KEC is here to help entrepreneurs thrive, and that includes bringing forward practical insights from trusted partners in our community. Over the Summer we will be bringing you resources to help you stay sharp and keep growing your business!
Today, we’re featuring a guest blog post from Frank Ramey, a KEC Mentor and E-Commerce SME.
The E-Commerce SEO Page Most Stores Ignore: How to Build Great Category Pages
Product pages and home pages are the darlings where e-commerce stores focus their effort and attention when it comes to SEO. While nailing those pages is crucial for your success (your home page likely gets the bulk of your search traffic and your product pages close the sale with bang-on copy coupled with amazing product photos), everyone seems to neglect category pages.
While you may think category pages are just a stepping stone in the journey of a user becoming a customer and that category pages don’t really drive traffic or sales for you, I’d like to argue the counter-point and give you some actual tactics to make your pages great.
On my own e-commerce site, we actually see about half of our add-to-carts come from the category page, not the product page. Category pages also drive about 30% of our organic search traffic.
That organic traffic comes from all sorts of long-tail search terms, the kind of specific queries where category pages really shine, but often where stores miss out.
Category pages are usually the pages that match how customers actually search: “men’s leather wallets,” “handmade mugs,” “organic dog treats,” “Knoxville gift baskets,” etc. In this article, my goal is to show you a practical framework for writing category pages that help customers buy, help Google understand the page, and give AI tools enough structure to assist without replacing you.
What a good category page needs to do
Category pages should 1) help a user quickly confirm they are in the right place, 2) help search engines understand the product set, and 3) answer the questions that affect buying decisions.
First, as soon as someone lands on your category page, whether it’s for “women’s waterproof hiking boots,” “organic dog treats,” or “commercial office chairs,” they should instantly know they’ve found what they’re looking for. Use your headline, intro text, product selection, filters, and descriptions to reinforce that match. Most stores skip the intro text or extra description, but those details make a big difference.
For the second goal, give search engines the context they need. A category page should clearly lay out what all the products have in common, what types are included, which brands or styles you carry, and which related categories matter. Don’t stuff the page with keywords. Instead, use clear, specific language that matches how customers search and what they care about.
Finally, the category page should answer buying questions. Customers often hesitate because they are unsure which product is right, whether an item fits their use case, what the difference is between two options, or whether they can trust the store.
A good category page reduces buyer hesitation. The page might explain best uses, compare common product types, highlight popular options, answer FAQs, or link to a deeper guide. This is also a great way to help search engines and LLMs understand your page by providing FAQ Schema markup for the questions you answer.
Your simple framework to work from:
Above the products: Keep the content short and practical by telling the customer what is on the page and why it matters.
Below the products: Add the deeper content: comparisons, FAQs, buying notes, internal links, and other information that helps both customers and search engines understand the page.
What not to do
While it’s tempting to just dump as much copy into the page as possible in order to rank for all the longtail keywords you can, don’t.
The reason being is multi-fold: 1) you run the risk of search engines seeing the page as keyword stuffing, 2) you end up burying the shopping experience (especially if you slam all the content above the products), and 3) you likely have filler content that just beefs up the word count without really doing anything to accomplish the three above goals.
A 2025 study found that the top ranking category pages have about 310 words of content (https://digitaloft.co.uk/insights/category-page-content-length). While you don’t need to focus on nailing that word count exactly, you just need to keep it in mind before you end up turning the page into a 1500-word long-form article.
Practical category page framework
A great category page needs a clear, easy-to-follow structure. Start with your SEO title and meta description. Instead of something vague like “Products for Sale,” use a title that names the category and gives shoppers a real reason to click. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Bad: Products for Sale
Better: Local Knoxville Gift Baskets | Corporate Gift Boxes | Rala
No matter which ecommerce platform you use (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, etc), double-check that your category name appears as an H1 heading at the top of the page.
Next, add a short intro just above your product grid. Keep it brief; your customer wants to shop, not read an essay. In just a couple of sentences, confirm what’s on the page and mention key product types, brands, uses, or benefits.
Example: Shop women’s waterproof hiking boots for rainy trails, travel, and everyday wear. You’ll find lightweight, insulated, and ankle-support options from trusted outdoor brands.
Don’t write a 1,000-word buying guide at the top (save that deeper content energy for below the product grid). This is your place to add a quick overview, highlight popular products or collections, and help shoppers choose based on their needs.
A clothing store might include subsections like:
- Best rain jackets for daily wear
- Best insulated jackets for winter travel
- Best lightweight jackets for hiking
Once you’re below the product grid, answer the trust question: “Why buy from this store?” Be specific by mentioning benefits like fast shipping, local pickup, easy returns, product expertise, custom ordering, or installation assistance. A bullet-point list works great (it’s easier for people and search engines to scan).
Next up is your FAQ section.
Answer the real questions shoppers ask before they buy. Avoid fillers like “What is a jacket?” or “What is a gift box?” Instead, stick to what actually helps your customers make a decision.
- “How do I know what size to order?”
- “Can these products be picked up locally?”
- “Which option is best for corporate gifts?”
Those FAQs should also be recreated as Schema markup so that crawlers can quickly digest and catalog the data (hopefully at least earning you a citation in results). If you don’t know how to do that, paste the FAQs into your preferred LLM and ask it to generate them for you. Depending on your platform, you should be able to paste that result into an HTML block in the category page.
At the very bottom of the page, add an educational section for people searching for more detailed info. Here you can explain product differences, common mistakes, materials, sizing, care, compatibility, or use cases. This gives Google extra context, without getting in the way of your customer’s shopping.
Finally, add helpful internal links throughout your page. Link to related categories, best-sellers, buying guides, or blog posts, but keep it simple. Just a few useful links will guide your customer without overwhelming them (this can also help those linked to pages rank better in search results).
TLDR; keep the top of your category page focused on shopping. Use the bottom to answer questions and build trust. Give search engines the info they need to send customers to you.
If you’re an e-commerce founder in East Tennessee looking for mentorship or resources, check out KEC’s programs or sign up to be a mentee in their Mentor Network.
About the Author
Frank Ramey (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankramey/) is a Knoxville-based entrepreneur and has sold over eight figures through e-commerce. He has spent years in the trenches of e-commerce SEO, managing everything from technical infrastructure to operations to content strategy for high-volume WooCommerce stores. Outside of e-commerce, Frank is an active commercial real estate Realtor, investor, and a proud member of Knoxville’s Rotary community.
