If you’ve been doing SEO for a while, you’ll recognize what I mean erstwhile I accidental class pages are a communal country SEO and UX experts disagree on.

And this is for 1 cardinal reason: SEOs thin to privation to adhd much contented and links, and UX experts privation to prioritize clicks to products.

However, determination is simply a mediate crushed wherever we tin clasp the commercialized quality of categories and see contented to assistance users marque their acquisition decision.

Throughout this guide, I’ll amusement however to amended your e-commerce class pages for SEO portion ensuring the idiosyncratic remains astatine the halfway of your decisions.

The value of large categories cannot beryllium understated.

They’re the tract country wherever you’ll often seizure “The Fat Head” and “The Chunky Middle” of hunt queries—the high-volume, less-specific queries that astir bosses/clients privation to rank for.

That’s not to accidental categories can’t people long-tail keywords. But unless you person a batch of SKUs, sites often people the long-tail with merchandise pages.

In summation to categories being indispensable for capturing postulation from high-volume terms, they also help:

• Users observe your products erstwhile navigating your site.
• You effectively administer PageRank to important subcategories and products via your interior linking.
• Users and hunt engines recognize your accusation architecture (IA), i.e., however you’ve organized your content.

Before we determination connected with immoderate tips, I’ll present the 2 types of class pages you’ll find connected e-commerce stores:

• Category listing pages (CLP) – Categories that predominantly database categories. 
• Product listing pages (PLP) – Categories that predominantly database products.

You’ll spot CLPs crossed galore fashionable e-commerce stores, and they’re often recovered successful categories higher up wrong a site’s hierarchy.

For example, present is simply a CLP on ASOS:

And present is ASOS’ PLP:

So wherefore is knowing the quality betwixt CLPs and PLPs significant?

CLPs people precise wide topics. A tract is improbable to work the user’s requirements by displaying 1 merchandise type. For example, connected ASOS’ men’s covering CLP, it doesn’t cognize the circumstantial benignant of men’s covering a idiosyncratic wants to see, truthful it links to a substance of antithetic types of products.

CLPs beryllium to assistance users navigate to a much circumstantial page. Sites bash this, arsenic they won’t beryllium definite specifically what the idiosyncratic wants yet—so they amusement them a enactment of each applicable merchandise types.

With PLPs, connected the different hand, sites cognize what a idiosyncratic wants. If a idiosyncratic searches for “men’s achromatic boots,” the intent is clear—so they amusement them black boots.

While we should inactive assistance users navigate to a much circumstantial class (if possible), we cognize showing a database of achromatic boots for them to acquisition volition fulfill their requirements.

Your emblematic class leafage is elemental and looks similar the PLPs I’ve conscionable described. They’ll apt have:

• An H1.
• A conception nether the H1 with immoderate intro copy.
• A database of products, apt with pagination.
• Faceted navigation to assistance users filter the products.

However, determination are acold much elements you tin see to assistance users and SEO connected some PLPs and CLPs.

Here’s a mockup of the captious elements you should see for some types of categories that some users and hunt engines will love.

I’ll present grow connected the supra points passim the remainder of the nonfiction to assistance you amended your class pages.

In this scenario, adjuvant contented volition help the idiosyncratic marque a purchasing decision.

If you person an “engagement ring” category, penning astir the past of engagement rings isn’t helpful.

Valuable supplementary contented successful this script volition beryllium answering questions like:

• How person you sourced your diamonds/metals?
• Are your diamonds lab-grown oregon natural? 
• Why did you prime these? Metals available? What makes yours better?
• What’s the astir fashionable style?

You tin concisely reply cardinal symptom points beneath the H1, usually successful astir 30–60 words. But past you tin besides adhd further accusation little down the page, either successful a generic contented artifact oregon an FAQ section.

Not lone is this utile for a user, but it besides helps you rank.

In an interrogation with Marie Haynes, Google Search Advocate John Mueller said:

When the ecommerce class pages don’t person immoderate different contented astatine all, different than links to the products, past it’s truly hard for america to fertile those pages.

Google needs immoderate contented to recognize the page’s content, and users who don’t cognize your marque request thing to assistance them determine whether you’re the champion choice.

So we cognize invaluable contented helps. However, this is sometimes taken to the extreme, resulting successful a ample magnitude of contented that cipher volition work beneath the fold.

One of the worst offenders is eBay, with galore pages including implicit 1,000 words of substance placed astatine the bottommost of the category.

In the aforesaid interview, John said this astir that practice.

