eCommerce category pages are essentially a page for your product group. They are the next most important step in your funnel after the homepage. They help customers navigate to the section of your site, narrow down their choices from a large product selection, and easily find the desired products they are actually looking for. Further, category pages guide customers to check out items that aren’t on their shopping list.

To let eCommerce category pages rank higher and let searchers come to your website, you need to optimize the pages well. For optimization, you need to perform many activities, such as optimizing internal linking to all these pages, building external links to them, avoiding keyword stuffing, and making it easier for users to navigate pages from product pages. To successfully do these activities, hiring the best eCommerce SEO company is the way to go.

Till the time you search for an SEO company, go through these significant tips to optimize your eCommerce category pages.

1. Select and Integrate Keywords by it’s Intent

Selecting and integrating keywords are the first step. For the right selection, use SEMRush and break keywords into transactional keywords, informational keywords, and navigational keywords.

Transactional or Commercial Keywords

Choose commercial keywords as these keywords drive consumers to sites that sell the products they’re looking to buy. These keywords target people who are willing to buy immediately.

Informational Keywords

These are educational information searched by individuals who want to learn about a topic or product. These keywords come with question words, like “why,” “what,” “how,” and “where.”

Navigational Keywords

Those users who want to find the webpage for a specific company often search for the brand by name.

It is worth noting that category pages best serve those customers who are already aware of the product they are searching for and intend to buy. So, transactional keywords will help you to make customers ideal for your product pages.

Also Read: How To Do Keyword Research For An ECommerce Website?

2. Optimize Category Headings and Metadata

Since you want to know how to optimize your eCommerce category pages for search engines, it is advisable to start tweaking your category headings and metadata. Make sure your category headings are relevant and have keywords. Google uses category headings to determine the context of your pages.

Besides headings, optimize category metadata. Metadata has two components: title tag and meta description. While the title tag is the HTML code that allows users to see first in search results, the meta description is an HTML element that gives a brief review of a web page. It appears below the title tag. Both these components are important to help users ensure whether your category page offers what they need.

For metadata optimization, limit your descriptions to a specified character limit – 60 characters for the title and 155 characters for the meta description. Integrate core keywords in them and make descriptions clear.

3. Optimize eCommerce Category Page Copy

Professionals at best eCommerce SEO companies not just start writing copy after identifying targeted keywords, but they focus on maintaining the functionality of the page as well. In fact, adding clutter to design or letting text consume too much space is good for no results. When users think of a category page, they often assume a page with subcategories with icons for each product category. To write compelling, optimized eCommerce page copy, follow the below tips:

• Add Text in Small Snippets
• Include a category description.
• Use headings & subheadings
• Lead users to informational pages
• Make product descriptions matter
• Include a product name, price
• Write a short description of the products on a category page

4. Create Short and Clear URLs for Category Pages

For doing SEO for eCommerce category pages, a straightforward URL is important as URLs let visitors easily navigate your pages. Needless to say, URLs also help search engines determine the relevance of your page in search results.

To optimize URLs, insert relevant keywords into them. See the below URL for example:

www.exampleforurl.com/urls-2/hhr233t

This URL is not clear and does not provide any context for your category page. Neither you nor search engines can understand where you’re on this site.

Now look at the same URL after optimization:

www.exampleforurl.com/girl/tops-and-t-shirts  

This URL clearly lets you know where you are on the site – the tops and t-shirts page.

Clear URLs make it easy for customers and search engines to understand the context of your page.

5. Add Alt Text To Images

Never fail to add alt text to your image to optimize eCommerce category pages. It is important because search engines cannot read your images. With alt text, you’re able to add a description to the backend of your image, which is a great way to let your images help the website’s ranking in search. It is also helpful in case people use screen readers or your pictures do not load. Alt text gives you an opportunity to integrate primary keywords as long as the context fits.

Should You Hire an eCommerce SEO Company?

Many businesses believe they can manage their search engine optimization for eCommerce. Not to mention, many online brands outsource efforts to the best eCommerce SEO Company to get the work done by a professional team for better results, faster revenue, and growth.

So here are just a few reasons why you should hire an SEO agency for eCommerce Category Page Optimization.

• An agency brings the best strategies, results, and years of experience with different industries.
• They help you get more than just traffic and ranking and increase sales.
• They apply a data-driven approach for better growth.
• They know how to use analytics data for improving and editing your digital marketing campaign.
• They can better monitor technical SEO problems, penalties, algorithmic changes, and more.

In nutshell, look for the best eCommerce SEO companies to optimize your category pages. You will get assistance through the entire SEO process whether it is integrating relevant keywords, optimizing category headings, adding text copy, creating clear URLs, adding alt text to images, and more.