E-commerce SEO is an essential component of online sales and revenue. The keywords that people use in Google are often associated with category pages. To improve organic search results, an optimal e-commerce category structure for SEO tends to be less content reliant and more technical to get results.

Listed below are some category and subcategory SEO ideas that will boost your search engine rankings for competitive keywords in 2023.

Metadata Is The First Step

Stick to the fundamentals of SEO. Your checklist should include keyword-relevant, detailed title tags, Alt image tags, creative meta descriptions with call-to-actions, schematic markup for product pages and reviews, internal linking, and strategic header optimization. All of these factors contribute to your search engine rankings and user experience.

Your e-commerce website’s HTML code contains this meta data such as title tags and meta descriptions. In content management systems such as Shopify or Magento, both may be accessed and optimized.

Optimize Your Header Tags

Once you’ve optimized your primary titles or header tags, it’s time to move on to optimizing secondary and tertiary content sections. There are times when an H1 is used to support a primary keyword concept established in the title tag. To underline the supporting keywords, subheadings such as H2 and H3 are used. If your e-commerce store lacks headers in above the fold, hire an e-commerce consultant who can help code these to increase your visibility. See an ideal example below.

Incorporate Strategic Text

Text in the body of a website or advertisement is essential for organic search results. The search engine bot crawls the source page, and text helps give topical relevance. If you want to rank for “tactical army boots” but only have product images for Googlebot, you aren’t maximizing your rankings potential. Your product pages and categories don’t need to be dominated by text. This could be a small paragraph at most. Additionally, you can use this text to spread link juice and reinforce site architecture by hyperlinking to internal pages on the site.

Put Your Best Foot Forward With Featured Content

Consider testing and deploying discounted products, loyalty programs, and related products on category pages. In 2023, organic search needs to factor in user experience, and these tactics can help grab the attention of users when they first land on the page.

Search-ranking algorithms aren’t as sophisticated with visual search as html, so be sure to also include detailed descriptions separate from the images you utilize. As always, don’t be lazy and apply strategic keywords you want to rank for and embed them in a natural way.

Link Text Needs To Be Relevant To Products

An important chance to boost the relevance signal of a linked page is missed if you are using ambiguous language for your internal linking text. Search engines have no idea what “Learn More” and “Click Here” imply, nor do photos with no accompanying text. For example, if you are a skincare store, it would be better to use a hyperlink such as “shop serums” instead of “products”.

Focus On Category Navigation

The main function of category filters is to assist customers in their search for products. However, category navigation has an impact on the page’s indexation, authority, and relevance in organic search. To improve search engine rankings, it is important to include keywords in the navigation and filter options.

Ensure that search engines can access your site seamlessly with an XML sitemap and proper backend markup. Google should clearly understand the hierarchy between categories and subcategories and crawl each nook of the website.

Optimize Links In The Header And Footer

Ensure that the primary product categories and subcategory pages are linked in either the header or footer of your e-commerce store. In addition to pages with significant commercial value, include those strategic pages based on keyword research and keyword mapping.

This process should prioritize only a few important URLs. It’s important to remember that not all URLs are equally valuable, and some pages on your site will be more important than others. Prioritize URLs based on their level of importance, such as the home page, top-level category pages, or high-traffic landing pages. These pages are usually the ones that have the highest potential to drive traffic and revenue to your site.

When deciding which URLs to optimize first, keep in mind that the most important URLs are not necessarily the ones with the highest traffic. Sometimes, it may be more beneficial to focus on URLs with low traffic, but high conversion rates. These pages may have a smaller audience, but they are converting at a higher rate, which means they have a higher potential for generating revenue.

Once you have identified the URLs you want to optimize, you can start making changes to improve their performance. Some best practices for on-page optimization include:

1. Conducting keyword research to identify the target keyword for the page
2. Including the target keyword in the page title and meta description
3. Writing high-quality, unique content that is relevant to the target keyword
4. Optimizing images and other media by compressing them and including alt tags
5. Improving page speed by minimizing file sizes and enabling caching
6. Ensuring the page is mobile-friendly and has a responsive design
7. Creating internal links to other relevant pages on your site

It’s important to note that on-page optimization is just one part of the SEO process. Off-page factors, such as backlinks and social signals, also play a significant role in determining a page’s search engine ranking. However, by following these best practices for on-page optimization, you can lay a strong foundation for your site and help improve its search engine visibility.

In conclusion, on-page optimization is a critical component of any SEO strategy. By optimizing your site’s pages, you can help search engines better understand the content of your site and improve your site’s search engine ranking. Prioritize important URLs, conduct keyword research, write high-quality content, optimize images and media, improve page speed, ensure a responsive design, and create internal links to other relevant pages on your site. By following these best practices, you can help your site stand out in the search engine results and drive more traffic to your site.