Google’s John Mueller cautions ecommerce site owners about adding unnecessary text to category pages.
This topic came up today during a Twitter chat about ecommerce sites.
There was a discussion about improving pages and whether or not adding more text is considered an improvement.
Mueller was tagged in the chat and chimed in saying site owners should consider the purpose of a page and the user intent of those who land on the page.
Adding unneeded text to a category page may detract from the user intent, which is to browse and buy products. In that way, it’s not an improvement.
Here’s Mueller’s full statement:
“Another thing to consider is the purpose of your page; what’s the user-intent you’re trying to cover? If you’re adding random information to a category page, is it still an ecommerce page for users with “shopping” intents? Make up your mind, focus, don’t blindly stuff text.”
So, what should site owners do instead?
Alternatives to Adding More Text
There are a few ways to improve an ecommerce category page without adding more text.
Links to top sub-categories, showcasing trending products, or maybe offering a selection of matching accessories are all ways to add relevant non-text-based content.
Twitter user Dawn Anderson added a few good pieces of advice to the chat:
“Too much blah blah text on ecommerce pages is just horrific. Plenty of ways to add content without being words…
Also have found that you don’t need a ton of content for SEO on category pages if you have huge volumes of relevant informationally rich content in other areas cross-linking since the context is clear…
A bit of text is useful but swatches just pushes down the CTA or product. Seen a huge uplift on a project by actually taking this content out.”
In summary, when improving category pages (or any page), don’t resort to adding more text by default. Think about why users are there in the first place and build around that.