Needless to say, category pages are essential for e-commerce websites. If you have a properly optimized category page, you are sure to get higher rankings in Google’s search results. At the same time, you can generate the desired revenue and sales if you know to use the relevant keywords. In this article, you will know how to use SEO in your category pages and enhance your noticeability amongst the customers and Google rankings.
Importance of e-commerce category pages
Category pages of an e-commerce site have the potential to become high authority pages. While incorporating the best SEO practices into your website, you have to keep in mind that the website should possess a hierarchy divided into three levels. The first page is the homepage and the second one is the most vital category pages.
On the category pages, the two parameters that dominate the page are authority and link juice. To gain from such a site structure, you need to employ and, eventually, better ranking. If you fail to carry out the SEO properly in e-commerce, your site is sure to get negatively impacted and, as a result, lose the game.
Another important reason why SEO needs to be incorporated in category pages is its capability to enhance rankings. Many online e-commerce platforms do not get the desired rankings in their product pages as other more prominent websites possess similar products and have topped the SERPs. This can also be due to using more general standard terms than names of products individually.
How to optimize category pages?
Now that you have to know the importance of category pages from Brainvire eCommerce SEO definition let’s look into the stepwise process of optimizing them.
- Category URL optimization
SEO on category pages begins with the optimization of URLs. The URL of your category page should convey what the page is about without stuffing in any irrelevant information. Further, the URL has to be short, clean, and to the point so that the user does not have any problem in understanding. In case you are using WooCommerce or WordPress, you must have a category slug.
- Category title optimization
It is through the category titles that Google gets a vital clue about the contents of the page. While writing titles for your page, keep in mind these two essential things:
- The result of your keyword search. First, know the keywords that customers use to look for specific products. This way, you will come to know about the titles that are heavily optimized.
- Also, begin your titles with keywords and then attach the brand name with it.
- Category meta description optimization
Although the description of a category page is not directly related to the page’s on-page SEO but has a strong connection to gaining better CTR after you have secured the rankings on the first page. The write-up on the meta description is visible on the search results.
- Category H1 tag
Like every other page, the category page should also have one H1 right at the top of the page. This H1 may be either the very title of the page or something else. However, H1 containing a keyword is a must. You can write a few more lines right below the H1 tag, which would act as a clue to both the search engines and users.
- Category text content
Do you find difficulty in adding text content to your e-commerce site? This is because text content hampers the design of the web page and can distract your customers from the products. To make your visitors pay attention to both the product’s image and the text, add a few lines right below the H1 tag, followed by some relevant content right at the end of the page.
- Elements of conversion optimization
A category page is nothing different from a landing page. So, visitors might land up into your category page first if he visits straight from a search engine. This implies that you must include all things essential to gain the trust, encourage and retain the users.
- Visual and other elements of accessibility
Apart from the text content, a category page has images and other related valuable items that easily navigate the site. You need to optimize the size of the images for SEO. Allow filters to categorize a lot of products.
- Arranging canonical URLs properly
While expanding category pages or using filters on the category pages, setting canonical URLs is a must. Canonical URLs allow backlinks to allocate you to the main category page.
Conclusion
You need to understand that optimizing category pages with SEO is a must. Once you optimize your category pages, you are sure to get better rankings in the future.