How to Use Content Layering to Grow B2B Product Rankings

Your product pages aren’t ranking because you’re approaching content strategy backward. Most companies obsess over optimizing product pages directly while completely ignoring the content ecosystem that actually drives rankings.

Most Businesses Get Content Strategy Completely Backward

The data is clear: pages linked from three or more top-funnel articles see 72% higher organic traffic (Backlinko, 2024), and brands using layered content strategies experience 47% higher organic visibility overall (BrightEdge, 2024). Yet most businesses still treat their blog as a separate entity from their product pages.

Content layering isn’t just another SEO tactic. It’s a fundamental shift in how search engines evaluate your site’s authority and relevance. If you’re not implementing it, you’re leaving money on the table.

The Three Fatal Flaws in Your Current B2B Content Strategy

1. You’re Creating Content in Silos

Most B2B companies build walls between their blog content and product pages. Blog posts exist in one universe, product pages in another, with minimal strategic connection between them.

This fragmented approach prevents authority from flowing between content pieces and fails to guide users through the buyer’s journey.

As we teach in our Scaling Content Marketing course:

“Your product pages should be at the bottom of your funnel, interlinked with mid-funnel (educational) and top-funnel (brand-building) content.”

2. You’re Misunderstanding Content’s Role in the Funnel

Your top-funnel content isn’t just about traffic. It’s about building domain authority that flows to your product pages. Yet most B2B marketers create blog posts without considering how they connect to their money pages.

A 2023 Journal of Marketing study found that brands with structured content layers reduce bounce rates by 29% by aligning content with search intent. This isn’t theory. It’s how Google actually works.

3. You’re Not Strategically Interlinking

Even when businesses create content across the funnel, they fail to implement proper internal linking structures. Your high-performing top-funnel content should pass authority to your product pages through strategic internal links.

Without this, you’re building a house with no foundation.

The Science Behind Content Layering That Actually Works

Content layering works because it aligns with how both users and search engines process information. Here’s the framework:

The Three Layers Every B2B Site Needs

1. Top-funnel content: Targets broad, informational keywords (e.g., “What is IoT?”) to attract a wide audience and build brand awareness.
2. Mid-funnel content: Focuses on problem-solving keywords (e.g., “IoT vs. RFID”) to engage users with specific needs.
3. Bottom-funnel content: Optimizes for transactional intent (e.g., “IoT solutions pricing”) to drive conversions.

How Top-Funnel Content Actually Boosts Product Page Rankings

Top-funnel content enhances product page rankings through three specific mechanisms:

1. Authority Building

Top-funnel content attracts 3x more backlinks than product pages (Ahrefs, 2024). These backlinks increase your domain authority, which positively impacts rankings across your site—including product pages.

2. Internal Link Equity

When you strategically link from high-performing top-funnel content to your product pages, you pass “link equity” that helps those pages rank better. This is particularly powerful when your top-funnel content ranks well and attracts significant traffic.

3. Brand Recognition and Click-Through Rate

Users who encounter your brand through top-funnel content develop familiarity that increases click-through rates when they see your product pages in search results. Google recognizes these improved engagement metrics and rewards your pages with better rankings.

The KOB Score: A Framework for Content Prioritization

To implement content layering effectively, you need to prioritize the right topics. The KOB (Keyword Opposition to Benefit) Score helps identify high-value opportunities:

This formula balances the potential traffic value against the difficulty of ranking, helping you identify topics that offer the best return on investment.

For example, a keyword with a traffic value of 30,000 and a difficulty score of 90 would have a KOB score of 333. The higher the score, the better the opportunity.

B2B Companies That Get Content Layering Right

HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Guide

HubSpot’s “Complete Guide to Inbound Marketing” (top-funnel) attracts millions of visitors and generates thousands of backlinks. This guide funnels users to mid-funnel content like “Best Marketing Automation Tools” and ultimately to bottom-funnel product pages (e.g., HubSpot Marketing Hub).

Results: Improved domain authority and sustained rankings for competitive keywords, even in a crowded market dominated by high-authority sites.

Key Takeaway: By creating an industry-defining resource at the top of the funnel, HubSpot established authority that flows to their product pages, helping them compete against larger competitors.

Coca-Cola’s B2B Content Layering

Coca-Cola revamped CokeSolutions.com with layered content (blogs, tools, emails) targeting different stages of the buyer’s journey for their B2B customers—businesses that sell Coca-Cola products.

Results: 44% conversion rates and dominant SERP positions for commercial keywords.

Strategy: Used top-funnel thought leadership to attract links, boosting domain authority for product pages. Their approach demonstrates how even established brands can use content layering to strengthen their digital presence.

Geekbot’s Mid-Funnel Success

Geekbot (a B2B Slack bot for standup meetings) targeted the mid-funnel keyword “virtual daily standup” with comprehensive guides that linked to their product pages.

Results: Ranked #1 for “virtual daily standup” and “remote standup,” driving 35% YoY organic growth.

Key Insight: By focusing on problem-aware keywords that directly relate to their product’s value proposition, Geekbot created a bridge between awareness and conversion.

Implementing Content Layering: What to Do Right Now

1. Map Your Content Funnel

Start by identifying keywords at each stage of the funnel:

• Top-funnel: Broad, informational keywords with high search volume (e.g., “What is IoT?”)
• Mid-funnel: Problem-aware keywords (e.g., “IoT vs. RFID”)
• Bottom-funnel: Product-specific, transactional keywords (e.g., “IoT solutions pricing”)

2. Conduct a KOB Analysis

Use the KOB Score formula to prioritize topics:

1. Identify potential keywords across your funnel
2. Determine the traffic value and keyword difficulty for each
3. Calculate the KOB Score
4. Prioritize topics with the highest scores

3. Create Linkable Top-Funnel Assets

Develop top-funnel content that naturally attracts backlinks:

• Original research and data
• Comprehensive guides
• Interactive tools
• Visual assets (infographics, videos)

4. Implement Strategic Internal Linking

Connect your content layers through intentional internal linking:

• Link from top-funnel to mid-funnel content
• Link from mid-funnel to product pages
• Include product page links in your navigation and footer
• Use descriptive anchor text that includes target keywords

5. Measure and Optimize

Track the performance of your content layering strategy:

• Top-funnel metrics: Traffic, backlinks, social shares
• Mid-funnel metrics: Time on page, scroll depth
• Bottom-funnel metrics: Keyword rankings, conversion rates

Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Hotjar to analyze user journeys from top-funnel content to product pages.

Stop Creating Content and Start Building Content Ecosystems

Content layering isn’t a tactic. It’s a fundamental shift in how we approach SEO and content marketing. Rather than viewing your blog and product pages as separate entities, content layering recognizes them as interconnected parts of a single ecosystem.

The most successful B2B businesses in 2025 won’t be those with the most content or the most optimized product pages in isolation. They’ll be the ones who strategically build content ecosystems where each piece serves both users and search engines while guiding visitors toward conversion.

This approach typically takes 6-12 months to show significant results, but the compounding benefits make it one of the highest-ROI strategies in digital marketing.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to implement content layering. It’s whether you can afford not to while your competitors build content ecosystems that dominate the SERPs for your most valuable keywords.