Should I change our main category pages to product listing pages?
-
With the thought of improving user experience, as well as rankings in Google, I'm considering changing our main category pages to product listing pages (with sub-categories remaining, still). These main category pages are very standard and don't link to any informational content, such as buyers guides, etc.
What's driven this is the latest Google core update. I've noticed our main competitor (who we were out-ranking before... but not now) now uses this approach.
I can see the benefit from a user perspective, i.e. less clicks to reach products.
What's the pros/cons from an SEO point of view, please? Could the potential duplication of content be an issue?
For context, we have about 2,000 products and website is on Magento 2.
-
if a visitor is already browsing through your product listing pages, it means that they’re interested in your online store. So this is where you lead them to product pages and persuade them to buy.
With minor improvements, you can start driving more visitors to your product pages and increase your conversions.
Here are the seven best strategies you can use to optimize your product listing pages, and why they’re so effective.
-
Hi There Hope you are doing well. I Started My site and Working on this Site's best laptop buyer's Guide. and with Google update, this is going down. Then I Just publish Quality Content and it ranked Again. With No backlinks.
Thanks
Raisaleem.
-
Sure can you tell me a bit more about what you want to do?
all the best,
Tom
-
I agree with the Silo Structure for blogs & e-commerce it works well when done the right way.
I like Patrick Stox & agree with a lot of what he said about blogs but for the most part the deeper the page the less chance to rank th is why he is saying interlinking is so important for this to work. Look at your site depth & you will see what I am talking about.
he is right about the home page n being the main start for everything but you must interlink
- https://searchengineland.com/everything-not-blog-post-start-using-silos-242508
- https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo/
a silo might require you almost remake your website.
- https://www.brightedge.com/blog/content-silo-seo
- https://backlinko.com/ecommerce-seo
- https://ahrefs.com/blog/ecommerce-seo/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo/url-structure/
- https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls
Hope this helps,
Tom
-
Well in this case, you should use silo structure, Silo will not only helps users but also help search engine to better understand your website structure. and using silo your website will get a huge boost in rankings. This website TenRater is using Silo Structure. They're Ranking on some high volume Keywords without links.
-
Hi,
I didn't get your question, If you want to see an example of micro niche sites to decide you can check the boxing gloves related blog of me in which i cover some keywords but only in one category
-
The link that you had created goes to a gateway page? I can see you at the bottom you show that there is the ability to purchase the shoe however there’s no way for me to actually purchase it. I don’t know if you want that or not?
without seeing the entire site I can only give you advice on the side that you have shared with me. It would not affect your site to add categories based on the website where it says you can see my store by “click“
What you have already created could be used as categories if you were going to sell the product generally a category page in e-commerce is not a comparison but your content is very thorough & useful I would incorporate it into the main e-commerce site
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo/url-structure/
https://yoast.com/video/ask-yoast-order-of-categories-and-subcategories-in-urls/
(this video might seem like it’s not very helpful but it does bring one very important thing into account. Don’t make redirects if you don’t have to. and if you have to make sure you do them page to page
so if you have a list of URLs and in this example: D is the final URL the one that you want every page to go to. (The other letters represent any other relevant pages that need to be redirected to The final URL D)
never link URLs like this A to B to C to D
all 301s Should be lined up like spreadsheet columns (but the spreadsheet should have a maximum of two columns) were the last URL/final URL is pointed to directly like below
- A to D
- then
- B to D
- then
- C to D
The final URL again is D
then line them up like a spreadsheet but never more than one redirect. Unless you can’t help it.
https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls
https://mza.bundledseo.com/learn/seo/url
bigger photographs below (and the links are examples of awful URLs.)
- https://9c93f9579e3f41fd4e9c-0310e6d68b80e24ea2ff21e1b495e94b.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/6ED12A91-BF22-4D6E-B21F-ED423E7626A5.png
- https://9c93f9579e3f41fd4e9c-0310e6d68b80e24ea2ff21e1b495e94b.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/F50795AA-FF5F-42B1-B3D2-72F19432D9B9.gif
- Hope this helps,
Tom
-
I will be happy to help in 1 hour
-
I'm also looking for the same answer. I'm working on one niche store. And now want to go for macro website. You can see my store by click.
-
I would definitely take a handful and make them the main category pages that you suggested, in the beginning, we really don't have anything to lose if you keep the subcategories however I would like to map out the site it would make it a lot clearer
-
Hi
Yes, I see what you're saying now. I like those subcategories here. You are saying that you might fill this the text which would definitely give Google some more information on the products.
I don't know how you would make the products any closer to the homepage that way?
I would simply add an additional product overview page that is mostly text and links to the subcategory page.
These types of things are never easy because you have a very nice site I would to know a lot more about what's going on with it if I can try to help you with the algorithm update how much traffic have you lost?
I would keep the age that you currently have because it does showcase the current products very well and add an additional main category page with content.
I don't see the harm in doing it to a handful of categories as an experiment. Please keep in mind the closer to the homepage the cliques are the better. And your content should be informational and transactional meaning you're trying to sell on the product pages and product category pages and maybe use a blog for informational content which would allow people who are engaged like myself & planning a wedding the opportunity to learn everything I need to know about the big event. I would also partner with churches and other venues to make sure that the backlinks profile is relevant to your industry.
