How to Write a Product Listicle That Gets Cited by AI and Converts

“Top X alternatives” or “best tools for X” listicles make up 20-30% of the 600+ blog posts I’ve written for B2B SaaS companies and SEO agencies. Over the last 12 months, it’s probably closer to 50%. 

Such listicles are popular because they rank for branded keywords and move customers down the funnel. And recently — get cited in AI search results. 

In this article, I will show you how to write high-quality listicles that rank in SERPs, get quoted in AI answers, and most importantly — help readers make the right decision.

No fluff, just useful, practical tips, illustrated with examples.

Here’s the process I follow when I write listicles, from research and outlining through drafting, editing, and optimization. 

Let’s assume I have no content brief, just the primary keyword. For example, “Whatfix alternatives” or “AI rank tracking tools.”

This is enough to tell I’m writing a BOFU listicle. But not much more, so I plug the keyword into Google to see what’s ranking and why.

When inspecting competing articles, I’m interested in:

This gives me a ballpark idea of what I should be aiming for. 

If these articles rank, they must give readers what they need. 

But they aren’t models to replicate. More like a baseline to improve on. 

The next question to answer is “Who’s the target reader?”

In case of BOFU listicles, that’s usually someone who’s looking for a product or service and is considering multiple options. 

But what if your product caters to multiple user personas?

For example, Walkme is both an employee and user onboarding tool, and each use case requires different features. 

Sometimes, the clue is in the keyword. I recently wrote a piece targeting “best e-commerce platforms for small business.” 

If the keyword tells me nothing about the target reader, I do one of 3 things:

The target persona choice guides the next steps.  

When I know who I am writing for, I research their unique needs and limitations.

For example, a small business looking for an e-commerce platform needs a solution that’s easy to implement and manage because it doesn’t have the developer resources of a corporation.

When identifying customer needs, I want to know:

Normally, the content manager shares these insights with me. 

You can also get the answers from:

When I know what matters to the prospective buyer or client, I look for products or services that tick the boxes. 

Google is my best friend here. A few searches for products within a particular category are enough to gather a list of candidates. 

When I have the list, I dig deeper to learn why exactly each tool is a good choice and why it isn’t. 

My favorite sources are:

I gather quotes, data, and screenshots as I go.

And rate each product based on the identified criteria (features, ease-of-use, pricing, etc).

“What about testing the tools or products?” I hear you ask.

Writing from my own experience is, of course, more valuable than from secondary or tertiary sources.

But only when I’ve used the tool in anger. To complete real tasks, just like the target user would.

And I’ve done it. For example, I’ve used a lot of the SEO tools I’ve written about. Or some of the product analytics ones.

But let’s face it: this isn’t always possible. Or feasible. 

Not all tools have free plans or trials, and purchasing the subscription isn’t often an option, especially if there are 10+ of them. And even if I can get a subscription, it isn’t always possible to test their full potential without extensive setup or data import. 

In step 5, I polish the listicle outline. Say “polish” because I start outlining the article way earlier — while researching the products. 

Now, I just need to:

When finalizing the outline, I keep going back to the target reader — their needs, and their decision-making process. If a detail isn’t going to help them make a decision, I leave it out. 

Most of my listicle entries follow this structure:

On the H2 level, this is normally:

When the outline is ready, drafting the listicle is a walk in the park. 

Kind of.

Writing about 5 similar products without sounding repetitive isn’t a problem. For 10+ could be. That’s where I sometimes resort to AI for help. Not to write the whole section, but to find fresher ways to express similar ideas!

When writing the listicle draft, I focus on:

When the copy is ready, I add the visuals.

They include:

Visuals break up text and make the information easy to process – for readers and AI. They also keep readers on page, increase visibility in visual search, and pages with 7 or more images attract more links and shares, driving SEO performance. 

Talking of SEO performance, the next step is optimization for organic search engine and LLM visibility. 

