Ecommerce, Adding Content To Categories/Product Pages

[BobGW]

In an eCommerce store, when is it appropriate to add quality category pages content and when is it more appropriate to add content to the actual product pages instead?

[jws8118]

Good question, I think it varies based on the product.  For feature rich products it makes sense to develop the product pages completely so the user has all the information they need to make a purchase decision.  There's no point in ranking a category page if your product pages aren't ready to drive a sale.

On the other hand for other products like fashion I think product content is much less important. In this space I think people tend to "browse" more and enjoy more of an editorial experience.  In this case I think incorporating editorial content at the category level is likely to differentiate your category page and if done right can actually drive incoming links.

Another big factor is the Return on Effort, it can be substantially quicker to add meaningful content to a category page versus a ton of product pages.

Just my $.02

[danatanseo]

Hi Bob,

I think quality content that contributes to the momentum and goals of your sales funnel is appropriate in both places and depends on the category and the product.

For example, We have category pages that are based around types of products, like "wireless microphones" and we also have categories that are built around specific brands, i.e. "Sennheiser." While the content on the wireless microphones page might center more on helping someone choose a microphone, the Sennheiser brand category page is going to contain information that helps consumers understand what sets Sennheiser apart from other brands.

Of course, once a visitor has drilled down to a specific Sennheiser wireless microphone (for example), the content on that page, then, will be much more specific.

I really think there's never a bad place to put great content...maybe just some places are more appropriate for certain types of content than others. I will say this, I firmly believe that the higher price the item, the more high-quality content end users expect before they'll be moved to buy.

That's probably not as definitive an answer as you were looking for, but it's just my take (since I too work almost exclusively in the e-commerce realm).

Cheers!

Dana

[danatanseo]

I think James makes a good point. Leveraging a higher-authority category page may be way easier and quicker than trying to do the same on less-authoritative product pages.

[BobGW]

Some good information here. I think both product and category content are important in this niche. I think James' category page comment applies to me too.

Could you say something about capturing long tails? I thought that was a main reason to add content to the category and product pages

[RuiZhiDong]

Yeah adding more information that's specific to a particular product is good for capturing long tail SEO traffic and they rank much quicker as well relative to competitive terms