Optimizing E-Commerce Category Pages For SEO
-
Hey,
Does anyone have any tips for optimizing e-commerce category pages? Looking to add content to each category page but not sure where to put the content i.e. above the footer? Above the search results? In the left hand nav bar? Have a landing page which they click through to see search results?
If anyone has any good examples or tips it would be much appreciated.
cheers
David
-
I would suggest simple solution
After Header of your website , Middle content Start with
[Impressive Word] Category
Piece of Content about Category , main products , features...
After that Product listing with order of Top Selling or Featured Products..
No one is interested in lengthy content in Category or even in Product Page (not even search engines).. instead of that I would suggest use that space with
to list Last Buyers or visitors who visited this category has also visited this category kind of feature
-
I can see right away that not everyone agrees on how to optimize a category page. This is just my opinion based on experience, but I really don't think that 500 words, or several paragraphs, is necessary or even desirable on a category page. And I don't recommend putting the copy down at the bottom either.
If you use the word "SEO copy" to explain a chunk of text, right away that should be a red flag to you. If you claim that copy is good for users, why would you put it way down at the bottom? Because it kills your conversion rate? Well then it's not good for users is it? What's good for users will improve your conversion rate. Remember that.
In my experience a category page only needs about two-three useful sentences with appropriate keywords to rank. And by "useful" I don't mean just saying "This is our Green Widgets page where you'll find the bets green widgets in the world. We have big green widgets, small green widgets and cheap green widgets."
I mean something like "Find the best green widget for your needs by using our filtering options above. Choose to see green widgets sorted by price, color and popularity, or simply browse the offerings below. Call 1-800-Green-Widgets or click the 'Chat' button to the right if you have any questions."
If it is a complicated topic, like something scientific or technical, you may consider adding more copy for the users to help them choose the right brand / product. In this case, a drop-down "Read More" type of div works well, as does a link to a larger "guide" on another page. If they don't know what they want yet, maybe your category page is too far down in the funnel, in which case sending them to a separate "guide" could be beneficial.
I'll leave this topic open for discussion for awhile since others my find some very good reasons to disagree. In the end, what you really need to do is test out a few different options on different category pages and go with whatever works best for your users and your site.
-
Brad out of interest what do you think about using expandable divs so that users can see more content on the cat page if interest ? Not sure if this would be seen as black hat or not.
-
Hi David,
We are in the process of writing more how-to type guides that will be used on our site. E.g. for that category we might have how to choose a baby maker, how to make baby food, recipes etc. This will be at the top of the page above the products (a small excerpt then a link to another page). The SEO text will remain at the bottom.
Thanks,
Brad -
Thanks for the link and the advice Brad. Don't take this the wrong way as I like what you have done with the site. The content on the bottom of the page is well optimised but has been written for the benefit of google and not users. if you have guide for selecting the right baby food maker Would you be putting that at the bottom of the page? Or maybe that should be somewhere else on the site? Just trying to the best solution.
-
Brad - nice site! Just curious what shopping cart you use.
-
We have recently moved our SEO text from above the fold/products to below the fold/products and haven't noticed any changes in organic results. The reason for this is because the SEO text was pushing all the products below the fold and we noticed a significant jump in conversion rates once we changed the way our category pages were set out.
We generally try to go for 2-3 solid paragraphs of SEO text that explain the features, uses, brands etc of a certain type of product. Of course, this isn't good for just SEO, but it gives a basic overview of the product type to the customer.
We've also added a basic SEO tag at the top of each category, just under our logo so that our keywords are closer to the start of the code.
I'm not sure of the rules of posting your own URL, so apologise if I have broken any rules, but here is an example: http://www.kitchenwaredirect.com.au/Appliances/Soup-Baby-Food-Maker
-
Thanks Brian . Any chance you can post a link to an example site? It is a balancing act between what works and what looks good.
-
Here's my rules of thumb for my category pages.
1. Write quality content not SEO copy. Keyword stuffed content will do more harm than good. Don't repeat keywords more than 1-2 times.
2. 500 words is a minimum. I use 1300-1500. Again, focus on quality content that will actually describe the products and provide the reader with substance.
3. I put it beneath the products and check my work with the On-Page Optimization tool.
4. Be an expert on your products and how they are used. Transfer this knowledge to your cat and product pages. Offer content that no one else does.
-
Thanks ranksurge. Footer was the wrong word. I mean like comet have content at the bottom of each page just above the footer. http://www.comet.co.uk/c/Fridges-Freezers/Fridge-Freezers/1735 They don't really have that much content. How much content did you have on each page? We are looking at 500 words.
-
I work with a client that has over 800k products and about 500 category pages. It was decided to always place the content above the listing of the all available items.
Not sure why you would want to place content at the footer? Unless you don't want the category pages to get ranked?
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
-
Changing a product page from "example.com" to "example.com/keyword" affect SEO and Ranking?
