In this post, I'm going to show you how to write a product review. Product reviews are incredible to use for both your marketing and sales when you have an online business.
January this year I started focusing more on creating product reviews and have seen an increase in not only my impressions, but also my clickthrough rate.
Growth after adding product reviews to my blog
To be honest, I wasn't a fan of writing product reviews but the results blew my mind. Thanks to the product reviews I 3X my number of visitors and by linking them to my other content they started ranking higher too.
The trick to having these kinds of results is to create engaging product reviews and search engine friendly.
I'm going to show you exactly how to write product reviews that convert.
Why you need product reviews
Product reviews help with ranking but there are so many more advantages to writing product reviews. At first, it might seem counterproductive to write product reviews for products that aren't your own but you can benefit a lot from them if you take a strategic approach when writing them.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider adding product reviews to your website:
- Lead generation
Your product reviews will attract people in your niche that are interested in buying products. - Draws in vendors
The moment your product reviews become popular you can use these to make deals with the vendors of the product. The moment a product review I wrote gets the number 1 spot I always contact the creator to see if I can get some benefits. - Increases authority/ credibility
When your product reviews rank high you show the ability to market content effectively. This will give you credibility which is important when trying to sell or promote products online.
You also use them to uncover scams which will help when it comes to promoting your products. - You can write product reviews for money
The people you draw in through your product reviews can easily be directed to affiliate links which as a result will make you earn a lot of money.
The Research
Not every product review is going to do well. This is why you need research beforehand if it's worth it to write the product review. You do this by researching two things:
- Product popularity
- The level of competition
Product popularity
The more popular the product, the more people will Google product reviews to help decide if they want to buy the product.
You can find out how popular a product is by using a keyword research tool to find out the average monthly searches the product or reviews of the product get.
Number of competing websites
There are millions of people out there trying to rank for product reviews which can make it hard to stand out. This is why before writing a product review you have to know how many websites you're competing with.
Ideally, you should write about very popular products that don't have a lot of competition but unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. This is why a lot of people try to write reviews about products that might be less popular but are easier to rank for.
Eventually, if you write enough of these it starts to stack up and you can direct a lot of traffic to your website.
The 3 C's needed for creating a high-converting review
An effective product review is one that keeps people engaged. The moment your readers aren't engaged they'll leave your page which is bad for your SEO, Traffic, and ultimately your income.
This is why I use the 3 C's for writing an engaging product review I learned in one of the courses of an affiliate marketing training platform I'm a member of.
Let's take a look at these C's.
Credibility
This is the most important thing you need to be able to write good product reviews. If your readers don't believe what you're saying they're never going to buy your products. There are multiple methods you can use to gain credibility.
- Provide high-quality content
People are more inclined to believe you if you have a lot of valuable content on your website. If possible you should link to this content in your product reviews. - Your own success stories
A lot of affiliate marketers use their own affiliate marketing success stories to build credibility. If you're making $100 a day thanks to a product you're promoting and you can show that it's going to build credibility. - Testimonials
Even better than your own story is those of someone else. If multiple people have had success with the product you're reviewing it conveys that it wasn't a fluke.
Snapshot of a testimonial from my wealthy affiliate review
Curiosity
While giving a lot of information is good because it makes it easier for the reader to make a decision it's better to leave some things out. You need your readers to be curious enough to try it out.
You do this by putting more focus on the benefits than the features. Talk about what you'll learn or get when purchasing the product but don't go too deep into the technical stuff.
Knowledge gaps like these will stimulate a need to know which will make someone more willing to try it out.
Can't resist offer
This is especially important for people promoting affiliate products. You have to realize that thousands of other people are promoting the same product. Why should they specifically choose your website to buy the product you're promoting or selling?
Ever heard of Perry Belcher?
He's one of the co-founders of Digitalmarketer.com and is known as one of the best copywriters in the world.
I remember watching a video of him at a summit and he said whenever he was writing a sales letter he would begin by writing the bonus page. Sometimes he'd start writing before even knowing what product he's writing a sales letter for.