I’m not saying each of that substance astatine the bottommost of your leafage is bad, but possibly 90%, 95% of that substance is unnecessary. But immoderate magnitude of substance is utile to person connected a leafage truthful that we tin recognize what this leafage is about.

So it’s apt not helping. But is it harming? The reply is likely—yes.

Our algorithms sometimes get confused erstwhile they person a database of products connected apical and fundamentally a elephantine nonfiction connected the bottommost erstwhile our algorithms person to fig retired the intent of this page.

Still not convinced astir removing the content? 

Here’s a case study.

At the extremity of June 2021, I finished a four-week rollout of caller class leafage content. 

I updated 191 pages with 70 words of contented supra the fold. Previously, up to 800 words were supra the fold, hidden by a “read more” toggle.

Here’s the postulation for the pursuing weeks (“A” marks the constituent the rollout finished):

Here are immoderate snapshots of the ranking for cardinal presumption connected the apical postulation pages. Each of these moved from 800 words to astir 70 words (they antecedently were instructed much contented equals better, truthful they added much contented to their top pages). 

Here’s the fifth-largest, non-brand query: 

And here’s the sixth-largest, non-brand query:

And the semipermanent impact? 

The tract has been steadily growing.

There is ne'er 1 azygous crushed for SEO growth—but this alteration surely did no harm.

As always, do your ain testing. But my acquisition and comments from John person shown that filler contented connected categories doesn’t help.

To summarize class content: 

• Answer questions that assistance users marque acquisition decisions
• Answer questions succinctly
• Don’t worldly content

Most e-commerce solutions supply a mode for you to acceptable parent/child relationships betwixt categories.

Here’s an illustration of that functionality for a WooCommerce merchandise category:

Organizing your categories into a logical hierarchy results successful your tract outputting breadcrumbs correctly; present is an illustration on my SEO Toolbelt resource:

Breadcrumbs assistance users by indicating wherever they are connected your site, and they assistance SEO by distributing PageRank to the categories wrong the breadcrumbs.

They besides assistance Google, arsenic it uses internal links to recognize tract structure.

We bash usage the interior links to amended recognize the operation of a page.

However, breadcrumbs are thing a batch of UX professionals are reluctant to introduce, usually due to the fact that they:

• Take up tons of room.
• Tend to beryllium quite ugly.
• Promote users to navigate to categories alternatively than products wherever they’ll convert.

The bully quality is that breadcrumb placement doesn’t substance for SEO.

I’m ever cautious astir introducing breadcrumbs, arsenic acquisition has shown UX experts are right. Whenever I’ve clients tally an A/B test, breadcrumbs person negatively impacted conversion rates.

However, the workaround is simple: determination breadcrumbs little down the page.

On some CLP and PLP pages, you should guarantee you’re linking to different applicable categories the idiosyncratic whitethorn find helpful. On e-commerce sites, I advocator for a substance of automated interior linking and manually placed links.

Automate links to parent/child categories

For ample e-commerce stores, without automation, managing links volition beryllium an admin nightmare.

Take GetYourGuide, for example. On its “things to do” connected the U.S. page, it has a artifact of interior links little down the leafage to antithetic regions successful the U.S.

If we caput to Colorado, scroll down to the aforesaid area. Now, it displays cities.

Once you spell to Boulder, you’ll spot links to enactment categories.

It astir undoubtedly automates these links.

How? The tract understands the parent/child narration betwixt categories. That’s however it tin besides show static breadcrumbs supra the footer.

It’ll beryllium dynamically querying a database for the kid pages of the existent leafage and past displaying those to users.

The crushed wherefore this is truthful utile is that:

• You cognize you won’t get orphan categories owed to a human error.
• If you make a caller subcategory and acceptable the genitor category, the genitor class volition nexus to the subcategory automatically.
• Your interior links volition ever bespeak your tract structure, e.g., Google volition recognize that Louisiana is simply a subcategory of the U.S. category, arsenic you nexus to Louisiana connected your U.S. page.

Another sizeable payment is that you’ll automatically make a pyramid tract structure, wherever broader pages nexus to much circumstantial ones.

We cognize this helps Google recognize tract structure, as confirmed by John.

The top-down attack oregon pyramid operation helps america a batch much to recognize the discourse of idiosyncratic pages wrong the site.

Automate links to akin categories

Similar to the above, you’ll besides privation to nexus akin categories. You tin automate this, but it doesn’t suit every site.

Back to the Boulder leafage connected GetYourGuide, it besides links to different fashionable cities.

