How to Optimize Category Pages for Your E-Commerce Business

PART A: The importance of category pages for online stores, from a SEO perspective
- Category pages in the customer journey
- Category pages as sales consultants

PART B: Automated keyword-based writing of category pages
- Return on Investment
- Reasons why automated keyword-based writing of category pages is worthwhile
- The process
- Example 1: Sporting goods manufacturer - keyword enhancement and content automation
- Example 2: SEO-relevant and automated writing of category pages with a well-known SEO tool

Björn Darko is the author of Part A “The importance of category pages for online shops, from a SEO perspective“. He is head of global SEO at Visual-Meta GmbH and podcast founder & host of SEOPRESSO. This white paper addresses operators of e-commerce companies, online shops in particular, classified portal and marketplace operators and explains the importance of category pages in the customer journey. On the one hand, category pages are crucial entry pages for users; on the other hand, they play an important role for website operators in structuring their online shops and inventorying products.

From a SEO perspective, category pages have the following important functions:
1. They give the user orientation at a stage in which they do not yet know exactly what they want.
2. They serve as a distribution page on which the product inventory can be grouped into one category. Likewise, they thus correspond to the aisle or shelf in a local store.
3. They are important pillars in the information architecture of the website and thus give search engines a better understanding of the taxonomy and inventory.

For user orientation in particular, I see content as the biggest lever for conversions and sales, alongside product quality and inventory. In the future, category pages must be designed more as sales consultants. For example, users want a washing machine, but they don't know exactly which one suits them. Is it a Miele with a touch screen, a Siemens with a drying function, etc.? The category page must provide the decisive information that users need at the moment of decision-making, answer the necessary questions, and thus convince them to buy.

This white paper is meant to be food for thought on how to handle category pages in the future that need more focus, better features, and better content.

Categories are Drivers for Search Visibility

Category pages are the strongest drivers for keyword rankings, visibility & traffic. A study conducted by JumpFly & SEO Clarity in 2020, examined 30 top e-commerce websites in the US that collectively rank for over 25 billion keywords. The goal of the study: which webpages perform better: product detail pages or category pages? The result for over 27 of the top e-commerce players: Categories outperform product detail pages. 19% more ranking keywords, 413% more estimated traffic and 32% more traffic potential. The only exceptions were in the electronics sector, where more specific long-tail keywords are being searched (e.g. LG Smart TV 55 inch) and Amazon, whose product detail pages also strongly tend to be long-tail. It is worth taking a look at the distribution of website visibility in Germany. Here, we quickly see that for the big players, such as eBay, Zalando or Otto, the backbone of their visibility are their category pages.