Ecommerce Category Pages

[Satans_Apprentice]

First, let's define the terminology for the various types of ecommerce pages. The terminology differs from organization to organization:

1. Product Description Pages (PDPs): These pages have a single product, pricing, an "add to cart" button, reviews, and a product description.
2. Product Listing Pages (PLPs): These are product category/subcategory pages that have product image links and text links to Product Description Pages (PDPs).
3. Category Pages: These pages have subcategory image and text links to subcategory pages. No product images are displayed
4. Hybrid Category Pages: these pages combine sub-Category Images and text at the top of the page and product listings below. Our CMS currently does not allow us to create hybrids.

This conversation revolves primarily around mobile.

Our ecommerce team is having discussions around the appropriate use of PLPs vs Category pages. After doing a quick audit of the mobile sites of some top ecommerce players, there is definitely a trend to use Category Pages at the top of the category and sub-category hierarchy and use PLPs at the very bottom. The logic from a usability perspective is to allow visitors to navigate a site without ever using the hamburger navigation. ex:

Baby (Category Page) => Car Seats (Category Page) => Convertible Car Seats (PLP)

The sites I audited all had hamburger menus.

A visitor would navigate from a home page image for "Baby," an image on the "Baby" page to "Car Seats", and an image on the "Car Seats" page to the Convertible Car Seats page. At that point, they would be able to shop for "Convertible Car Seats" on a PLP.

This appears to be excellent UX and easy to use navigation. Theoretically, good for SEO as well. In short, category and subcategory pages are being used as navigation to allow visitors to easily navigate to the bottom of the hierarchy and shop on the most narrow page in the hierarchy. Much easier to use than a hamburger menu, but it does entail more clicks.

The discussion revolves around allowing users to shop for product at a higher level in the taxonomy. For example, what if a visitor wants to shop all Car Seats? In the above taxonomy, we are precluding users from shopping in this manner. There is no "Car Seats" PLP. Our CMS has the ability to create both a Category Page and a PLP for "Car Seats". We could theoretically place an image on the "Car Seats" category page for "View All Car Seats", and allow users to click to a "Car Seats" PLP.

None of the major ecommerce players I've audited are adding a PLP option higher up in the hierarchy. That doesn't mean that it's not good UX.

Problems:

1. From an SEO perspective, having a Category Page and a PLP for "Car Seats" would cause cannibalization - they would be competing for the same keywords.
2. I am skeptical that canonicals would work. The pages are not near duplicate content. One page has category images, the other has product images. We could place content blocks on the page to make them more similar.
3. We could noindex the PLP, but that's a waste of internal link juice.

Need advice:

1. Will canonicals work in this situation?
2. Should we trash this idea entirely? Does adding a PLP add value or confusion?
3. Is noindex a good idea?
4. Is there an option to target keyword variations with the PLP?
5. Is there another solution?

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Satans_apprentice

You have to keep it simple and the addition of your PLPs, whilst looking pretty are adding a layer of complication to the structure that you don't need. I hate hamburger menus as well - you must remember to add a search bar at the top that does not need opening as well so people can get stuck in immediately.

You need - say,

Department>Category>Sub-Category - this is the natural structure for most eCommerce sites.

Baby>Car Seats>Convertible Car Seats.

Department, I would go with a menu structure at the top and Category images in the centre with some text at the bottom.(300) - you can then either add products to this or keep those for the categories and sub-categories.

Category - I would have a menu structure at the top, a grid of sub-categories with products beneath and a description (300) at the bottom.

Sub-category - I would have a menu structure at the top, a grid of products with a small description at the top and a bigger one (300) at the bottom

Look at Wayfair - they do really well in search and I think their site is really well organised using as it does a mixture of text menu, images and products. They also have really chunky descriptions on appropriate pages like 'Bedroom Lighting' - have a look at the bottom.

This is their lighting category:

https://www.wayfair.co.uk/lighting/cat/lighting-c234985.html

You don't say whether you have brands as well - this can add a layer of complication and possible cannibalisation, but as long as you add Meta and content, this type of cannibalisation has become more acceptable. The pages are hybrids in themselves and sit lower down in search, making them less of a problem.

Sale pages can also add complication and I always canonicalise these back to the brand.

Some sites have 'New-In' sections also - I canonicalise these back to the brands - or categories if you a non-branded website.

I hope this has helped to clarify your thinking.

Regards

Nigel

[Satans_Apprentice]

Nigel:

Thanks - you pretty much confirmed my thoughts. At the moment, we don't have the ability to create hybrid pages - pages with category and product images. It's on the wish list. If it was up to me alone, we would only have PLPs at the bottom of the taxonomy. Our merchants group is pushing hard for PLPs.

BTW, Wayfair's SEO/UX is outstanding. Those folks are squared away. Any time I have an issue to resolve, it's wayfair.com and "view source".

[Nigel_Carr]

Yeh, I thought you'd like it.

I have been working with a lighting eCommerce store and we have been looking at them a lot - they nail it with SEO

Regards

Nigel