What is a category text?
A category description is a descriptive text about a specific category in online stores. You will usually find it at the top or very bottom of the relevant page, and its length can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs.
Let’s say you sell clothing, and dresses are one of the categories in your assortment. On the main page for dresses, there should be a text about the “dresses” category. The category text should contain one or more paragraphs – preferably with subheadings – that explain what kind of selection of dresses you offer.
In addition to a category description for the main category “dresses”, it is also important to develop category descriptions for the subcategories, such as party dresses, everyday dresses, etc. So if you sell kitchen equipment, you might have pots, tableware and kitchen appliances in the dropdown menu under kitchen equipment. All of these subcategory pages should also have a category description, where you describe each individual subcategory. The category descriptions for the subcategories are usually, and quite naturally, a bit shorter than the descriptions for the main categories.
What is the purpose of a category description?
You might be wondering why you need to elaborate on pots, dress pants, or whatever it may be, when almost everyone already knows what they are. Well, it turns out that category descriptions come with a long list of benefits!
Unlike in a physical store, you don’t have the opportunity to guide the customer in your online store. Without category texts and strong product descriptions, you leave a lot to chance when it comes to whether customers buy from you or from your competitors. By writing a solid and comprehensive category text, you present your products in a clear and structured way. Just like when you talk to customers about a product line in a physical store, you typically highlight the benefits of a specific brand and support visitors in their buying journey – with a category text.
Tips for how to write effective category descriptions
A good category description is both informative and inspiring. This is where you promote your product category by engaging your audience. Here are some tips on how to proceed when writing a truly effective category description:
1. Find out what people are searching for: How many searches per month are there for the different terms related to the category? Make sure you include all the right and relevant keywords with a keyword analysis – this way, you will convert more traffic to your website.
2. Create descriptive headings: If you need to write a longer category text, subheadings are absolutely essential to keep the content easy to read and well-structured.
3. Ensure engaging and relevant content: Feel free to highlight occasions where the products can be used, and include examples of products from other categories that can be combined to drive cross-sell and provide tips;). And where relevant, divide the paragraphs based on the different types within the specific category.
Why are category texts an important part of SEO for online stores?
To achieve maximum visibility and conversions in the search engines, a keyword-based category description is a major part of SEO for nettbutikker. It’s not enough to simply write a category description without optimizing it for keywords. The category description should not only guide your customers, but also help you gain a stronger competitive advantage in the search results.
Let’s say you sell wool sweaters, and among all your wool sweaters you also have half zip wool sweaters. There may be many people searching as specifically as “half zip wool sweater”, and you wouldn’t appear at the top of the search results unless you have actually included the term “half zip wool sweater” in your wool sweater category.
You can always hope that your competitors have forgotten to include the keyword, and that you still rank fairly high, but that’s a risky game. In our technological world, where competition for customers is tougher than ever, no one can afford to risk losing even a single customer. And this is exactly where SEO comes in!
Read more: 5 tips on how to write good SEO content
Next steps
At Solid Media, we have both SEO experts and copywriters with extensive experience who are ready to help you conduct a keyword analysis and create high-quality SEO content.