My SEO optimization checklist includes:

I normally use an SEO optimization tool, like Surfer, NeuronWriter, or Clearscope, so a lot of it happens as I’m drafting, and now I just double-check to make sure all boxes are ticked. 

As to AI search optimization, here are a few best practices to follow:

Most of these things aren’t new — I was doing them way before AIO/GEO/LLMO became a thing. 

The final step is editing the piece.

My editing process looks like this:

If you want people read about your product or service, put it up front. For 3 reasons:

When comparing products or listing alternatives, be fair, transparent, and honest.

When writing about your product or service, it’s hard to be objective. One reason? You know it better than your competitors, so you can offer more insights. (And yes, you want the reader to pick yours.)

My approach:

Lack of honesty and transparency can backfire big time. Customers will sniff it out immediately, and you will lose all credibility.

But let’s imagine they don’t and go on to buy your product — even if it doesn’t satisfy their needs.

That’s even worse!

Your Sales and customer success teams will have potentially wasted a lot of time and energy onboarding a customer who is going to churn.

And think about the reputation damage that their negative feedback might cause!

When writing ‘best of’ list posts, don’t try to make yours longer than competitors at all costs.

We’ve all done it: the competing articles list 10 products, so let’s make it 15. They have 20, I’ll do 25. Or 30. The old good Skyscraper method.

And there are SEO incentives: listing more products helps you capture more branded traffic.   

Here’s the kicker: such crazy long lists don’t help the reader make a decision. It makes it more difficult because instead of narrowing the list, you expand it for them. 

Worse yet, the quality suffers. Covering 50 products in detail is hardly ever an option (especially if you’re limited to 2500-3000 words). 

My approach: Choose the products that best address user needs, desires, or pain points, and explore them in more depth. Provide valuable information that enables readers to make informed choices.

When I create a listicle, I also list products that aren’t suitable for the target reader. 

And explain why they aren’t a good choice.

The explanations aren’t as detailed as the main entries. Just bullet points with 1-2 sentences, like in the article for Doofinder about ecommerce platforms for small businesses.

By listing less suitable products or services, I can still rank for the keywords while helping readers to narrow down their options even further. 

“Prices start from $$$” + a lonely pricing page screenshot. 

That’s what many pricing sections in listicles look like. 

 I know. I’ve written a few of these myself. And honestly, if you have 150-200 words to write about a digital product, a deep dive into pricing isn’t an option. 

But how helpful is such a section?

Not very. Because it says nothing about what it means to the reader. They might as well visit the product website. 

A better approach to writing pricing sections:

When researching a product, look at recent reviews only. 

For software tools, anything older than a year may not be valid. If the company is listening to their customers, they have dealt with the issues by now (if they haven’t, do flag it up in the article). 

No recent reviews? 

Check Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook for any mentions. 

No luck again? Test the specific product aspect if you have access. 

If the product or service has 5-star-only reviews, be cautious. 

There’s a risk the reviews might not be genuine.

It’s difficult to be perfect. 

When researching for listicles, don’t use AI assistants. 

LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity pull data from various sources. Apart from the original data they were trained on, they also use ranking pages. 

These could be on the product website, but they don’t have to be. They could have been written by competitors or not updated for ages.   

The result? Inaccurate information about the features or prices. I see it all the time.

A table summarizing the key information about the listed products, like their features, prices, and overall verdict, at the beginning of the article, gives readers a quick overview of what is what.

And AI bots can easily access information in such structured formats, so it increases the likelihood of getting cited.

Would a bulletted or numbered list work? Sure, but I find them harder to digest.

To wrap it up, here are answers to common questions about list articles. 

A listicle is an article organized as a list, where each point answers a part of the question.

For example, “7 Best Project Management Tools for Small Teams” or “How to Optimize Your Website for AI in 7 Steps.”

Listicles are a popular content format because of their numerous benefits.

Specifically, they:

Listicles in content marketing come in different shapes:

The three main differences between BOFU and general listicles revolve around:

The story was originally published on tatarek.co.uk