Today’s Do an SEO question comes from Taha in Chicago, who asks:
My question is about eCommerce SEO. Currently, I am working as an SEO executive for an e-commerce brand. They have no content on the site and their total backlink profile is around 1000 links (which is nothing compared to the competitors).
What area should I focus on first to rank category pages? Should I go for content and page optimizations or build backlinks to compete with my competitors’ profiles?
Taha, great question.
The short answer is: you should start with content and on-page optimization.
Now, let me give you the long answer, which applies to more than just the category pages you mentioned.
Start with on-page SEO
Backlinks are important and we know they are part of the ranking algorithm.
However, you must have optimized content on the website so that search engines know what to rank your website for.
Here’s a short checklist of what to focus on in terms of on-page optimization before you start investing time in link building.
1. Determine your keywords and topics
If you haven’t already, spend some time identifying your keywords.
Go from broad to narrow as you build your list, but keep in mind that relevance is the most important consideration.
Even if you identify broad terms, they should still be targeted and relevant to your categories and products.
When doing keyword research, I like to brainstorm first and then expand my seed list with tools like Semrush, SE rankingor SpyFu.
Once I’ve created my list, I’ll prioritize it, usually into three categories: Priority 1, Priority 2, and Priority 3.
You will need to map keywords to your website pages, which is called keyword mapping and will help you avoid keyword cannibalization.
Once you’ve completed this process, it’s time to optimize your pages.
Note that it is common to have 2-3 main keywords per page and several secondary keywords.
2. Optimize your pages
When optimizing your pages, focus on title tags, heading tags (especially H1s), body text, and image height attributes.
Although the meta description doesn’t play much of a role in ranking, you should also optimize it.
There are best practices to follow when optimizing, which you can find in The Complete Guide to On-Page SEO.
Here’s a pro tip: Use Google Search Console to identify if the search engine already recognizes your pages for relevant queries.
The Google Search Console performance report will show you the queries for each page.
If any of these queries sounds like a good keyword, or maybe it’s already on your list, focus on those keywords when optimizing the associated page.
You can update the page title and/or H1 to include your keywords.
You can even look for opportunities to weave your keywords further into the body text, but never stuff them. The content should read naturally.
3. Add relevant content
Adding optimized content is critical, regardless of the type of website, and e-commerce is no exception.
Since you mentioned category pages in your question, I’ll focus on recommendations for this type of content.
First, know that category pages offer many opportunities to add text.
However, many businesses are hesitant to add too much text to category pages because they feel it will take away from the shopping experience.
The good news is that there are creative ways to add optimized text without being too intrusive.
Target.com offers a good example.
The following is a screenshot of the Category Gifts for babies.
When you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can see the optimized text with an optional option (ie Show More).
Screenshot from Target.com, June 2022
TheCompanyStore.com provides another example of category content that also includes FAQs.
Screenshot from TheCompanyStore.com, June 2022
In both examples provided, a website visitor can still easily scroll through the products as they move down the page.
Content at the bottom of the page is good for optimization, but it’s also useful for the visitor.
Review + Refine
One final note: After you’ve optimized your pages, always be on the lookout for opportunities to improve.
This is where the professional advice I’ve provided can help.
Get into the habit of monitoring the performance of your pages and making updates as needed.
More resources:
Featured image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
Editor’s note: Ask an SEO is a weekly SEO advice column written by some of the top SEO experts in the industry, who have been hand-picked by Search Engine Journal. Have a question about SEO? Fill out our form. You might see your answer in the next #AskanSEO post!