We're in a situation to move the page from "example.com" to "example.com/keyword". And adding new content to the "example.com" page. Does this change affect our ranking? If so how can we overcome this problem? Can anyone help?
On-Page Optimization | | Mohamednatheem0 -
Combining products - edit existing product page or 301 redirect to new page?
We want to combine existing products - e.g. 'hand lotion' and 'body lotion' will become 'hand & body lotion'. As such, we'll need to combine the two product pages into one. What would be the best route to take in terms of SEO to do this? My initial reaction is to create a new product page and then 301 or 302 redirect the old products to the new product page depending on if the change is permanent or temporary. Would you agree? Or am I missing something?
On-Page Optimization | | SwankyApple1 -
Will it upset Google if I aggregate product page reviews up into a product category page?
We have reviews on our product pages and we are considering averaging those reviews out and putting them on specific category pages in order for the average product ratings to be displayed in search results. Each averaged category review would be only for the products within it's category, and all reviews are from users of the site, no 3rd party reviews. For example, averaging the reviews from all of our boxes products pages, and listing that average review on the boxes category page. My question is, will this be doing anything wrong in the eyes of Google, and if so how so? -Derick
On-Page Optimization | | Deluxe0 -
Why is my contact us page ranking higher than my home page?
Hello, It doesn't matter what keyword I put into Google (when I'm not signed in and have cleaned down my browsing history) the contact us page ranks higher than the home page. I'm not sure why this is, the home page has a higher page authority, more links and more social media shares, the website is an established one. When I have checked Google Analytics my home page gets more people landing on it than the contact us page. It looks like people are ignoring the contact us page and scrolling down until they find the home page. I'd appreciate any help or advice you might have. Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | mblsolutions2 -
Does having landing page text beneath the products at the base of the page hinder SEO?
I have a site that is capable of hosting the landing page description either above the products under the H1 or below them at the bottom of the page before the footer. I have always chosen to keep the text "above the fold" as presumably this would be crawled sooner in relation to the rest of the page content than had it been at the bottom. However, this means that I can only really write just a few sentences for each landing page - otherwise the products would shift further down the page - and I don't think this is good from a UX POV. Question: If I move the bulk of my landing page descriptions to the text snippet located underneath the products, could this negatively affect my SEO? Text at the bottom of the page is obviously not significant for users, so is there a chance this could be seen as spam?
On-Page Optimization | | Silkstream0 -
How does a collapsed section affect on page SEO?
A client recently asked me whether a tabbed collapsed section of text that is expanded (i.e. revealed) when clicked, is an OK thing to do without negatively effecting SEO. I told him that for starters, he may want to rethink why he would want to hide the text in the first place (this is not an FAQ type scenario). The reason has to do with the aesthetic of the page. Anyway, aesthetic aside, any thoughts on whether a collapsed (hidden from view) negatively affects on-page SEO? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | stephanwb
Stephan0 -
Local SEO Title-Tag Optimization
Hi Everyone! A bit of a greenhorn SEO here, and I'm trying to learn a bit more about some of the best practices in local SEO. I'm wondering if anyone can help me with the following scenario: Business: Dental Care & Surgery Location: Springfield IN Name: Springfield Dental Care Experts (example) Website: 18 content pages, pages dedicated to each service Since there are 18 pages to work with, there are plenty of places for us to mix-up the title tags. However, I am still unclear as to what the best way would be to do this. I understand that the Geo-modifiers should go at the front, and that the brand name is considered optional. Would tags such as this make sense? Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts Nearby town Mountainview IN Dental Care | Springfield Dental Care Experts Last question: The website has pages for each of the services offered by the dentist, ex: Dental Cleanings, Consultations, Fillings, Surgery, etc. Should each of the pages be included in the title tag? Springfield IN Dentist | Springfield Dental Care Experts - Dental Surgery My concern is that buy adding this, the title tag would be too long. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond!
On-Page Optimization | | kbaltzell0 -
301 redirects from several sub-pages to one sub-page
Hi! I have 14 sub-pages i deleted earlier today. But ofcourse Google can still find them, and gives everyone that gives them a go a 404 error. I have come to the understading that this wil hurt the rest of my site, at least as long as Google have them indexed. These sub-pages lies in 3 different folders, and i want to redirect them to a sub-page in a folder number 4. I have already an htaccess file, but i just simply cant get it to work! It is the same file as i use for redirecting trafic from mydomain.no to www.mydomain.no, and i have tried every kind of variation i can think of with the sub-pages. Has anyone perhaps had the same problem before, or for any other reason has the solution, and can help me with how to compose the htaccess file? 🙂 You have to excuse me if i'm using the wrong terms, missing something i should have seen under water while wearing a blindfold, or i am misspelling anything. I am neither very experienced with anything surrounding seo or anything else that has with internet to do, nor am i from an englishspeaking country. Hope someone here can light up my path 🙂 Thats at least something you can say in norwegian...
On-Page Optimization | | MarieA1