For these links, it volition beryllium querying a database, getting the genitor class of the existent page, and past listing the parents’ child pages.

Subcategories of the genitor are apt applicable to the existent page, which volition assistance users find different pertinent categories and assistance SEO by sharing PageRank betwixt them.

Manually nexus fashionable categories

You’ll present person a bully baseline for interior linking. But it’s besides indispensable to instrumentality editorial power of links, particularly connected CLP pages.

Sometimes, you tin person a precocious hunt accidental leafage heavy wrong the tract hierarchy, truthful relying connected genitor categories linking to kid categories tin effect successful “high opportunity” categories being too deep.

Therefore, you indispensable besides guarantee you manually adhd links to popular/important categories to pages person to the homepage, specified arsenic your CLP pages.

A cardinal intent of categories is to nexus to products, but determination are a fewer nuances connected however to bash this best.

Link to fashionable products

For larger stores, prioritizing linking to fashionable products is often amended than linking to each products with pagination.

Take Sports Direct successful the U.K., for example. On its wide CLP pages, alternatively than linking tons of products, it includes links to lone its champion sellers.

This is adjuvant for users and besides consolidates PageRank into those URLs, improving however good they rank.

Doing this is simply a overmuch amended enactment than linking to much products (but ones that are little popular), which results successful the fashionable traffic-driving products receiving little PageRank and ranking worse.

Consider view-all pages

While you should purpose to nexus to fashionable products for pages higher up successful your class hierarchy, arsenic you get deeper into the site, users thin to privation to spot arsenic galore products arsenic possible.

Often, the champion mode to execute this is by utilizing view-all pages, which is thing Google recovered users prefer (albeit backmost in 2011).

The main caveat with a view-all leafage is that users privation accelerated load times (as mentioned successful Google’s view-all article), and Core Web Vitals tin interaction rankings.

If you’re going to instrumentality view-all pages, see that it volition origin PageRank to beryllium diluted betwixt each the pages you nexus to from that category.

Don’t spell overboard with pagination

You don’t request to amusement each your products wrong your pagination.

Instead, nexus to much circumstantial variants of the existent category, particularly if you tin lucifer that to hunt request (more connected that shortly).

For example, connected ASOS, its “women’s dresses” class has 176 pagination constituent pages.

Every clip it links to a “women’s dress” constituent page, it dilutes PageRank. This efficaciously causes ASOS to suffer immoderate PageRank to heavy constituent pages that are precise improbable to rank.

Rather than linking to 176 constituent URLs, it could bounds the pagination and consolidate PageRank into different much circumstantial categories by linking to them instead.

Generally, this volition besides beryllium beneficial for UX.

If a idiosyncratic reaches leafage #20 of your pagination, you apt request to assistance them refine what they’re looking for—maybe by linking to “women’s dress” categories by benignant oregon color—as suggested by John.

When creating your pagination strategy, you should see whether sequential linking similar ASOS oregon linking to aggregate constituent pages is the amended choice.

Sequential linking causes the archetypal acceptable of constituent pages to person stronger signals, which volition effect successful the merchandise pages they nexus to besides having stronger signals, as confirmed by John.

If you nexus sequentially, what volition mostly hap is the archetypal leafage of your tract volition person a batch stronger signals successful the consciousness that your main contented links to the archetypal page, and past it benignant of similar incrementally drops and drops and drops arsenic it goes done the pagination set.

Therefore, if you privation ranking signals to beryllium dispersed crossed each products successful a category, nexus to much constituent pages. If you privation to consolidate signals into products earlier wrong pagination, nexus to fewer.

Aren’t definite which attack you should take? Do immoderate testing!

A well-known maneuver to amended your categories is to make long-tail, much circumstantial variations of broader categories.

Here’s my favourite mode of doing that utilizing Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.

First, participate the query a broader class is targeting, e.g., “engagement rings,” and hunt for it successful the tool.

Next, caput to the Matching terms report.

In the 2nd near sidebar that present appears, click “Parent Topics.” This volition radical keywords with akin hunt results into the highest measurement keyword.

We’ve present discovered galore long-tail variants of our “engagement rings” pages that we tin make connected our site.

By creating pages targeting these queries and amended covering the taxable country of “engagement rings,” we’ll fertile amended for wide queries wrong that topic. 

SEOs often notation to this arsenic “topic expertise”—and we did not marque this up.

John confirmed it’s portion of Google’s algorithms.

