Important category pages that can and should be found in SERP but can not be reached by navigating on the webshop itself

[Mat_C]

Hi,

On a webshop we are optimizing, the main navigation consists of the 5 main categories to which all of the products can be assigned.

However, the main tabs in the navigation just activate a drop down with all of the subcategories. For example: the tab in the navigation is 'Garden equipment' and when you click on this tab, the drop down is shown with subcategories like 'Lawn mowers', 'Leaf blowers' and so on.

Now, the page 'Garden equipment' is one of the main category pages and we want this page to rank of course. This shouldn't be a problem, since there is a separate URL for this page that can be indexed and that can be reached through internal links on the website.

However, this page can not be reached when a visitor initially comes on the homepage of the webshop, since the tab in the navigation isn't clickable. This page will only be reached when a subcategory is selected, and then when the visitor goes back to the category page through the breadcrumb or through an internal link.

Is it a problem that these important overview category pages can not be reached immediately?

Thanks.

[Nozzle]

In terms of converting traffic into buyers, it is most likely not a problem that visitors can't click on those 5 main category pages from the homepage.

In terms of ranking those 5 pages, it would be better to link to those 5 category pages within the navigation so they receive a link from every page of your site instead of just from pages within the subcategories that are under each main category.  These 5 pages are potentially missing out on thousands of internal links (depending on how big your site is) because of how it is setup now. Also, each of these pages are missing out on a link from the homepage which is your page with the highest authority.

To give these pages the best chance possible to rank for their targeted keywords, you should make this change asap.