- Category pages carry the commercial traffic. Most shops treat them as grids and lose the ranking.
- Filters generate thousands of near-duplicate URLs. Decide which are indexable before Google decides for you.
- Product pages need something the manufacturer's description does not have.
- Out-of-stock handling is an SEO decision, not just a merchandising one.
Online shops fail at SEO in predictable places. These are the four that account for most lost traffic, and what to do about each.
Category pages are your money pages
"Zapatillas running hombre" is a category query, not a product one. The page that ranks needs more than a grid: a short introduction that frames the choice, the criteria that matter when choosing, internal links to the relevant subcategories and guides, and structured data. Two hundred useful words above or below the products, written for a buyer rather than for a crawler, is usually the difference between page one and page three.
Keep the primary category URLs stable and clean. Every restructure that changes them costs authority that took months to build.
Faceted navigation: decide, then enforce
Facets are where most shops quietly generate tens of thousands of near-duplicate URLs. The decision is per facet, made once, then enforced in the template:
| Facet | Indexable | Handling |
|---|---|---|
| Category and subcategory | Yes | Clean URL, unique copy, internal links |
| Brand within a category | Usually yes | If people search for it: "brand + product type" |
| Size, colour, material | Sometimes | Only where the combination has real search demand |
| Price range | No | Canonical to the parent, nofollow the links |
| Sort order and view | No | Never a distinct URL. Use parameters excluded from crawling |
| Pagination | Yes | Self-canonical, crawlable, never canonical to page one |
Filters multiply URLs combinatorially. Left alone, a shop with five filters generates tens of thousands of thin, near-identical pages, eating crawl budget and diluting signals.
- Index the facet combinations with genuine search demand - brand plus category, colour plus category - as proper landing pages with their own copy.
- Block or canonicalise the rest: price ranges, sort orders, session parameters, multi-select combinations.
- Keep pagination crawlable, with self-referencing canonicals per page rather than pointing every page at page one.
Product pages need original value
If your description is the manufacturer's text, you are one of hundreds of identical pages and none of them deserves to win. What differentiates: your own photographs, sizing or fit notes from returns data, delivery times to Madrid specifically, real reviews with structured data, and answers to the questions your customer service actually receives.
For shops with very large catalogues, prioritise: the top sellers and the products with search demand get bespoke treatment; the long tail gets template quality plus reviews.
Stock, discontinued products and seasonality
| Situation | What to do | What not to do |
|---|---|---|
| Temporarily out of stock | Keep the page live, say when it returns, offer alternatives | Remove or noindex it |
| Permanently discontinued, replacement exists | 301 to the replacement product | Redirect everything to the category |
| Discontinued, no replacement | 301 to the parent category | Leave a 404 with inbound links |
| Seasonal, returns each year | Keep the URL live all year | Delete it in February and rebuild in October |
Deleting a product page that has links and rankings throws both away. Better: keep the page live with clear availability status and alternatives, or redirect to the closest equivalent if it is gone permanently. For seasonal ranges, keep the same URL year after year and update it, rather than creating a new one each season and splitting the history.
“A shop does not usually have a content problem. It has ten thousand URLs where it needed four hundred, and a crawler that never reaches the products that sell.”
Technical points that matter more for shops
Speed, because product pages are heavy and mobile conversion falls sharply with delay. Structured data for products, prices, availability and reviews, since rich results change click-through substantially in shopping queries. And crawl efficiency: a clean sitemap, no infinite calendar or session URLs, and internal linking that reaches deep pages in three clicks.
Frequently asked questions
Should I write content on every category page?
On the ones with search demand, yes. On deep subcategories with none, a title and a clean grid is enough.
How do I handle products available only in some regions?
State availability clearly on the page and in structured data. Do not create separate URLs per region unless the offer genuinely differs.
Is a blog worth it for a shop?
How much copy does a category page need?
Enough to answer what the buyer needs to choose - differences between options, sizing, delivery, returns. Placement matters more than length: a wall of text under the products helps nobody.
Should product reviews be on the page or in a widget?
On the page, in the HTML. Reviews loaded by script after the fact are frequently not indexed, which wastes the one piece of genuinely original content most product pages have.
Only if it links usefully into categories and answers pre-purchase questions. Disconnected content that never routes anyone towards a product is a cost centre.
Audit the catalogue before the next season
Facets, categories, stock handling and speed, reviewed against what your buyers actually search.
Request an auditRelated: SEO services.