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Scalable Ecommerce SEO for Category Pages | SMX West 2020

Apply SEO best practices gleaned from original, large-scale research on the real-world viability of ranking for ecommerce categories, faceted search and product detail pages. Slides from SMX West 2020 with thanks to smart digital marketing agency JumpFly, and research in partnership with seoClarity.

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@JillKocher SCALABLE OPTIMIZATION ECOMMERCE CATEGORY PAGES
@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
@JillKocher Product and Category Pages
@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
@JillKocher WHERE TO SPEND YOUR TIME? Surveyed 30+ top ecom sites ranking for 25B keywords to see which performed better: product or category pages.
@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
@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
@JillKocher ROOM TO IMPROVE Product Page share of voice captured * Source: seoClarity Research Grid Category Page share of voice captured 9% 91% 2% 98%
@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
@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
@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
@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
@JillKocher xxx SCALABLE CATEGORY SEO: ONE CHANGE, MANY PAGES
@JillKocher SCALABLE SEO STARTS WITH ARCHITECTURE How you organize and label product inventory and content drives ecom SEO #1 #2
@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
@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.
@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.
@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
@JillKocher SEE YOU AT THE NEXT SMX! THANK YOU!