Search engine optimization doesn’t just apply to your landing page, blog, and the “About” page of your business. Every piece of content on your website is crawled by Google and other search engines, and gets factored into how their algorithms rank your site. That means a few poorly-optimized pages – such as long, boring lists of products on otherwise empty category pages – can drag down your ranking, bringing a site that might otherwise have appeared on the first page of Google results to the second page, third, or worse.
Product and Category Pages: The Dilemma
If your business offers dozens or hundreds of products that need to be listed on your website, you may be wondering about their impact on your overall SEO and if there’s anything you can do about it. A huge product catalogue isn’t ideal in terms of site optimization, but solutions do exist. There’s no reason to give up and accept a poor search engine ranking when there are simple, practical ways to improve the SEO of your ecommerce pages while still serving up the content your consumers need.
Search Engine Optimization for Category Pages
The best SEO tactic for category pages is a dual approach. You’ll want to consider the layout and volume of links (or items) on each page, and then take a close look at adding SEO-friendly content.
If your category pages include less than 100 items, you may be able to get away with grouping them into a single batch. If you have more than that, or if you’d prefer to break up the page by displaying smaller sets of products, it’s best to divide items into small, specific categories. If that’s not possible, you’ll still need to display them up on several pages. In terms of SEO, it’s best to interlink all of the pages, rather than forcing visitors – and search engines – to pass from page 1, to page 2, to page 3 and onward.
The content of each page makes a significant difference, as well, so it’s important to create unique content for every catalogue page. Ideally, this content should include keyword-optimized text in addition to targeted photos. Images are effective not only for SEO; they also provide a visual display of your products’ selling points and make category pages more engaging.
Still have questions? Looking for advice on designing search engine optimized pages for your business website? We specialize in this kind of custom web design. Contact Informatix today to speak with one of our consultants.