1. @JillKocher
SCALABLE OPTIMIZATION
ECOMMERCE CATEGORY PAGES

2. @JillKocher
14 years of ecommerce SEO experience:
10-year columnist at Practical Ecommerce
Peer edited “The Art of SEO” book
JILL KOCHER BROWN
SEO DIRECTOR,
JUMPFLY

3. @JillKocher
Product and
Category Pages

4. @JillKocher
PLACE IN THE FUNNEL
• Category pages
• Top of funnel, generic searches
• Head and torso: Larger search volume
• Ex: I want a DSLR camera
• Product Pages
• Lower funnel, specific searches
• Longer tail queries
• Ex: I want the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

5. @JillKocher
WHERE TO SPEND YOUR TIME?
Surveyed 30+ top ecom sites
ranking for 25B keywords
to see which performed better:
product or category pages.

6. @JillKocher
Share these #SMXInsights on your social channels!
• Categories outperform across
27 top ecom sites
• More keywords, more traffic and
more potential
Category, 67%
Category, 89%
Category, 81%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
more ranking keywords
more estimated traffic
more potential traffic
Category Product
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid

7. @JillKocher
Share these #SMXInsights on your social channels!
32%more traffic
potential
Ecommerce category page performance compared to product pages:
19%more ranking
keywords
413%more estimated
traffic
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid

8. @JillKocher
ROOM TO IMPROVE
Product Page
share of voice captured
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid
Category Page
share of voice captured
9%
91%
2%
98%

9. @JillKocher
RESULTS VARIED BY ECOMMERCE SECTOR…
Stronger Product Pages
Sector with specific feature
and product keywords
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid
Stronger Category Pages
Sectors with generic head
and torso keywords

10. @JillKocher
BUT WERE CONSISTENT ACROSS DTC
233%more traffic
potential
Direct-to-consumer category pages compared to product pages:
356%more ranking
keywords
202%more estimated
traffic
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid

11. @JillKocher
THE OUTLIER: AMAZON
Amazon’s product
pages compared to
category pages
Cause: Past
reluctance to index
deeper category
pages?
Products, 219.5 x
Products, 57.5 x
Products, 275.7 x
- 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 250.0 300.0
more ranking keywords
more estimated traffic
more potential traffic
* Source: seoClarity Research Grid

12. @JillKocher
THE ONLY DATA THAT MATTERS IS YOURS
• Identify URL
differentiators
• Collect for product and category
URL structures:
– Number of keywords ranking
– Estimated traffic driven
– Potential traffic driven
• Download the template:
jumpf.ly/smxwest

13. @JillKocher
xxx
SCALABLE CATEGORY SEO:
ONE CHANGE, MANY PAGES

14. @JillKocher
SCALABLE SEO STARTS WITH ARCHITECTURE
How you
organize and
label product
inventory and
content drives
ecom SEO
#1 #2

15. @JillKocher
OPTIMIZING TAXONOMY
• Create optimal parent-child
relationships between pages
• Based on business needs and search behavior
• Better semantic crawling, indexation
• Stronger user experience onsite
• Goal: Flat and compact, < 5 levels
deep

16. @JillKocher
OPTIMIZING NAVIGATION
• Internal link structure
and labels used inherited
from taxonomy
• Some modification possible
• Link to what you want to rank for
• Balance between UX and SEO
• Research value of pages to include
• Use real HTML links <a href=“https://www.site.com/”>
• Example: Macy’s meganav links shoppers
(and bots) 3 levels into their site with 1
click.

17. @JillKocher
OPTIMIZING FILTERS/FACETED NAVIGATION
• Ensure URL updates with each
facet applied
• Optimize each page uniquely
• Control multifacet and low-value indexation
• Watch out for duplicate content
• Example: Wayfair filtered pages win clicks
for 1M searches a month across 257K
keywords.

18. @JillKocher
OPTIMIZING PAGE TEMPLATES
• Optimize “formulas” for
default page elements
• Title tags and meta descriptions
• Headings
• Alt attributes for image tags
• Look for ways to gently add elements
• Customer-focused sections and headings
• Small textual descriptions

19. @JillKocher
SEE YOU AT THE NEXT SMX!
THANK YOU!