspectives that add value. Outline specifically how your new offering solves each frustration better than alternatives, which can be a critical point in your product management strategy.
This helps search engines understand what your content is about while providing genuine help to visitors.
Apply On-Page SEO Best Practices
When publishing content, be sure to optimize all elements on the page for conversions and SEO, including details from your product roadmap and any new features.
- Compelling title tag and meta description that uses focus keywords
- Semantic header tags
- Strong call-to-action above the fold
- Optimized image file names/alt text
- Internal links to related materials can help streamline product development by providing context and reference points
Making these minor but powerful tweaks to on-page elements convey to search engines what each page is about, and prompts clicks from searchers.
Get Social Shares and Backlinks
Earning backlinks from reputable sites demonstrates subject matter expertise and authority. A strategic mix of relevant social shares also indirectly endorses your content, increasing the awareness of your product.
Proactively generate visibility and credibility for your pre-launch content by:
- Promoting new blogs and tools on company social channels
- Repurposing into new formats for syndication should be an integral part of your product marketing strategy to support the ongoing marketing campaign
- Guest posting on industry niche sites
- Securing media placements in roundups or as contributed articles can significantly boost the awareness of your product
- Requesting partners exchange cross-links
This momentum leading up to launch day helps boost organic visibility and trust for your brand.
New Product Launch Day SEO Game Plan
The big launch event has arrived! Executing these best practices will propel exposure and engagement from the start of your product management journey and throughout the launch process.
Highlight Product Value Proposition Messaging
Emphasize concise messaging on your new product pages that clearly conveys your unique value proposition: the tangible outcomes and benefits you provide better than alternatives, ensuring a type of product that stands out in the market. Repeating these differentiated keywords throughout page copy—and even in file names—reinforces relevance, so be consistent for a great product launch.
Show Social Proof
Immediately feature credible reviews and customer testimonials, calling out your key differentiators front and center on product pages to support your marketing campaign. Ask early access users for feedback to refine your product development process. Quotes from recognizable brands carry more weight.
Promote, Promote, Promote
Press releases, social campaigns, email nurturing, and even old-fashioned word-of-mouth are all fair game in your product marketing efforts. Push launch event visibility through owned, earned, and paid channels for maximum impact.
This cross-channel promotion expands brand exposure and gives new pages a popularity spike, signaling relevancy to search engines.
Keep Launch Success Momentum Post-Release
The job isn’t over once the launch day passes, as continued efforts are critical to the success of your marketing campaign. Maintaining visibility and continual optimization are vital for adoption.
Analyze Performance
Review analytics to spot quick wins like high bounce rates on key pages that require copy tweaks for clarity. Study customer on-site behavior and adjust site architecture as needed based on usage patterns to prepare for a full-scale launch.
Address Negative Signals
Keep listening on social channels and reviewing sites for complaints to inform your marketing team. Quickly respond and resolve issues or objections to avoid harming credibility. Surface positive reviews to boost product awareness.
Sustain Momentum with Ongoing Promotion
Identify your product or service champions among early adopters and nurture them to organically spread awareness. Maintain drumbeat promotions through digital and social campaigns to create excitement for your new feature or type of product launch. Consider incremental updates announcing new capabilities or integrations.
By taking an SEO-first approach, starting from initial launch planning through post-release, product teams can maximize the visibility and conversions of new offerings. Align messaging to buyer questions, optimize pages for on-brand keywords, generate authority by securing backlinks, highlight differentiated value, and sustain momentum—all key components of a comprehensive product launch checklist.
SEO Product Launch Checklist
Planning Phase
- Conduct technical SEO audit of existing website
- Define target customer and market positioning
- Research buyer keywords and competitor visibility
- Map out the proposed content framework and site architecture
- Set a tentative launch date
- Conduct extensive keyword research and prioritization
Pre-Launch Content Creation
- Create educational articles and FAQs answering buyer questions
- Optimize on-page elements for all new content (titles, metadata, CTAs, etc.)
- Build backlinks and social shares to increase authority
- Develop optimized product page content highlighting UVP
Launch Period
- Update product pages with concise value proposition statements
- Spotlight credible customer reviews and testimonials
- Execute an integrated launch campaign across channels
- Analyze site traffic and conversion metrics for quick wins
Post-Launch Follow Up
- Address any negative user feedback publicly
- Nurture product champions to organically spread awareness
- Sustain momentum with ongoing promotions and updates
- Continually optimize pages based on analytics and signals
Following this comprehensive SEO launch checklist will help ensure your new product gains maximum organic visibility and adoption right out of the gate!
How Menerva Digital Can Help
Launching a new product is an exciting journey, and leveraging SEO effectively can make all the difference in achieving a successful launch. If you want to maximize your product’s visibility and reach, our team is here to help. As experts in enterprise SEO, we specialize in crafting tailored strategies that drive results. Let us partner with you to ensure your product launch reaches its full potential. Contact us today to learn more about how we can elevate your product launch with cutting-edge SEO solutions.
