Online Store Launch Playbook

Who this is for

Founders and small ecommerce teams opening a new online store, or moving an existing shop onto its own domain.

Before you start

• Your product catalogue organised into categories, with the attributes a shopper compares.
• A clear description of who each category is for and the problem it solves for them.
• Shipping, returns and sizing information that articles can link to rather than restate.
• A blog or content section on the store that you can publish to.

Step 1

Plan around buying decisions

Start from the choices a shopper makes, not from the products you want to promote.

1. 01For each category, list the decisions a shopper faces: which type, which size, which material, which use.
2. 02Turn each decision into a buying-guide topic and note the products that answer it.
3. 03Identify care, setup and how-to questions that buyers ask after purchase, for a second set of articles.
4. 04Decide which category to cover first, usually the one with the most products or the clearest decisions.

Step 2

Create guides and category copy

Write content that helps someone choose, then point them to the products that fit their choice.

1. 01Write one buying guide per decision, explaining the trade-offs in plain language before naming products.
2. 02Rewrite category page introductions so they describe who the category is for and link to the matching guide.
3. 03Add care and how-to articles for products that need them, linking back to the product page.
4. 04Check every product mention against the live catalogue so a guide never recommends something out of stock for good.

Step 3

Publish alongside the catalogue

Release guides with the categories they support, so shoppers and search engines find them together.

1. 01Publish the guides for a category at the same time as, or shortly after, its product pages go live.
2. 02Link from each product page to the guide that explains its category, and from the guide back to the products.
3. 03Add the guides to the store navigation or footer so they are reachable without search.
4. 04Plan the next category’s guides on a fixed cadence rather than as a one-off launch batch.

Step 4

Measure what the guides do

Look at the path from guide to product, not only at visits to the guide.

1. 01Check which guides are shown in search and for which queries, using your search console.
2. 02Follow clicks from each guide to product pages in your store analytics.
3. 03Update guides when products, prices or stock change, and retire guides for discontinued ranges.
4. 04Use the questions customer service receives to choose the next articles.

Common pitfalls

• Guides that are product lists with a heading. A shopper who wanted help choosing leaves without it.
• Copying manufacturer descriptions into category pages, which leaves them saying the same as every other store.
• Linking only from guides to products and never back, so product pages carry no context for the shopper.
• Leaving seasonal guides live and unchanged after the season has ended.

Where Opus Rank helps

Tutorials for the parts of this plan you can do in Opus Rank.

• Build a topical map

  Plan a cluster of buying guides and how-to articles for each category.

• Generate an article: every option on the form

  Set the article type, length and audience for each guide on the generation form.

• Featured and in-article images

  Add a featured image and, where it helps, images inside the article.

• Publish an article to your CMS

  Send finished guides to your store’s blog through a connected CMS.

Related playbooks

• SaaS Product Launch Playbook
• Home Services Launch Playbook
• Newsletter Launch Playbook