I will say this part is very confusing because it bears the same name
this is appropriately named https://bseo.dev/RjS2Hq
this is a duplicate and does not work properly.
I can give you an audit of your website if you'd like me to?
My information is right here
https://mza.bundledseo.com/users/view/383525
respectfully,
Tom
-
Hi Tom
This is my domain (I’ve shortened using bitly):
This is one of the main category pages: https://bit.ly/2RSWmZL
I’m planning to keep URL structure the same, and keep the sub-categories still. The only change would be that you see a list of products (which you can filter) rather than the current main category page.
I appreciate any thoughts that you might have! I can email you my email address if you like?
Thanks so much
-
Can you show me what you're being category pages look like now? Or describe them are they just products?
fewer clicks to reach products/ or any page From the homepage has a very strong correlation with ranking.
"with sub-categories remaining" you mean you're going to keep the category pages anyway?
the new algorithm update if it hurt your website could have done so for many reasons that have nothing to do with what you're discussing. If you wouldn't mind could you share the domain with us?
If you feel uncomfortable doing that will give you an email you can send it to.
Sincerely,
Tom
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why are my pages de-indexed?
<form id="form-t3_37nfib9dz" class="usertext" action="http://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/37nfib/why_were_my_pages_deindexed/#"> Hello all, I am very new to SEO. For some reason many of the pages on my site were de-indexed. Specifically the ones linked from this page: However other pages, like the ones linked from this page and this page were not de-indexed. http://www.lawyerconnection.ca/practice-areas/car-accident-injury-lawyers/[1] However the pages linked from this page were not de-indexed: http://www.lawyerconnection.ca/practice-areas/slip-and-fall-lawyers/[2] http://www.lawyerconnection.ca/podcastresources/[3] That first page itself was not de-indexed, just the site that it links to. It just happened today, so maybe I am jumping the gun but I doubt it. When I enter the page into google webmaster tools again and press fetch, one of the child pages, it re-indexes. What could be the problem here? I had someone re-write the content for every city but I have a feeling that there is less differences in the car accidents pages? Is this considered duplicated content do you think? Am I making some other mistake I can't think of? Is it just a one day blip (I doubt it) Let me know, thanks. </form>
On-Page Optimization | | RafeTLouis0 -
Redirecting https pages
If I add 301 redirects from the https versions of the root domain to the http:www.website.com (canonical version), will this prevent users from being able to access the https version? I believe the https version is only accessed once users log into the site. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0 -
Duplicate Content on Category Pages
Hi Everyone, I have a few category pages within a category for my eCommerce store and I've recently started writing a short description for each. However a lot of these paragraphs can be replicated for the same category. For instance '1 Inch thickness' I'll show all the information, and it'll be very similar to '2 inch thickness' but obviously one is 1 inch and one is 2 inch so I would only be changing one keyword and that is the thickness. I feel that this is helping customers because it has all the information in each category e.g. how to filter your choices. But it might be duplicate content. What would you recommend?
On-Page Optimization | | EcomLkwd0 -
Why a page with an On Page A grade has a less good rank than a page with a F grade?
Why a page with an On Page A grade is ranked 17 in Google when the home page with a F grade is ranked 9 ? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Amadeus_eBC0 -
Would I be safe canonicalizing comments pages on the first page?
We are building comment pages for an article site that live on a separate URL from the article (I know this is not ideal, but it is necessary). Each comments page will have a summary of the article at the top. Would I be safe using the first page of comments as the canonical URL for all subsequent comment pages? Or could I get away with using the actual article page as the canonical URL for all comment pages?
On-Page Optimization | | BostonWright0 -
Product Has Many Fitments - Is it ok to create a page for each fitment?
Hello We are working on a site that sells motorcycle parts. The site sells some parts that fit several different motorbikes e.g. a motorcycle cover that fits many bikes. We know that when a customer searches they usually search for "BIKE MAKE & MODEL Cover" e.g. "Yamaha R1 Cover". It would be silly to simply list every bike the cover fits in one advert as the list would be far too long so my question is would it be acceptable to create a separate product page for each fitment e.g. "Yamaha R1 Cover", "Yamaha R6 Cover", "Kawasaki ZX9 Cover". I realize it is duplicate content and yes I suppose it will affect Google search results so would we be in line for a penalty? There could be hundreds of pages. We do not want the site to be removed from the index but we do feel that this is a sensible way of doing it as it would help the sites customers no end. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | simplesimonseo0 -
Should I noindex both category and tag archive pages if I have an excerpt format?
I am creating a blog and want to know if I should noindex archives for categories and tags. I changed the format of my blog to excerpts to prevent duplicate content, but I want to make sure I also need to noindex those pages. Please help!
On-Page Optimization | | lwilkins1 -
Why home page ranks higher than keyword-optimized page
We have a page that is optimized for the keyword "job scheduling". A search on the keyword "job scheduling" results in this page not ranking at all, while our home page (uc4.com) ranks third. Could you provide some ideas/suggestions as to why this would be the case and how to make our job scheduling page rank higher? Thanks, claudia
On-Page Optimization | | claudmar0