Content on ecommerce categories - good or bad?
-
We have a case with a client where they previously had content on top of their most important ecommerce categories. The content was well integrated and should in my opinion enhance the category experience, but after doing some A/B testing they proved to only decrease the conversion rates when sending traffic directly to those categories.
Around that topic I have two questions:
- Is it a bad thing to put the content BELOW the categories?
- I need examples of categories where content and products are very well integrated and enhances the category experience - any tips?
-
Content that adds value to the user experience is never bad - more content, more reasons to rank, better information for the user to take action.
Ecommerce websites are more difficult to handle though - the goal is usually to convert to a sale and sometimes content can get in the way of that happening. If you've A/B tested and found that conversions are greater without it, then good for you! You've identified a barrier to your visitors and eliminated it for better conversions.
What needs to be weighed is the amount of conversions - does the content bring in more, new traffic and eventually converts? I.e. is the conversion volume greater with the content than without it. If no, then stick with the A/B test results.
Putting content down the page may help you rank, but is it helping your visitors? You don't want to shove content onto a page just because you think it belongs there - is it beneficial to the user? If no, can you put that content somewhere else where it is beneficial to the user?
Amazon is common SERP to beat, let's take a look at one of their category pages: http://www.amazon.com/Outlet/b/ref=sv_gb_3?ie=UTF8&node=517808
We see that they do include a small snippet of text at the top, to describe the category. Then they give the user what is expected, a lot of products to view; and at the bottom they have a longer category description (sometimes reviews and related category information). This is a common way to structure category pages. But, your market may be different so it may be worthwhile to brainstorm how your page structure would most benefit your users.
-
Nothing beats A/B testing. You may have a great idea but ultimately A/B testing will prove if that works for particular site and customer flow.
1. It is not bad at all. But it depends on what you call content. Some content can make wonders and some may not. Reviews or Testimonials would work best. Do not do just for pure SEO but add value to user experience. I would not add just a keyword heavy text.
2. See the Best buy example below. They have content which helps to choose right cellphone and support plans. Also there is list of Top sellers. It is both merchandising and content simultaneously as helps to show user what is more popular.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/electronics/mobile-cell-phones/abcat0800000.c?id=abcat0800000
3. Keep in mind mobile shoppers. If your content is text heavy can turn off some customer depending on how it is showing up on mobile device.
Here is another example from newegg.com. They have added customer reviews at bottom. which very clever. This can help you decide at the same time adds keywords for SEO.
http://www.newegg.com/Gaming-Desktop/PromotionStore/ID-2125620?name=Gaming-Desktop
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
-
What to do with blog content that is no longer relevant to our business
We are a marketing agency and we have LOTS of blog posts still on our website from when we used to specialize in e-commerce services. We've since shifted There are a lot of old and frankly irrelevant blog posts on our website. My questions: Should we remove these from the website so better "shape" our content profile towards the services we actually offer? Should we attempt to update them so they are still relevant even though we don't offer those services? If we get rid of those pages, what should we redirect them to? The main blog page?
On-Page Optimization | | WhittingtonConsulting0 -
How to block index of link and content
Hi, We have pages where articles are shown and in the sides we have small snippets of Articles which shows the title and close to 25 words and a image. When i search for something in Google the snippet image and content is shown and in Google when clicked it redirects to a page which is not meant to be shown for the keyword the visitor is querying Is there a way i can block all the links and content shown in the right and left side of the page so Google does not get confused with the page content thats not related to that page? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | AlexisWithers0 -
Ratings pages are Duplicate Content
This brought up another question. should the review page (which now has a canonical to the item page) be Index,follow? My item review pages are showing up with Duplicate Content errors in MOZ. Here are two examples http://www.americanmusical.com/ItemReview--i-HAM-SK1-LIST http://www.americanmusical.com/ItemReview--i-MAC-203680902-LIST is the problem that the pages contain the same code and questions with very little customer created info?
On-Page Optimization | | dianeb1520 -
Address on Every page of the website for Local SEO? Good or Bad?
Is this good idea to add business address on every page of the website?, How Google see this? and This is Good or bad for ranking?
On-Page Optimization | | Dan_Brown10 -
Add multiple H2 tags on a single page. Good or Bad?
Can we add Multipal H2 tags on a single page, Is good or Bad. Here is an example - http://packforcity.com/things-to-do-in-new-york-city/
On-Page Optimization | | ross254sidney0 -
Do Parent Categories Hurt SEO?
I have parent categories and subcategories. Will it be harder for the subcategories to rank well because they have a parent category? The URL is longer, for one. I am just wondering if I should not have parent categories. I have one category page doing really well and I am trying to boost the others (most of which are subcategories) and this is a concern for me. Thanks! Edit: I also have a category that has 2 parent categories. I want it automatically in those 2 categories and one of its own. By itself it is very important keyword. Is this ok or should I have it be a parent category?
On-Page Optimization | | 2bloggers0 -
Content Tabs and Keyword Stuffing
I am in the process of drawing up content templates to guide my company's marketing team in creating SEO optimized content as we move over our retail website to a new platform. On each product page, we will have multiple tabs that are crawl-able, each one containing different chunks of information on the products. Within each tab, I was thinking of breaking up the content and adding SEO value by using headers (h2 or h3) that have a keyword included. So, for example: "How The PRODUCT NAME Works" and "User Manuals for your PRODUCT NAME." Between the multiple tabs, in headers alone, the main keyword for the product (which will usually be the product name) will be on the page 7 times. Between this and the keywords that are part of the actual content (ex: product description), is this too many keyword instances? I know headers are often skimmed or skipped when used to simply break up the content, so I don't think they will impact user experience too much. However, I would love some feedback on if you agree with that and if you think I should cut down on the number of keywords or if I am headed in the right direction. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Marketing.SCG0 -
Duplicate page content errors
Site just crawled and report shows many duplicate pages but doesn't tell me which ones are dups of each other. For you experienced duplicate page experts, do you have a subscription with copyscape and pay $.05 per test? What is the best way to clear these? Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | joemas990