Ecommerce: How to do best product content piece - include competitors?

[BobGW]

Hello,

A client runs an Ecommerce store.

Doing a "best running shoes" type piece of content in our industry.

I (the SEO) want to be 10X better than the first listing and be honest and fit intent by including  all "running shoes" from all internet suppliers (including nofollow links). It's about 8-10 names. We could list us first when we carry a product. like 6 other site's products 4 of ours, listing who carries the product with our site listed first if we do. We have some of the best. The meta description and top of the article would be like. We analyzed 23+ sites and made some hard conclusions.... But wait, one of the owners doesn't want to list competitor site names even if they are nofollow or even just text. She only wants to include items from our store. I would have to rename the content "Our Top 5 products" and it would be a mismatch in intent and keywords for "best running shoes" and just be for our customers.

What is the most proper SEO thing to do to attack "best running shoes" (if appropriate)keeping in mind long terms sales? The owner wants to hear your suggestions as well. And is a "best" keyword sometimes competition?

Thanks.

[ClaytonJ]

We focus on data driven content with an info graphic as we have had amazing successes.  Have you considered same?  The topic you are discussing is topical... something I might type in. We find consumers are chasing hard data. For free data sources jump onto google trends and google correlate and see if you create a newsworthy story backed by some stats.

You will need some way of amplifying your content. Have you got a strategy for same? I try and start with the amplification question first as that may dictate the content strategy.

Hope that assists.

[Sigma_Digital]

Hi Bob,

I think your client brings up some valid points. As I am sure you are aware, from an SEO perspective, any links to competitors products ads the risk of losing the visitor to your site.

When structuring a piece of content like you are at he moment, have you though about something like "Our Top 10 Running shoes for this summer" but only include your current products. Otherwise I would look at informative content that supports the products USP. For example if the shoe in question is designed to support the runners ankle then I would do an article on "Attention all Runner! 10 ways to protect your ankles this summer". Obviously reward to get the keyword at the beginning and all of the other technical content marketing standard practices.

I hope that helps out a little bit.

Stefan