E-commerce Categories

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello fellow SEOmozers!

I'm rebuilding out e-commerce site and have a question about categories. We sell branded  servers, workstations, storage and related parts/upgrades. I know that nesting categories too deep is not recommended (and slows down the shopping cart), however if were to create more main categories then I'm affraid of keyword stuffing or spamming, do you think this would be ok or what would you recommend I do in my situation?

<colgroup><col width="131"></colgroup>
| Dell Rack Servers |
| Dell Tower Servers |
| Dell Blade Servers |
| Dell Storage |
| HP Rack Servers |
| HP Tower Servers |
| HP Blade Servers |
| HP Storage |
| IBM Rack Servers |
| IBM Tower Servers |
| IBM Blade Servers |
| IBM Storage |
| Dell Workstations |
| HP Workstations |
| IBM Workstations |
| Dell Hard Drives |
| HP Hard Drives |
| IBM Hard Drives |
| Dell RAM | Memory |
| HP RAM | Memory |
| IBM RAM | Memory |

Thanks for all your input, opinions, and comments!

[anthonydnelson]

I think those all look fine. If your categories are making it easier for your users to find what they are looking for, then they are good to go.

Do not make tiny categories for SEO purposes that don't help users shop.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Thank you Anthony for your response! If its not too much trouble can you give me an example of a tiny category name and a good/recommended category name for SEO purposes.

Servers <- this is obviously tiny

Dell Servers <- is this a tiny or an ok one?

Dell Rack Servers <- is this optimal or it can be improved for example "Dell Rack PowerEdge G11 Servers"?

And what is the recommended depth of sub categories, would 3 be ok?

Dell Rack Servers > PowerEdge R710 > Products

Also for the sub category, should I put the word server after PowerEdge R710 or is that automatically implied by the top category?

Also is there a limit or recommended number of top/root categories to have on the homepage?

Thanks again!

[anthonydnelson]

When I say 'Tiny' I mainly am getting at the fact that it is either a category with 1 or 2 total products inside it. Or, it is named after an obscure term with almost zero search volume.

I find that going to level 3 can be ok, but try to stick to two levels deep.

I would include the word server in the example listed above.

There is no limit. I would list your most popular and profitable categories on your home page.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Understood now. Thank you so much!