How to Optimize Category Pages for Ecommerce
Contents:
- The significance of creating new category pages
- Key strategies for effective research and optimization
- SEO tips for optimizing category pages
Suppose you've recently launched a new website, meticulously filling it with engaging content, vivid images, and targeted keywords, in hopes of achieving top search rankings and significant traffic. Yet, if your site isn't ranking as highly as anticipated, it's crucial to investigate what distinguishes your competitors' successful sites. Our team of eCommerce SEO specialists offers valuable insights on optimizing category pages to excel in product category marketing.
The Significance of Creating New Category Pages
Category pages are a vital component of your website's structured hierarchy. A well-organized structure, complemented by relevant metatags, not only enhances user experience through easy navigation but also aids Google in efficient data processing.
When evaluating your strategy, objectively assess your current standing and pinpoint areas for improvement. Continuously track your performance, adapt to emerging keywords, and focus on quality over quantity in category page creation. Effective strategies include comprehensive keyword research by categories and competitor analysis. For instance, introducing a new product line or undergoing platform changes may necessitate new category pages.
Key Strategies for Effective Research and Optimization
Website categories play a pivotal role in both user experience and SEO. They capture essential search queries, streamline user navigation, distribute PageRank efficiently, and clarify your site's information architecture.
Understanding Different Category Pages
- Category List Pages (CLPs): These list various categories and typically appear higher in the website hierarchy.
- Product Listing Pages (PLP): These primarily display products.
Differentiating between CLPs and PLPs is essential. CLPs address broader topics, directing users to specific areas, while PLPs cater to precise user queries.
Essential Elements for Category Pages
Standard category pages, akin to PLPs, should include a prominent H1 heading, an introductory section, a product catalog with pagination, and faceted navigation for product filtering. Enhance these pages with additional features to attract both users and search engines. Some Amazon agencies use tags to manage and track inventory across different warehouses efficiently, ensuring better resource allocation and faster delivery times.
SEO Tips for Optimizing Your Webpages
Revise Your Meta Tags
It doesn’t matter which keyword tools you are utilizing, but it does matter how you do it and how often. New highly-researched combinations appear every day, and it’s just another opportunity to create SEO pages on your website. Also, the most right thing will be to keep up with already existing keywords and descriptions and then relying on them to define the new ones.
For example, this Reebok meta description contains not just a set of words. Still, it delivers useful information and some main keywords and a short CTA.
On the contrary, the total lack of description or just irrelevant words from your website in it leads only to customers, who ignore the page without sane description and non-display in rankings.
A good meta description shouldn’t come only with your website’s main pages but with every page.
Let Category Navigation Work for You
Suppose you still think that category navigation exists barely as a sort of sign to your clients on the map of your website. Yes, you are right, but to a certain extent. This way you underestimate category possibilities. You will be surprised, but good category navigation directly influences all of the pages linked or providing authority. Apart from that, it can be a perfect place to put your eCommerce keywords in.
This way, as you can see in this Ikea example, the Home Decor page has a relevant keyword phrase, at the same time, every subcategory under its authority contains it. That means chances to be seen in Google increase, already, by three times. Just build some eCommerce categories and make them do their job.
Highlight the Important Parts
This advice may sound obvious, but category H1, H2, etc, tags really do the thing. Headings actually serve as almost the way metadata does. They contribute to search engines' content analysis on a more specific level, for showing the different themes. Normally, all the headings and subheadings contain particular keywords and, as a rule, H1 is the title of the whole page.
These Amazon tags will be a great example. As you can see, Kitchen and Bath Fixtures comes here as the H2 category and is a part of the global Tools and Home Improvement H1 category.
At once, Kitchen and Bath Fixtures get linked with some other, more specific subcategories. Also, Amazon, as usual, has done considerable keyword work, as they use not just Home Tools like probably many would have done, but comprehensive and recognizable for search engines.
Improve Text Quality
When it comes to text, especially, in online stores, it becomes one of the most dominant aspects in terms of search optimization. The best thing about it is that the product description is no more just a full of relevant keywords piece, but a powerful marketing tool.
On this Cartier screen above, keyphrases are organically mixed with explanatory copy, which is short enough to be read and noticed by Google. This way, the website provides not only visual information but teaches clients where their products are best to use and gives them a reason to buy a necklace.
Make Sure Your Content Is Logically Linked
Your main goal in structuring categories of search engines is to make your website function as one highly involved system. Therefore, you should link all of the website’s sections, leaving no chance for Google and customers to ignore you. Use all the page space and put many relevant links in one place, hence given all the practical data about the theme to the customers and increasing your page’s authority.
Just look how successfully Cartier, in the beginning, gives a choice between women’s and man’s bands (most likely that is what customers were searching for, from the start), and then, smoothly, gives a link to all engagement rings. This example illustrates how psychological triggers work. In addition, they provide a Be inspired section, which is connected with articles about Cartier diamonds and standards, and all of that on one page!
Enhancing Technical Page Efficiency
In your technical SEO efforts, prioritize enhancing the user experience of your eCommerce category pages. This includes analyzing Core Web Vitals scores and ensuring mobile friendliness.
- Core Web Vitals: These metrics by Google assess a webpage's loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights for monitoring and optimization.
- Mobile Usability: With the growing prevalence of mobile eCommerce, ensure your site is mobile-friendly, featuring a responsive layout and consistent content across platforms.
By addressing these technical and content-related aspects, you can significantly improve your eCommerce category pages' performance in product category marketing.