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?
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
-
Seeking Advice on Improving On-Page SEO for my Website
I'm looking for some expert advice on improving the on-page SEO for my website, CCTV Camera Installation. Despite following best practices, I feel that my site isn't performing as well as it could be in search engine rankings. Here are a few specific areas where I'd appreciate some guidance: Content Optimization: I've ensured my content is keyword-rich and valuable to my audience. Are there any advanced techniques or tools that can help further optimize my content? Meta Tags and Descriptions: I've written unique meta titles and descriptions for each page, but I'm unsure if they're as effective as they could be. What are some tips for crafting compelling meta tags that improve click-through rates? Internal Linking: I've set up a basic internal linking structure. How can I enhance this to better distribute link equity and improve user navigation? Page Load Speed: While my site's load speed is decent, I'm aware that even minor improvements can have a significant impact on SEO. Are there any specific optimizations or tools you recommend for speeding up my website? Technical SEO: I've covered the basics like XML sitemaps and robots.txt files. Are there any advanced technical SEO practices that I should be aware of? Here is the link to my website for your reference: https://www.acssllc.ae/ Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Htdbf
Israr Khan0 -
To create extra pages, or not to create extra pages?
I'm responsible for a site where we cater for all kinds of medical & legal problems. I recently conducted keyword research that shows a lot of questions being 'asked' in relation to the conditions we cater for. Naturally, I want to create content to answer these questions. We have a page for 'Cancer compensation' - the 'possible content' that answers questions won't necessarily help someone claiming compensation for cancer mistreatment, BUT someone who asks a question relating to cancer, answered in the 'possible content' may find the 'cancer compensation' page useful. SO! Do I: Add this content to the existing 'cancer compensation' page? Create individual pages of content answering each question, linking to the 'cancer compensation' page? or do I amalgamate all the answers into one heafty 'resource' page that sits elsewhere on the site? What do you think? Thanks in advance. John King
On-Page Optimization | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
Impact of number of outgoing links on Page Rank of an optimized page?
What is the current best practice on preferred number of outbound links on a page you are trying to rank with: According to online resources form a pure page rank perspective a high number of outbound follow links can have a negative impact not only on child pages but also the page itself
On-Page Optimization | | thomaspro
http://pr.efactory.de/e-outbound-links.shtml Other resources suggest that particularly placing high quality outbound links on a page (nofollow) increases the trust and authority of a page Are there any other elements to keep in mind? Is the best practice to avoid any follow links on a page you want to rank well in Google for? Thanks /T0 -
Is there a way to export the On-page Optimization report data to Excel?
I am preparing recommendations for my client's Webmaster from the On-page Report Card. I am integrating them into a larger Excel spreadsheet with other recommended changes. So many SEO Moz reports can be exported to Excel. Is this an exception, or am I missing something? It would really save me a lot of time and effort.
On-Page Optimization | | calalouf0 -
Re-targeting keywords from homepage to category page
My website home page ranks well for a keyword lets call it 'Keyword1'. I'd like to create a new category specific to 'Keyword1' and name it 'Keyword1' so the relevant content and products can sit in there. How can I ensure that my rankings of my current home page are passed on to this new category page? Many thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | alexhowe0 -
Dupelicate content home page and custom page question
I am working on a website that got hit by the penguin update. Didn't get hit terribly bad, but dropped from number one to number 9. As I'm going through the pages, the theme and content is a mess. To give an example, say the site is about custom colored marbles. The main page content covers custom colored marbles, custom promotional marbles, custom glass marbles, etc. Custom colored marbles is mentioned and covered on all pages, which I am going back and trying to make each page theme specific. There is also a custom page, so I am at a cross roads on how best to employ the focus of the custom page and the home page. I am thinking the home page should emphasize colored marbles, and the custom page should emphasize custom colored marbles. My fear is that making such a drastic change will bounce the site completely off front page and that it will take time for the custom page to come up in rankings. AS it stands now I am confused as to how it even ranks on first page as there's two pages with custom colored marbles emphasis. Id like to clean this up as much as possible so there are no big hits with future google updates, but I don't want the site to drop off either as that would be hard to explain to the owner. Yeah, we are cleaning up your site and making it google compliant and in so doing you no longer rank on first page. That won't put food on the table. Thanks for any advise on this.
On-Page Optimization | | anthonytjm0 -
Product Page Optimization
I work for an ecommerce site and we are currently in the process of redesigning our product page. Any useful, must-do tips for this? If it helps, our site has both hard goods and apparel that can be imprinted and customized to the buyers liking. Thanks for any help!
On-Page Optimization | | ClaytonKendall1 -
How Do You Build Good Quality Content on an E-Commerce Site with over 1500 products?
I've been told for a while now that quality is king, and as far as the top level down goes, I have improved the quality of these pages incredibly, working from the landing page down to the categories. Now the problem comes when I know that if I describe each product dynamically with great content, this give the best result, yet doing this on over 1500 products is just a mammoth task for anyone, isn't it? I want a way to have good quality content on each of those pages without writing a million words.... is this possible?
On-Page Optimization | | frank-2443750