Ecommerce- Keyword use in Product links on Category page
-
I'm wondering how Keyword use in Product links on Category pages can affect a pages rank?
I have 1 site where this seems to be an issue but not on all categories. For this site, a site: keyword search ranks the category page as no.1 in the SERPS but a non-site: search shows 1 of the many products within the category as the highest ranking page (currently 20 in google) on this site.
This product is probably the least likely to generate a conversion due to it's cost so this is less than ideal. The plural search of the keyword shows the category page and it ranks higher than the keyword itself (currently 9 in google)
Category name and URL = keyword. The category is paginated with 12 products per page.
Product URL and anchor text is brand-model-type (where type = keyword)
I'd like to keep the product URLs and anchors as they are if I can as they are well searched terms themselves but I want to optimize a category page to rank for the keyword itself.
Have any of you overcome a similar issue? Would adding more text to the category page dilute the issue?
-
Just thought I'd update in case anyone else is finding product pages are outranking category pages like I was. (also of note this site is built on Magento)
I changed all product names / URL's / Image meta so that it no longer included the keyword on 4th September.
Used to be: Brand Model# Keyword (Product type)
Now just: Brand Model#
Google did a little dance and now my Category pages rank (for both keyword and keyword plural) rather than product pages. Rankings increased to position #3 for keyword and to #1 for keyword plural (from position 11) about a week ago and are now steady at those positions.
It seems categories with only a few products were not affected (seen as over optimized) but those categories with 30+ products were.
-
I think you did answer your own question.
Rankings for site:mysite.com keyword is completely irrelevant. You're telling Google to show you the pages of your site with that keyword. It's only an indication for if you are being indexed or not.
So no other questions remain?
Good luck to you
Regards
Jarno
-
Hi Jarno, thanks for the reply and sorry I wasn't clearer in my question...
For the singular keyword, the category page will not rank at all despite being at position one for a site:myurl.com keyword search. Google shows a product page instead. No issues for the plural version.
I figured that the keyword usage in the product anchor was cannibalizing. (The On-Page tool was suggesting this also). I was reluctant to change as no other category on the site has the same issue despite having the same configuration AND I didn't want to risk losing ranking on each of the products.
I think I may have answered my own question. I've removed the keyword from each of the product links and anchors and will see what happens.
-
Marc,
Don't know if i got the entire question as you asked it without an example but this may help. For a site for one of my clients (also an ecommerce site) we used the following:
Categorie pages contain multiple items so we optimized those pages for the plural version of the keyword
(for instance vacuum cleaners)Product pages contain only a single item (maybe in multiple colors) but we optimized those pages for the singular version of the keyword (for instance vacuum cleaner)
Keyword usage in URL accordingly to category with multiple products or product page. That way you separete the usage accordingly and correctly.
Hope this helps you some.
Regards
Jarno
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I am trying to use Page Optimization feature but it is giving me error.
Hi, I am trying to track a page optimization feature for one of my project, https://www.360degreespropertyinspections.com.au for keyword: property inspections melbourne but i keep getting this below error: "Page Optimization Error There was a problem loading this page. Please make sure the page is loading properly and that our user-agent, rogerbot, is not blocked from accessing this page." I checked robots.txt file, it all looks fine. Not sure what is the problem? Is it a problem with Moz or the website?
On-Page Optimization | | Abhijay191 -
Category Pages are not Shown when searched for "brandname Category name"
Hi, Someone googled our brand name + category page name and our category page didn't showed up first so he says it's a bad job/thing. so help me to fix this. Googled "sepalika acid reflux" without quotes. Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | Sepalika0 -
Ecommerce internal search results pages
I'm working on a ecommerce site that allows product search results pages to be sorted a variety of ways (best selling, newest, by price). Each of these search filters creates a new url i.e. /all/best/1 and /all/best/2; /all/new/1 and /all/new/2; etc. These search results pages have been indexed and the site is receiving enough organic traffic from these pages that I don't want to add noindex,follow to them. I am planning on implementing rel=prev,rel=next for each filter, but I'm concerned about duplicate content considering I can't create unique meta data for each page. Should I canonical all pages to the first search results page without filters applied? Or any other ideas on how I should proceed?
On-Page Optimization | | ang0 -
Using Subdomains to Increase Keyword Density?
I have a website on which I publish lots of news (sometimes up to 10 posts per day). I have a feeling that somewhat it is diluting the density of some keywords I am targeting. By using subdomains, would I avoid diluting keyword density too much? Of course, I am talking about a reasonable use of subdomains (maybe 1 or 2). What's your opinion?
On-Page Optimization | | sbrault740 -
Multiple Sizes of eCommerce Product Best Practice
I sell a product that comes in 9 different sizes, two materials, and two different shapes. People often search for this product by size, material and shape as follows: #9 material1 square widget #5 material2 circle widget The dilemma I'm facing is should I create 1 page for each of these products resulting in 36 different pages, or should I create one page that the users can select size shape and material? I'm thinking that from a usability stance, the 36 different pages are easier to navigate and determine price on, but I'm afraid that going the route that is easier for the customer to use in this case could hurt me duplicate content wise. I'm all about making a good user experience, but don't want to hurt myself because the content on all 9 sizes is basically the same. Are images of the product enough to be considered non-duplicate content? I also list out the dimensions of each product, but beyond that there isn't much to delineate the content. My plan is to create one page with all the content that relates to all of the products as a top level page with links to the individual products broken down, but just wanted to get some feedback from you guys before making the effort.
On-Page Optimization | | kadesmith0 -
What is on page links?
Hi - i would like to know exactly what an on page link is? i understand the linking system however cant work what exactly what an on page link is? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | OasisLandDevelopment0 -
If i only want to rank for one specific keyword and use it in all my page titles, will it negatively affect my rankings?
If i want to rank highest for one specific keyword (virtualization management, for example) and use that keyword in all the titles on my website, will that negatively affect my search rankings? SEOmoz is telling me that i should use unique titles for my different pages to ensure that they describe each page uniquely and don't compete with each other for keyword relevance.
On-Page Optimization | | foonista0 -
Is it wise to target different keywords for each page?
I am running a dating site, I am trying to focus on 5 keywords on the index page. My Search page is one of the 4 other pages on the site. My question, is it wise to target different keywords on these pages or am I better off focussing on the same 5 keywords as the index page? Thank you,
On-Page Optimization | | debeenus0