The Impact of Removing SEO Copy on Ecommerce Category Pages

Before you start: if you are not familiar with the principles of statistical SEO split testing and how SplitSignal works, we suggest that you start here or request a demo from SplitSignal.

First of all, we asked our Twitter followers to vote:

This time the majority were our followers WRONG! Read on to find out why.

The Case Study

The value of SEO content on ecommerce category pages, whether top or bottom, has been the subject of much debate. These pieces of content are often created primarily for SEO purposes, to increase visibility for relevant keywords, rather than to improve the user experience. Google’s own John Mueller noted that these texts are sometimes seen as attempts to stuff keywords, which can negatively affect the page’s overall view. While some content can be useful, he cautioned against overdoing it with large article-style content under product listings, as it can make it harder for Google to understand the page’s intent. Google also said that there may not be a significant difference in terms of SEO between placing the content at the top or bottom of the page, but that a well-crafted piece of content can help users better rank the category and its offerings. understand.

Naturally, these discussions and comments from Google piqued our interest. Creating SEO content for hundreds of thousands of category pages can be a significant investment in terms of time and resources. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the true value of this type of content....