The best ecommerce SEO tips come back to one idea: give each search its own page. Brand and category pages are for broad searches like “frying pans” or a brand name, and product pages are for model names. Keep the products at the top, write your own product titles and descriptions, and make sure Google can reach every page.
Google’s own best practices for ecommerce sites start from the same place: the clearer your site structure and product information, the easier it is for Google to find your products and show them to shoppers. Here’s how that works on a real shop.
1. Give every search its own page
Category and brand pages for the broad searches
Someone searching “frying pans” or “Le Creuset” wants to browse. They want a page full of choices they can narrow down, not one product. That’s the job of your category and brand pages, so those are the pages that should be built to rank for those searches.
Product pages for model names
Someone searching “Le Creuset Signature 26cm casserole” knows what they want. A product page with that exact name, the price and a clear “add to basket” is the best answer, so that’s the page that should show up.
Check what Google shows before you decide
Before you decide which page should go after a search, type it into Google and look at page one. If it’s full of category pages, a product page will struggle to get in, however good it is. If it’s full of single products, that’s your answer the other way. Two of your own pages going after the same search just compete with each other, so pick one and point it at that search.
2. Category pages: products first
A short intro, not an essay above the products
There’s an old habit of putting a long block of text at the top of category pages “for SEO”. It pushes the products down the page, and the products are what people came for. A sentence or two at the top saying what’s in the range is plenty. If you have more to say, put it below the products, where it won’t get in anyone’s way.
Your menus matter as much as the words. Google’s advice is to link from your menus to your category pages, from categories to sub-categories, and from there to every product, because it works out which pages matter most from the links between them. If a product can only be found through the search box, Google may never find it. We’d recommend setting up any online shop this way from the start, and our guide to website structure covers the basics for any site.
Filters without duplicate pages
Filters are great for shoppers. The catch is that every combination of colour, size, price and sort order can create a new web address. A shop with a few hundred products can end up with thousands of addresses that all show the same things in a different order. Google warns that this wastes its time on pages that don’t matter, so it’s slower to find the ones that do. If you don’t need your filtered pages in Google, its advice is to stop it crawling them. Some platforms and filter plugins handle this for you, and some don’t, so it’s worth checking.
3. Product page SEO
Titles people actually search for
Product page SEO starts with the name. Use the words a customer would type: the brand, the model and the thing that tells it apart, like the size or colour. “Le Creuset Signature 26cm casserole dish in Volcanic” beats “Casserole LC-26-V”. The same goes for the web address. Google suggests descriptive words in your URLs rather than product codes or numbers.
Your own descriptions
It’s tempting to paste in the description the manufacturer supplies. The problem is that every other shop selling the product has done the same, so your page says exactly what every other shop says. Google has little reason to pick yours. A few lines in your own words, saying who it suits, how it fits or what it’s like to use, gives your page something no one else has.
Photos with proper names and alt text
Google uses the alt text on your images, along with the page around them, to work out what a photo shows. It also takes light clues from the file name, so “le-creuset-casserole-volcanic.jpg” tells it more than “IMG_4471.jpg”. Describe each photo as you would to someone who can’t see it, and you’ll help shoppers using screen readers as well.
Product markup for price and stock
Product structured data is code that tells Google the price, whether it’s in stock and how it’s rated. With it, your listing can show those details right in the search results. It’s worth having on every product page, but it isn’t a guarantee: Google decides when to show it. Our post on structured data explains how it works.
If you’re still choosing a platform, our comparison of Shopify and WooCommerce looks at how each one handles SEO.
4. When products sell out
What you do depends on whether it’s coming back.
- Back in stock soon: keep the page live and mark it as out of stock, so it has the best chance of keeping its place in Google and customers can see when it returns.
- Gone for good, with a close replacement: redirect the old page to the new product, or to the category it sat in, so anyone arriving from Google or an old link lands somewhere useful.
- Gone for good, nothing similar: let the page go. A page that just says “unavailable” helps nobody.
The same thinking applies to categories. If a category has nothing in it, Google suggests keeping it out of search, or removing it altogether, rather than showing an empty page.
5. The basics Google needs
None of the above helps if Google can’t read the shop properly. Whether your shop is new or you’re giving an old one a refresh, we’d recommend checking these:
- Google Search Console set up and connected, with your sitemap submitted
- a title and meta description written for every page that matters, categories included
- one clear main heading on every page
- your shop’s address and opening hours marked up for Google, if you have a shop people can visit
- images at a sensible size, with alt text
- redirects from any old pages, so nothing you’ve built up is lost
- speed checked on a phone, because that’s how a lot of people shop
After launch, ask Google to index your key pages and keep an eye on Search Console for the first few weeks to check how Google is reading the site. Our guide to SEO for a new website goes through each step.
6. What this looks like on a real shop
One of the shops we look after is a sneaker shop in Cyprus. We built its online shop and look after its SEO, and it’s set up along these lines.
Shoppers can browse by category, like footwear, clothing, headwear and bags, or by brand, with new arrivals and the sale one tap away. Each brand page opens with a short paragraph about the brand, then goes straight to the products, with filters and sorting to narrow them down. That gives every brand a page built for the people searching for it, and every shoe a product page of its own. Our monthly SEO then works on the pages people actually search for.
Ecommerce SEO tips: start with the pages that sell
You don’t have to do all of this at once. Start with the category and brand pages that bring in the most sales, make sure each one has a search to own, and keep the products at the top. Then work through your best-selling products, one at a time.
If you’d like help with your shop, have a look at our SEO services.
You can email us at hello@thesocialbay.co.uk, fill in our start a project form, or call or message us on 07441 918230.
Frequently asked questions about ecommerce SEO
What matters most for ecommerce SEO?
Making sure each search has one clear page to rank, and that Google can reach every product through your menus and categories. After that, it’s the product pages themselves: names people search for, your own descriptions and good photos.
Should category pages have text on them?
A little. A short intro at the top helps shoppers and Google understand the range. Anything longer belongs below the products, so it never pushes them down the page.
Do I need to write my own product descriptions?
For your most important products, yes. The manufacturer’s description is on every other shop selling the same thing, so a few lines of your own give Google a reason to choose your page.
What should I do with product pages when something sells out?
If it’s coming back, keep the page and mark it out of stock. If it’s gone for good, redirect it to the closest replacement or its category, or let it go if there’s nothing similar.
Does product schema help my shop rank?
It helps Google understand your product pages and can show your price, stock and ratings in the results. Google decides when to show those details, so think of it as a way to stand out once you’re there, rather than a way to get there.