I tried this for one of my product reviews and my conversion rate increased overnight. This is when I realized the importance of bonuses. They separate your offers from everyone else.
Add enough of these bonuses and you create what is called a can't resist offer. How are you supposed to turn down an offer that included more valuable bonuses than all the other websites that are promoting the same product?
You don't
If you haven't already, start adding as many bonuses to your offers as you can.
Trust me... Your conversion will skyrocket.
Ask yourself. Do your customers feel dumb when they don't buy from you? That's the objective! — Perry Belcher
Types of product reviews
You might have noticed when googling reviews that not every review is the same. There are different types of reviews and all of them serve different purposes. Let's take a look at some of these types so you'll know which type to use in which situation.
The "normal" product review
These reviews are used to inform readers about a specific product. They provide you with information about the price, features, support, and everything you need to know to make sure the product you are interested in is legit and can help you with solving your problem.
Snapshot of my Wealthy Affiliate review.
Comparison reviews
These are used when you're promoting a product that is similar to another product on the market. There is a very interesting comparison review made by Brian Dean from Backlinko that compares Ahrefs and Semrush. These are both high-end keyword planners but they have a few differences.
If coincidently your product provides a lot more value than the other the comparison review is an excellent tool to highlight that.
Gateway reviews
These reviews aren't used to get people to buy the product but they function as a magnet to attract website visitors. These often include alternatives that can be used which is often the product you're promoting or selling.
These are mostly used to get people on your email list.
Add a pop-up to the page and start growing your email list.
Important* Don't start talking bad about products you aren't promoting. This is all about attracting website visitors and gaining trust so be honest with your reviews. If a product is legit you have the obligation to share that with your readers.
Product Review Templates
Why you should start creating product review templates
If you have an online business and you want to get organic traffic chances are high that you're going to have to create a lot of product reviews. Luckily people always want to know the same things about products.
By making templates for your product reviews you save a lot of time because:
- You can focus your research on specific things.
- You don't have to create an effective structure every time
That time can be used to focus on other business aspects that need your attention.
My Product Review Template
Here's the product review template I have been using lately. You might've noticed if you have been a long-time reader that my templates have changed over time. This is because I'm always trying to optimize my templates to provide readers with more value while spending less time.
Look at your templates at least once a month to see if there is any way to improve them. Now let's take a look at the Real Digital Success product review template.
- Product review Title
Include the name of the product and something important about the product to hook readers that find it on social media or Google. - leading question
This is the question that'll lead the entire review. Some questions that are often used are "Is [product] legit?", "Is [product] a scam", Why is [product] the #1 tool. - Overview + leading question
This is for the people that don't have a lot of time and just want to know what the product is about, the price, and if it'll work for them. - Information about the founder
The founder can say a lot about the quality of a product. If the founder is known to create a lot of "crappy" products chances are this product might not be good too. - Who can benefit
Not every product can help all people reach their goals this why it's important to have a section that lets people know who can benefit from the product and who can't. - Pros and Cons
A quick overview of the benefits and the aspects of the products you might not find ideal. - Features, Tools, and Training
Here is where you list all the features the product provides you with. - Personal Take
This is where you give your own opinion on the product based on your own experiences. You can be a bit more subjective here. - Conclusion
This is where you answer the leading question of the review. - Alternatives
Just in case your readers were looking for something different I always include some alternatives that can help readers with their goals.
Ranking Your Product Reviews
Your product reviews can help a lot with lead generation but to do that you need your product reviews to rank high in Google. You do this by optimizing your product reviews for search engines.
There are a view things you need to keep in mind while trying to rank your product reviews.
- Keyword placement
To rank your content for specific search queries you're going to have to put your targeted keyword in certain places of your content. A few of these places are the title, first paragraph, meta-description, and title tag.
Linking strategy for your product reviews
A huge contributor to ranking your product reviews is your linking strategy. Depending on your niche you're going to have to build both internal and external links.
