Optimizing E-Commerce Category Pages For SEO

[DavidLenehan]

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

[RankSurge]

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?

[DavidLenehan]

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.

[BrianSaxon]

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.

[DavidLenehan]

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.

[bradkrussell]

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

[paula7928]

Brad - nice site!  Just curious what shopping cart you use.

[DavidLenehan]

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.

[bradkrussell]

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

[DavidLenehan]

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.

[Everett]

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.

[letsnurture]

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