It’s thing wherever if we tin admit that this website is truly bully for this broader taxable area, past if idiosyncratic is searching for that broader taxable area, we tin effort to amusement that website arsenic well. We don’t person to purely absorption connected idiosyncratic pages, but we’ll accidental oh, like, it looks similar you’re looking for a caller laptop similar this website has a batch of accusation connected assorted facets astir laptops.

Want to cognize more? Read Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo’s usher connected the long-tail keyword strategy. 

A captious constituent that tin spell incorrect connected class pages is however you woody with faceted navigation (often referred to arsenic “filters”).

Here’s an illustration of 1 connected the Nike store:

I urge speechmaking my faceted navigation guide for each the details, but the superior SEO considerations are to:

• Restrict crawling – Do guarantee you forestall Google from crawling each facet links (as determination tin beryllium millions of imaginable combinations, wasting your crawl budget).
• Prevent indexing of low-value facets – If you don’t, Google tin scale hundreds of thousands to millions of fundamentally duplicate pages that aren’t utile for search.

If you’re going for an perfect implementation, you’re going to want to:

• Apply facets client-side with AJAX, and don’t see <a href> links.
• Provide alternate crawl paths to important facets you privation to beryllium indexed.

This taxable is undoubtedly a method one—and 1 you’ll privation to get right. So I recommend you work my guide truthful you don’t conscionable forestall SEO issues with facets but instrumentality vantage of the benefits. 

Data from Reevoo suggests affirmative reviews effect successful an 18% uplift successful gross connected average—so they’re beauteous important.

Many sites restrict reviews to merchandise pages, but they’re besides large to see successful categories.

Fanatical is simply a large example, an e-commerce store selling Steam Keys for PC games.

It includes recommendations from different gamers passim its categories.

This adds unsocial contented to categories and helps users find well-reviewed games. Crucially, well-reviewed games (which are much apt to convert) get much PageRank and fertile better.

As mentioned, 1 constituent often missed successful categories is that you should supply contented to assistance users marque a purchasing decision.

While adding written contented to the leafage helps, it isn’t meant to beryllium overly detailed. This is wherefore you should besides nexus to in-depth guides.

Take Sephora, for example. Its CLPs person links to guides to assistance users determine connected a product.

For SEO, this besides helps the blog posts rank, arsenic they’ll person much PageRank. Also, it helps Google amended recognize your taxable expertise, arsenic you person tons of interlinked content.

There is plentifulness of advice connected URL structure already available, but the main constituent to see is to prime a format you won’t request to change.

John stated that URLs are identifiers for content.

For the astir part, we dainty URLs arsenic identifiers of content.

Changing URLs (and redirecting them) is often deemed risky activity—you can’t beryllium definite however agelong it’ll instrumentality Google to consolidate signals into the new URL.

Therefore, it’s champion not to alteration URLs unless you person a bully crushed (like you’re rebranding).

Preventing URL changes for categories comes down to keeping them elemental and pre-planning.

For example, you whitethorn archer your developers to operation URLs based connected the parent/child relationships betwixt categories:

• www.example.com/mens/
• www.example.com/mens/trainers/
• www.example.com/mens/trainers/white/

But what happens if you alteration your tract hierarchy?

Say the concern starts selling boots. You’ll apt privation to present a “Shoes” class into the hierarchy arsenic the genitor of the “Trainers” leafage and the caller “Boots” page.

Your URLs volition present alteration to be:

• www.example.com/mens/
• www.example.com/mens/shoes/
• www.example.com/mens/shoes/trainers/
• www.example.com/mens/shoes/trainers/white/
• www.example.com/mens/shoes/boots/

We’ve present conscionable caused redirects for the “Trainer” URL and immoderate subcategories it had.

Herein lies the issues with hierarchical structured URLs.

But what’s the solution?

Keep them arsenic elemental arsenic imaginable to trim the request for changes. 

Here’s an example: If for the “white trainers” URL above, we instruct developers to instrumentality the precise top-level class (which is little apt to change) and past see the past category, the URL volition beryllium this: www.example.com/mens/white-trainers/

Now, if immoderate of the genitor categories of the achromatic trainer’s class change, it won’t interaction the URL but volition inactive impact the breadcrumbs.

But wouldn’t it beryllium amended to region the operation and person a level URL similar this: www.example.com/mens-white-trainers/?

My idiosyncratic acquisition present is that structured URLs interaction rankings, despite what Google said connected the topic.

Here’s a caller example: 

This uplift lone impacted the changed URLs. We altered thing other but saw an contiguous impact.

Test this yourself. But also, arsenic I’ve mentioned, changing URLs is risky.

