E-commerce SEO lives or dies on two page types: category pages, which chase the high-volume commercial terms, and product pages, which convert. Most stores over-invest in blog content and under-invest in the category pages that actually carry the money keywords.
The recurring technical trap is faceted navigation. Filters for colour, size and price can generate thousands of near-duplicate URLs that eat crawl budget and split ranking signals. Decide which facets deserve indexable pages, canonicalise the rest, and keep the crawl focused.
Beyond that: unique product descriptions instead of manufacturer copy, Product and Offer structured data so prices and stock show in results, and internal linking that pushes authority from your best pages into the categories you want to rank.
E-commerce SEO guides
Category pages are your biggest SEO asset and most stores waste them. Architecture, thin-content fixes, and internal linking that compounds.
Colour × size × price can spawn thousands of near-duplicate URLs and drain your crawl budget. How to keep the useful filter pages and control the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Should category or product pages rank first?
Category pages. They target the broader commercial terms ('running shoes') where the volume is, and they distribute authority to products. Product pages win long-tail and brand-plus-model searches.
How do I handle faceted navigation?
Pick the few facets with genuine search demand (colour, brand) and let them be indexable static-style URLs; block or canonicalise the combinatorial rest. Left unmanaged, facets waste crawl budget and create duplicate content.
Are manufacturer descriptions a problem?
Yes — hundreds of stores publish the same text, so none of it is distinctive. Even a few original paragraphs per product (use cases, sizing notes, comparisons) separate you from resellers using identical copy.