Internal links
The internal links will help with getting readers to stay longer on your website and help pass link equity from your popular pages to your other pages. According to an article on Moz.com internal links are useful for three reasons:
- They improve the navigation of your website
- Internal links can help with establishing an information hierarchy
- They help spread "link equity" around your website
In this situation, we're mostly doing it to get link equity to our product reviews.
Outbound links
Outbound links are links that point to other websites. When you link to websites with a lot of authority it gives credibility to your content which makes Google view it as valuable content. Especially when you have a brand new website it can help with getting your website ranked.
backlinks
While internal links can pass authority from your popular pages to your less popular pages backlinks can pass link equity from other websites to yours.
This is why a lot of people try to get other websites with a lot of authority to link back to their website.
According to a study done by Brian Dean from Backlinko.com, there is a correlation between a website's position on Google and the number of domains referring to them.
Backlinko.com (2019) 200 ranking factors
This doesn't necessarily mean you have to get +300 domains to refer your website to rank #1 for every search result( It depends on your niche) but it does say that backlinks play a role when trying to rank.
The balance between internal and external links
Everything you do communicates something to Google this is why you have to be careful with everything you do.
For example, if you only place external links in your content it looks like you don't view your content as valuable and as a result, Google won't view your content as valuable.
If you don't add external links to websites with a lot of authority you miss out on a big chance to make your content more credible in Google's eyes.
This is why there has to be a balance between how many internal and external links you use. I always strive for a 50/50 balance when it comes to internal and external links in my content.
How To Properly Monetize Your Product Reviews
Product reviews are a great tool to use to bring in affiliate sales but their main value to your readers is that they help people answer their questions about the products. They aren't sales letters you can spam full of links to get as much money out of as possible.
Native links
Ideally, they should fit in the context of the content. It should look more like an external link that is used to give more information about what you're talking about. This way it never comes off as that you're trying to sell a product to your readers.
In my opinion, there are only a few places where it's appropriate to put affiliate links. In the overview when you mention the website of the product, in the call to action area at the end of the review, between content sections if it offers a solution.
Disclaimers
The moment you start using affiliate links its wise to put an affiliate/ earning disclaimer either in your product review or somewhere on your website where readers can view it.
According an article on the website of the ftc depending on where you're located you're obligated to disclose that you earn a commission on the product you review.
The balance between blog content and product reviews
When you know what is possible with product reviews it might become tempting to just focus on creating a lot of product reviews and getting them ranked.
Logically, it'd be the easiest way to get a lot of leads and start earning money real quick but this is counterproductive.
To gain authority search engines and people need to see that you know what you're talking about.
This means you're going to have to write educational content geared towards your niche to show you're qualified to review the products on your website.
I've seen a lot of websites that only focus on product reviews and aren't getting anywhere. Don't let this be you!
That's all I have to say for today but I'd love to hear from you.
Do you write product reviews for your website or are you planning to?
Also, have you seen an increase in your traffic after writing product reviews?
Rogier,
I enjoyed reading your post. As a person new to affiliate marketing, it was very informational and I would recommend others to read your website. Thank you.
Ron
Hey Ron,
great to hear you liked it. I’ll start posting more so feel free to visit the page every now and then.
Rogier
An awesome walkthrough on How To Write A Product Review That Converts, Rogier, you’ve left nothing out here!
I know that doing product reviews can get you really good results ig they’re done right and your article gives people a great blueprint to get going.
Great job!
hey John,
Thanks for the kind words. I tried to provide as much information as possible glad to hear you liked it.
greetings,
Rogier
Thanks so much for this post, I wrote many product reviews a few years ago I mean I spend weeks writing them and the hard part is that I did not make a single sale. Thanks so much for sharing this post I will have to go back and have a look at it.
hey Norman,
Good to hear you found it useful. I’ve noticed that especially the bonuses helped with getting people to click on my affiliate links.
Let me know how it worked out.