Categories in anAdd Classifieds site

[te_c]

Hi Everybody,

We are adding a new feature to my site, and it is a add classifieds section. I spend the whole weekend making a research for keywords that could fit the category names. What I did, is to search for the exact phrases that people use related to the different categories that a classified site has. For example, if the category is to sell and buy cars, I search for the most popular query, in my language: cars second hand. So far so good, but the problem is that if I do so, I will have far too many categories, because those would be too specific.

Any of my future competitors use the most search keywords, they are more pragmatic and use general wording. They also do not have more that one level subcategories, for the sake of usability and probably SEO.

Today I entered all the almost 100 categories on the system, and it looks horrible. Also, too many links in the main page, the categories are difficult to find in the drop box list, users would need to scroll down to find what they are looking for: even in the main page!

Other unwanted consequence is that too many categories will lead to too many empty categories in the first months, giving a bad impression of inactivity to the site, and making it even more difficult to create momentum.

My question is: would be there any SEO benefit for using a long list of keyword categories, that compensate the problems generated for being too specific?

Since any of our future competitors use many categories, I would answer myself as: keep it simple and short. But probably somebody with experience can give me some ideas.

Many thanks in advance for your help,

Daniel

[te_c]

Many thanks for your answer!

We look for the search phrases for selecting the category names, and doing this, we found a lot of possible good categories for the site, but without dupplicate or confusing names. For example: instead of creating a category called: Consoles and Video Games, we use something more specific: video consoles second hand, video games used (actual keywords are in spanish). It is only a small example, that multiplies itself in different cases.

Looking at your site, I notice that you decide to use more general categories, and works fine!

Nice system in Gumtree! Easy to navigate and good looking.

Thanks again for your answer,

Daniel

[Horizon]

Hi Daniel,

It's a tough choice, really. I have 80 categories in my classified ads site under 12 headings. I have taken a Gumtree-style move though, and have spread them across the page (http://www.gumtree.com) rather than just having on long list down a page.

From an SEO point of view, yes, it would be good to cover off all of the potential search phrases, but not at the cost of duplicating categories. You need to think of it from a user's point of view - if you have (for example) "Cars for sale" and "secondhand cars" as two separate categories, users may not know which section to look in (not to mention any keyword dilution). Moreso, and coming from someone who manages a classified ads site, it is really annoying (for admins and users) when users put items for sale in the wrong category. If you're adding multiple similar categories, this will quickly become an issue, in my opinion.

What we tried to do was to create dynamic search engine friendly titles and headers... Therefore we eliminated the need to create multiple categories for different regions, or even for similar products. Whatever language or software you're using, it should be fairly easy to set this up. We also added "similar" searches on search results pages and product pages in order to get links to the more niche search terms. We're in the top 3 for all of our high value key phrases with this approach.

Best,

Matt