How to turn product templates into SEO content

Publish a useful page per template and let readers open it in your product.

Impact
Low
Effort
Medium
Filed under
Content, SEO
Updated

Turning templates into content means building a public page for each template your product already includes, such as a meeting agenda, a project plan or a contract. People search for "agenda template" or "retro template". The page answers that search and the full template opens inside your product, so the reader signs up to use it. It fits products that ship a library of reusable documents or boards.

How to do it

  1. List the templates your product already has. Pick the ones people search for by name. Check the search terms in Google Search Console or a keyword tool before you build a page.
  2. Give each template its own page. The page should be useful without a sign-up: show the structure, explain how to run or fill it in, and say who it is for. Spinach's sales team meeting template walks through eight agenda items with a time for each.
  3. Make the next step one click. Put a "Use this template" button at the top that opens the template in your app, so the reader is already editing it after sign-up. Skip the extra form between the page and the template.
  4. Offer a fallback download. Some visitors want a file. Spinach lets readers download its templates as Word, Excel or PDF, which meets that need and keeps the page worth visiting.
  5. Link the pages together. Add an index page and group templates by role or use case, and link related ones from each page. For the product-side version of this idea, see cloneable templates.
  6. Track the path: search impressions, clicks to the page, clicks on the button, sign-ups, and whether those users keep using the template.

Examples

  • Spinach (where the Soapbox library now lives). The Growth List's original card described Soapbox's agenda template library as a way to catch search traffic. The old soapboxhq.com/agenda-templates address now redirects through hypercontext.com to spinach.ai. The index there is titled "100+ Free Agenda Templates for Better Meetings". Each page shows the agenda, a free "Use this template" button and Word, Excel and PDF downloads.
  • Miro. Its template library page lists 7,000+ templates, and its template cards show a "Use template" button.
  • Confluence. Atlassian's template page offers 100+ templates for Confluence such as project plans, meeting notes and product specs, and points visitors to a free workspace.

When it backfires

  • Thin pages. Google's spam policies describe "scaled content abuse" as many pages made mainly to manipulate rankings, including pages generated with AI tools without adding value for users. A hundred near-identical pages with a title and a button will not help you.
  • Wrong intent. Someone who wants a one-off file may leave when asked to sign up. That is why the free download is on the list above.
  • Low-quality sign-ups. People who arrive for a template may never use your product. Track activation, not only sign-ups.
  • Maintenance. Templates age. Update the page whenever the in-product template changes.
  • Rights. Only publish templates you wrote or have the right to share.

Questions people ask

How do I build content templates that convert? Make each page complete enough to be useful alone, put the "Use this template" action above the fold, and give the reader a reason to prefer the in-product version, such as editing, sharing or reuse.

Sources

Want word-of-mouth like this on autopilot?

CommunityMentions gets your brand mentioned in the Reddit threads your buyers already read, plus YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn and X. We aim for 5 to 10 comments a day.

See how it works →

Related tactics

All 133 tactics →