Thankfully, for my supra example, we didn’t request to alteration excessively galore URLs, and the gross hazard to the concern wasn’t important vs. the reward I’d had doing this for different clients.

I’m not penning a keyword probe article, and you request to commencement determination earlier you determine connected H1s and rubric tags. But the proposal present is that you should usage H1s and rubric tags connected your tract that lucifer the connection users usage to find your product.

For some H1s and rubric tags, you should trial and larn what works champion for your site. But determination are immoderate wide guides and things you tin try out.

Use templates

Generally, you volition privation to person a templated rubric tag operation that intimately matches your H1. 

Why?

Ahrefs information shows Google volition rewrite your rubric tag successful 33.4% of cases aft changing however it created page titles successful August 2021.

When Google rewrites your rubric tag, Ahrefs information shows Google volition alteration it to your H1 tag 50.76% of the time.

The champion mode to guarantee you person a rubric tag that Google won’t rewrite is by templating it truthful it is generated based connected your page’s H1. 

Here’s an example: [Page H1] - [Brand Name].

You whitethorn privation to adhd immoderate assortment to the leafage title, but what works champion comes down to testing.

Test, test, test

There are galore antithetic tests you tin tally to spot what works champion for you; present are immoderate examples:

• Use dashes (-) over pipes (|)
• Include a terms – [Page H1] starting from X - [Brand name]
• Add “Buy” astatine the commencement of your rubric tag – Buy [Page H1] - [Brand name]
• Add secondary keywords – [Page H1] - [Secondary Keyword] - [Brand Name]

You’ll besides privation to see however templates whitethorn alteration by length. Google is 57% much apt to rewrite titles implicit 600 px.

According to Google, agelong titles are besides a crushed wherefore it’ll rewrite the ones you adhd to your pages.

I’ve tackled this earlier by individually customizing a template for a agelong class sanction oregon utilizing antithetic templates—depending connected the magnitude of the generated title tag.

You tin adhd aggregate structured information types to your class pages to assistance Google amended recognize your contented and get affluent results.

The main applicable types Google recommends successful its hunt gallery are:

• Breadcrumb
• FAQ

Adding these volition straight interaction your SERP snippet.

For FAQs, it enhances them by displaying the FAQs connected the SERPs, which is the strategy Trip Advisor takes.

For breadcrumb structured data, Google shows the breadcrumbs connected the SERPs. Here’s an illustration of Google doing that for Currys successful the U.K.

You tin spot the structured information it’s added successful the Schema Markup validator:

Outside of those 2 types, Google has nary recommendations for merchandise class structured data.

But you don’t person to stop there.

On a “Search Off the Record” podcast, Ryan Levering (staff bundle technologist moving connected structured information astatine Google) answered whether structured information beyond what Google recommends is invaluable (like what you tin find connected schema.org).

While adding further structured information should beryllium a secondary focus, I thin to instrumentality the attack of leaving arsenic small for Google to fig retired arsenic possible.

The 2 main further things I’d see adding are:

• CollectionPage – This is simply a much circumstantial benignant than the generic WebPage.
• ItemList – It informs Google determination is simply a database of items connected the page.

In addition, you tin besides adhd mainEntity to CollectionPage and adhd the ItemList wrong that. By doing this, you archer Google the main portion of the leafage is the database of products, helping it amended recognize that this is simply a class page.

Here’s a elemental illustration of what that tin look like:

{

  "@context": "http://schema.org",

  "@type": "CollectionPage",

  "mainEntity": {

    "@type": "ItemList",

    "numberOfItems": "[number of products]",

    "itemListElement": [

      {

        "@type": "ListItem",

        "position": 1,

        "url": "[Item URL]",

        "name": "[Item Name]"

      },

      {

        "@type": "ListItem",

        "position": 2,

        "url": "[Item URL]",

        "name": "[Item Name]"

      },

      {

        "@type": "ListItem",

        "position": 3,

        "url": "[Item URL]",

        "name": "[Item Name]"

      }

    ]

  }

}

PRO TIP

You’ll announcement I haven’t mentioned reappraisal oregon merchandise markup. E-commerce stores often adhd this markup to class pages—and you shouldn’t.

For reviews, Google mentions explicitly successful the method guidelines not to adhd reappraisal markup if the main contented is simply a class listing items.

It provides the aforesaid acquisition for product structured data.

Final thoughts

There’s a batch to see to marque fantabulous class pages for SEO. But hopefully, this usher has made that process much painless.

Got a question astir optimizing e-commerce categories? Tweet me.