Product descriptions & category pages

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I wanted to ask if anyone knew how much, if at all, product page titles/descriptions affected the rankings of the category page they're linked from?

I am looking for ways to improve the ranking of category pages, but we don't want to put too much content which overshadows the product listings.

Thanks!

[AHC_SEO]

From experience, product page titles provide a ranking boost to the category page. They tell Google what the category is about, and are a good place to include keywords. In a category where there are loads of products, be wary of keyword stuffing.

[AHC_SEO]

One other point, try including preview descriptions for products that appear on category pages. These are an additional way of including key words on the category page that does not detract from the product. Bullet points work well, they're are clear and neat.

[marshalllj]

I've recently looked into category page in Wordpress. If I understand your question correctly, you're asking if the title/description of a product pages affects the linked category page. The answer is not directly, and not much at all if any. If you're using WP you can install the YOAST SEO plugin and use it to force descriptive titles/descriptions of category pages. Let me know how it goes.

[Paddy_Moogan]

Hi Becky,

I'm not sure that product titles / descriptions would directly affect rankings as such i.e. writing good titles and descriptions is unlikely to make the category pages suddenly jump up in rankings. However I can see how it would help Google better understand the topic of the category as a whole, which may allow the category page to rank for a wider range of keywords.

The one thing to be careful of is that you don't accidentally confuse Google with your keyword targeting. So you should try and make sure that your target keywords map to different pages and don't cross over too much. If you cover the same keywords across a category page and a product page, it may confuse Google and they won't know which one to rank for that set of keywords - which means they may rank the wrong one and not rank as highly as they could.

I hope that helps!

Paddy

[BeckyKey]

Thanks for everyone's comments, this is helpful!

Does anyone have any advice on how to better boost category pages? We are looking at user guides, and more content - but this won't all be directly on the category page.

Ill have a bit of content on then category page, but this alone isn't going to have a huge impact.

Becky