I see what you mean Louise, but you need to be careful with category pages that they aren't seen as Doorway pages, that Google is clamping down on. Read more here.
**1) How significant is the text on a category page such as this to that page's Google ranking? **
It's not just about text, it's about usability and how useful the page is. If the page is only there to collect traffic for a search term and then fire someone off to other internal pages, you might fall foul of penalties.
**2) If we moved the text to an area that was hidden until clicked on, for example the 'Filter by' section that opens up when you click on it (see via URL above), would that negate the SEO benefit? **
There is no direct SEO problem with having the content hidden behind a tab, because the content is still there and Google can see it in the code as well. However, this wouldn't be my preferred option on it's own as that doesn't do much for the page and is only there to try and combat some SEO issues.
**3) Do you have any other ideas or opinions on how to resolve this? **
Usability and more usability. Make sure the page bring more than just some text and links. Think about people landing on there and what else they would like to see that would be useful to them. If you search for your key phrases, who is winning in the SERP's? How do they combat this issue? A little competition analysis can go a long way.
You could also do with focusing on keywords that bring people to that page. Rather than just focusing on "Green Tea", you want the people who are looking to "buy green tea" or for "Green tea suppliers". If you get the wrong people to the pages, this can also be detrimental.
I hope this helps ![:) 🙂](https://moz.com/community/q/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f642.png?v=4jds23d1a2r)
-Andy