Ecommerce category navigation structure -best practices
-
Hello,
I've heard that there is a specific strategy for the best linkjuice distribution for categorizing an ecommerce site.
How many links should there be on the home pages? Categories 1 deep? 2 deep?
This client's customers don't like to go very deep, and they usually don't find our second page
Thanks!
-
So in this approach, you're adding additional links rather than limiting the amount of navigational links that are allowed to be followed from the homepage.
I'm one to believe that structure should be based less on link-juice goals and more on what will provide value to the user.You can use a variety of tricks to modify the flow of linkjuice, but I don't know of any tricks that modify the logic people use to find what they're looking for.
-
Thanks RDK, very informative.
Could you say more about what this means
The second approach, for smaller sites, is to follow UI guidelines, where the hierarchy is set without regard of category value. Then, tweak your textual links to direct linkjuice to more important categories. Again, just a simple example.<<
-
Your question can be broken into 3 parts (category depth and linkjuice distribution being closely related):
1. Max links on homepage (or any page for that matter)
It used to be said to keep it under some magical threshold (60, 80, 100, etc.), but I have researched this topic extensively and there are many people who believe the number of links is not important so long as your navigation makes sense. Since 'mega-menu' madness set in a couple years ago, I struggle to see how having 200 links on your homepage can do anything other than dilute the linkjuice and domain specificity. The idea of there being a penalty or that the bottom 'x' links are not crawled doesn't carry much weight these days.
2. Linkjuice distribution strategy
I break my strategies into 2 major approaches with the difference being the method for accomplishing link distribution.
The first approach being large sites with hundreds of categories. In this case, it is better to organize logically and then use robots.txt to control (limit) the amount of internal links pointing to your less important category pages. There are many ways to do this and I'll give you an example of one way to 'automate' it. One mega menu could be used on the homepage that points to your important categories, blocking crawling for the others. A copy of this menu that allows all links to be followed can be used on second and third level categories, so the less important categories can be indexed, yet not carry the weight of a link from the homepage. This is a over-simplified example, but you should be able to extrapolate the gist here.
The second approach, for smaller sites, is to follow UI guidelines, where the hierarchy is set without regard of category value. Then, tweak your textual links to direct linkjuice to more important categories. Again, just a simple example.
3. Category depth
You've already done your research.. users don't like to click through. However, this is the natural state of humanity, so I'd focus less on how deep you ago and concentrate on the 'user experience', where your content has more sensible categorization and more relevant connections between products-categories. Do you want to be forced into click 7 times to reach the product you're looking for? (of course not) So, why not make navigating to the 'deeper' products more accessible via technology (menus, parametric filters, etc) or content grouping?
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
-
Text that appears when hovering over navigation tabs
Hi, I have a Wordpress website and want to delete or edit the text that appears when I hover over my navigation tabs. In my case, the text is always the same as the page title, but I don't know where to edit it separately. When I change the title of a page that is in the navigation, the text that appears changes too. So the general setting is that this text is the same as the page title. Does somebody have an idea where to edit this? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Mat_C0 -
Do i have to optimize all pages on ecommerce site which is currently 4028 give or take
Hello, do i have to optimize all pages on ecommerce site, as its a lot of pages to developed unique content for my plan at the moment is to start from top down, I have completed top home, featured products etc i have also started on individual team shops my content inst unique to each page more the same and just changing the team name and keyword i was planning on doing that in the blog area of the site and just making the top categories and sub categories. and maybe in time start on the products. I can do all categories in about two months but to complete products would take like 2 years I don't feel that is productive and most would be changed or out of stock by then please take a look at my site and tell me what you think ? sportingdesires.com Kindest Regards, Stephen Kewn
On-Page Optimization | | sportingdesires0 -
Tags vs. Categories? What should I use?
I'm starting with a blog (self-hosted wordpress) and I'm thinking of the following content structure so that the readers are easily able to locate relevant content: Background: It's a blog which gives people relevant info about government jobs. To start with we will just be publishing information about these jobs but over a period of time also intend to post content that helps readers prepare for these jobs. In other words, right now it's just about detailed job notifications but in the coming months, we shall also post about preparation-related information. Typically, each of the job notifications can be bifurcated like: Jobs basis industry Banking Railways Clinical, etc. Jobs basis company ABC co. DEF co. XYZ co. etc. Jobs basis State / City City 1 City 2, etc. Jobs basis educational qualification Graduation Post-Graduation, etc. Now, I'm seriously confused how should I structure this data from the perspective of Categories & Tags such that it's reader as well as SEO-friendly. Do note that each of the government jobs post ideally falls in a couple of above mentioned categories. Thanks..
On-Page Optimization | | Shalin.TJ0 -
URL SEO: Better directory structure vs. exact keyword phrase
I am trying to understand how to best optimise a url for a page to rank high for specific keywords. Example: a top keyword search is "rental properties in new york". Question is does this keyword need to appear as this exact phrase in the url or should it be broken up into different directories for a better structure e.g.: www.abc.com/en/properties/new-york/rental OR www.abc.com/en/rental-properties-in-new-york Which will help the page rank higher (given all other things on the page are exactly the same)? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | MH190 -
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
On-Page Optimization | | DavidLenehan0 -
Ecommerce: content on category pages
I have to optimize some online Shops and after Panda I really don't know what to think about thin content on product overview pages anymore... used to be that we could improve our rankings easily just by adding 1-2 sentences on such a page. This always worked for non-overly competitive terms. Now It feels like it doesn't work any longer, but I couldn't put my finger on it and I don't have the resources to test. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.geschenkidee.ch/wandtattoos/aus_aller_welt.html
On-Page Optimization | | zeepartner
I would add max. 3 lines of text directly over the product thumbnails. What do you think? Is it worth adding some text on a product overview page or do I not even have to bother post-Panda?0 -
Top Level Category Pages
On certain sections e.g. Top Level Brand Pages i would like to include history, images of products in use, videos, and possibly even a timeline of the manufacturers history. Being that its a store this would push the products quite a bit lower on the page. Can i still have a great positive effect if its below the product listings?
On-Page Optimization | | Anest0 -
Impact of removing category sidebar with keywords?
Our site (a niche financial publication: insideARM.com) requires some more room in the sidebar. We're considering removing the categories (we call them topics) sidebar block, or cutting down the number of items displayed within it. My concern is that we'd be removing a direct link to landing pages for important keyword terms from our most powerful page (the index). Sure, we have the terms listed in the footer, but I am worried that the position change will lower the value of the links. Our users don't really use these links for navigational purposes, which is why it comes up as a potential removed item. Am I wrong to worry about this? Would we be crippling our category pages by doing this?
On-Page Optimization | | insideARM0