eCommerce stores generate revenue from product sales.
While ads are mainstream to pull potential customers, search engine optimization (SEO) can help eCommerce owners drive organic traffic and increase conversions.
That’s right. SEO works the same on eCommerce websites as on other sites. Relevant content helps search engines like Google display results when a relevant query arises.
In this post, we will learn how optimizing an eCommerce store’s category pages for SEO can help your business generate revenue and profit.
First, let’s understand what eCommerce category pages are.
What are Category Pages in eCommerce?
Category pages are hub pages that allow users to navigate your eCommerce store to discover relevant products and subcategories. For instance, they help users browse and find products, such as “Women’s makeup” or “Laptops.”
Why Optimize Category Pages?
Category pages can help improve SEO by targeting high-value keywords and attracting relevant traffic.
They can help:
- Target market discover relevant products when navigating your eCommerce website.
- Distribute PageRank to key subcategories and products through internal linking.
- Users and search engines understand your information architecture or how the content is organized.
What’s more? According to reports, the eCommerce market’s global revenue will hit $5.89 trillion by 2029. That’s not all. The user penetration will cross 49.1% by 2029.
Optimizing category pages can give you a competitive edge as more users shop online.
Types of Category Pages in eCommerce
Here are the two key types of category pages you’ll find on eCommerce stores.
1. Category Listing Pages (CLP): These pages mainly list product categories.
Here’s a quick example to consider.
Observe the CLP on Nike’s website. Their “Men” category page lists subcategories like shoes, clothing, and gear.
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of Nike’s website showing category listing pages
2. Product Listing Pages (PLP): These pages mainly list products.
Here’s a quick example to consider.
Notice the “Men’s Tops” section on The North Face. It shows various products (men’s tops).
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of The North Face website showing product listing pages
Key Differences Between CLPs and PLPs
As shown in the example above, CLPs help users navigate to broad product categories, thereby improving the browsing experience. They organize subcategories for a clean site structure and better user experience.
On the other hand, PLPs display individual products within a category, thereby guiding buying decisions. They comprise product details like images, prices, and ratings. This organized layout improves conversion rates by highlighting relevant items in an easy-to-browse format.
5 Ways to Optimize eCommerce Category Pages for SEO
Let’s discuss how you can optimize category pages for SEO and make your store stand out.
1. Create Categories that Make Sense
You cannot just randomly create categories based on what your competitors are doing or what you feel is right. Categories need to be logical. They should make sense to your target audience.
For instance, notice the categories on Zara’s page. This leading clothing and accessory eCommerce brand has grouped products into broad categories like –
- Men
- Women
- Kids
- Beauty
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of Zara’s website showing categories
They have broken each category down further (blazers, tops, sweaters, etc). This caters to their target audience‘s needs while simplifying their product search and navigation on Zara’s website.
Pro Tip: Do keyword research to understand what exact terms your target audience uses. This can help you create relevant categories that match user intent.
For instance, if the target audience searches for “running shoes” rather than “sports shoes,” create a “Running Shoes” category. This can better match user intent. What’s more? This boosts your eCommerce site’s SEO by targeting popular search phrases.
2. Develop a Hierarchy With Category URLs
An eCommerce hierarchy is crucial because:
- It helps search engines like Google to understand your website’s layout.
- It makes your website navigation easy, thereby improving user experience.
Creating a clear hierarchy thus leads to improved SEO. At the same time, it allows users to find your products without hassles. This increases customer experience and satisfaction, which are crucial to product selling.
On the other hand, a messy URL structure can confuse search engines like Google. It can cause Google to miss content or repeatedly crawl the same page, thereby hindering website indexing.
For instance, a powerful hierarchical URL structure for a clothing store might look like this:
Here are a few good practices:
- Keep URLs clean by avoiding numbers, dates, and special characters.
- Limit subcategories to three or four levels to ensure Google can effectively crawl your site.
- Use descriptive keywords in URLs to improve search visibility.
- Maintain a consistent URL structure across the eCommerce website to enhance user experience and SEO.
3. Add Helpful and Relevant Product Descriptions
Be it an eCommerce website or any other domain website, content is what it takes to rule the digital ecosystem.
So, as we are talking about category and product pages, you must take care of product descriptions. Creating categories and subcategories helps navigation. Adding high-resolution images also helps maintain user engagement. However, your eCommerce content is the key component that makes your product discoverable in search engines.
Write content that is –
- Relevant to the product
- Offers key information about product quality, ingredients, fabric quality, etc. (according to the product)
- Add the right keywords to optimize it for search engines.
Notice how Beardbrand, a leading men’s grooming company, crafts compelling descriptions. Observe how they have highlighted the bar’s cleansing and exfoliating properties while adding informative details on ingredients like shea, charcoal, and mango butter.
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of Beardbrand website showing compelling product description
4. Work on the Important Technical SEO Elements
Technical SEO plays a vital role in improving online visibility and ranking. So, make sure you work on crucial technical elements like:
- Page Load Speed: The speed at which your category pages load matters for SEO. Like any other website, your pages should load within 3 seconds to ensure a great user experience. This can help boost SEO rankings.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Make your category pages responsive and easy to navigate on all devices, including mobiles and tablets.
- Structured Data Markup: Implement schema markup to help search engines understand your content. This increases your chances of appearing in rich snippets.
- Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues, especially when multiple URLs display similar products.
Pro Tip: Managing technical SEO for large eCommerce websites is complex because of the vast number of category and product pages.
You can leverage reliable search engine optimization tools to get started. However, tools won’t give you results without a solid SEO strategy. Here, connecting with professional experts can ease your workload while maintaining accuracy.
For instance, you can connect with a trusted SEO agency like Growfusely. Growfusely’s SaaS SEO services can get all the technical elements right. The agency offers scalable, automated solutions for large eCommerce sites, thereby providing accurate technical optimization. This can save time and resources while maximizing SEO performance.
Check their website to understand what their eCommerce clients say and make an informed decision.
5. Add FAQs and Product Reviews
It’s a no-brainer. Frequently asked questions can address the most common queries of your potential and existing customers. So, you must add a dedicated FAQ page with relevant questions that help answer customer concerns. This can reduce purchase hesitation.
That’s not all. It improves SEO by targeting long-tail keywords.
See how Magic Spoon, a health-focused cereal eCommerce company, leverages this technique. They have added FAQs with long-tail keywords smartly.
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of Magic Spoon website’s FAQs page
Multiply the benefits of the FAQ page by adding product reviews. Genuine reviews can create a sense of trustworthiness by providing social proof. This positively influences purchase decisions.
Fanatical is a great example. Notice how this eCommerce store sells Steam keys for PC games while displaying reviews to imbibe a sense of trust amongst the audience.
Image Alt Text: Screenshot of Fanatical’s website showing reviews
This way, you can boost user engagement while optimizing the content for SEO.
Key Takeaways
Optimizing category pages can prove a game-changer for eCommerce brands. From helping your content get discovered via search engines to increasing user engagement, it provides you with all the benefits. The key here is to understand your target audience and technical requirements before you start the journey. The five eCommerce category page optimization tactics shared in this post can help you get started.
So, implement the tips and begin your journey with confidence.
