The most under-priced real estate on the internet is the single Amazon listing Google ranks for a commodity keyword. For 80% of product-category queries — "nitric oxide", "magnesium glycinate", "creatine monohydrate" — Google returns exactly one Amazon ASIN in the top 5. That listing captures a click volume that would cost five to six figures per month on Google Ads.
Nutricost wanted the nitric-oxide slot. Here's the 22-month playbook we ran to get it — and hold it.
The setup: a commodity brand, a commodity SERP
Nutricost came to Version with 400+ SKUs, a strong Amazon review profile, and an untapped external search opportunity. The nitric-oxide category — with 3M+ monthly searches across its long tail — was dominated by incumbent supplement retailers spending six figures monthly on Google Ads to defend keyword coverage.
Our hypothesis: if we could rank one Nutricost ASIN for the head query "nitric oxide" on Google, the click volume would convert at Amazon rates (higher than DTC) without paid spend. The whole play rested on a single listing becoming the Google-canonical answer.
Phase 1 (Months 1–3): Keyword-to-ASIN mapping
Most agencies skip this step and go straight to backlinks. That's expensive. The right first move is ASIN selection: which of your listings can realistically take the single Google-Amazon slot?
We built a matrix: Nutricost's nitric-oxide SKU against every competing ASIN currently ranking. We scored each competitor on: BSR trajectory, review velocity, backlink profile, content quality, and how entrenched their Google position was. The nitric-oxide capsule came out as our best-odds candidate — Nutricost had strong reviews, the SKU had been selling well internally on Amazon, and the current Google winner was a secondary SKU from a competitor whose reviews had flatlined.
Phase 2 (Months 2–6): The external authority engine
Amazon product pages inherit Google-ranking signals from inbound editorial links — the same way any URL does. But because the page content itself is standardized (Amazon product template), the authority delta between competing ASINs comes almost entirely from external links.
We shipped 40–60 editorial backlinks to the Nutricost nitric-oxide ASIN over months 2–6. Every link from a legitimate publication — nutrition media, health reviewers, supplement aggregators, niche blogs. No PBNs, no link farms, no directory submissions.
Two link types moved the needle most:
- Listicle inclusions — "Best nitric oxide supplements 2025" roundups. Each of these passed Google relevance signals specifically scoped to our target query.
- Ingredient-education content — articles about L-arginine, citrulline, nitric oxide synthesis that linked to our ASIN as a purchase option.
Phase 3 (Months 3–5): The editorial content ecosystem around the target keyword
With authority flowing to the ASIN, the next lever was the external content ecosystem that Google reads as context for the listing. If every third-party mention of the category reinforces the same brand, Google promotes that brand in the category SERP.
We focused on three content surfaces:
- Ingredient-education content on third-party nutrition publications — long-form articles explaining mechanism, dosage, and benefits that naturally cited Nutricost alongside two or three competitors. Each piece extended ranking to a set of related long-tail queries around the same ingredient.
- Best-of roundups and comparison content where Nutricost appeared in the shortlist alongside incumbents. These placements drove the highest relevance-weighted authority and also captured direct buyer-intent traffic from the roundup pages themselves.
- Expert-quoted PR in health and nutrition media, using Nutricost’s product team as source commentary. Those placements pulled high-authority links and signaled editorial trust around the brand.
Phase 4 (Months 6–12): Engagement signals + ranking stability
By month 6, we'd moved the ASIN from page 3 to page 1 on Google. But page 1 isn't stable — we now had to hold position against every competitor's response.
We added an engagement layer: Reddit and Quora programs seeding Nutricost mentions across nitric-oxide-adjacent threads, and a steady cadence of targeted PR placements every 6–8 weeks to keep the editorial authority flowing. Classic SEO signals reinforced by community engagement is what holds a top-slot position once you get there.
The ranking stabilized at #1 around month 9 and has held through two major Google Core Updates since.
The numbers at month 22
- #1 Google position for "nitric oxide" — held for 14+ consecutive months.
- 30,000+ monthly clicks from Google direct to the ASIN.
- $3M+ tracked revenue lift attributed to Version's program vs. baseline.
- 20+ additional #1 rankings across ashwagandha, magnesium glycinate, berberine — the playbook generalized to Nutricost's other flagship ingredients using the same sequence.
Why this doesn't work with more spend on Amazon Ads
A lot of brands ask: couldn't we just run Sponsored Products at scale and get the same outcome? The answer is no — they're different funnels. Amazon Ads intercept buyers already inside Amazon. Google-to-Amazon SEO captures intent before the shopper lands on Amazon — meaning you win buyers who would otherwise have gone to Walmart, Target, iHerb, or a DTC brand.
That incremental top-of-funnel demand is what makes external organic so valuable. It's not cannibalizing anything you already have.
If you want to run this on your Amazon catalog, book a free ASIN audit. Send us your top 5 ASINs and target keywords — we'll project the revenue opportunity and show you the competitive landscape live.