Building an e-commerce website takes minutes, but it’s what you do afterward that matters most. While having an appealing storefront is important, you also need to make sure your site is easy to navigate. For example, you’ll want to group your products into categories and subcategories to maximize their visibility.
Proper product categorization can improve the customer experience, leading to higher engagement and (hopefully!) more sales. At the same time, it streamlines inventory management and other operational processes, resulting in time and cost savings.
This practice can also boost your SEO efforts, allowing Google to crawl and index your product pages more efficiently. Simply put, it makes your website more appealing to users and search engines alike.
But what exactly is product categorization, or product taxonomy? And what’s the best way to organize your products to keep customers engaged? Let’s find out.
Product Categorization 101: Make Your Products Easier to Find
Product categorization is the practice of organizing your products based on specific criteria, such as their type, brand, or color.
You can also display them in a way that highlights their key features (e.g., “Big and tall”), popularity (e.g., “Best Sellers”), or other characteristics. For example, the occasion they are meant for, like Christmas or Father’s Day.
Most online stores list the main categories at the top of the page. Each main category has multiple sub-categories revolving around specific features of a product.
Let’s say you have a main category called “Shoes.” When customers click on it, they’ll see several more specific sub-categories, like “Women’s shoes,” “Men’s shoes,” and “Children’s shoes.”
Each sub-category can be further broken down into smaller categories, as shown below:
Shoes > Women’s shoes > Running shoes > Running shoes with arch support
or
Shoes > Men’s shoes > Dress shoes > Loafers
If your online store has just a handful of products, you can organize them manually. Larger stores use Channable, Annotation Box, Pumice.ai, or other tools to automate this process.
Why Is Product Taxonomy Important?
Grouping your products into categories can help customers find what they need more easily. Simply put, it brings order to chaos and ensures an intuitive shopping experience.
The result? Happier customers, higher engagement, and increased sales.
But that’s not all.
Product categorization can also improve UX, making your website more user-friendly. And, as mentioned earlier, it may benefit your SEO efforts, too. Here’s how it helps:
- Enhance crawlability and indexing: Well-organized product categories make it easier for search engines to understand and index your content.
- Rank for your target keywords: Product category pages allow you to target specific keywords, or search terms, as part of a well-rounded SEO strategy. This can help improve your website’s search engine rankings and boost organic traffic.
- Improve website navigation: If your website is hard to navigate, you could be missing out on 35% of sales. By grouping your products into categories and sub-categories, you can build relevant internal links. This practice can make your site easier to navigate for both users and search engines.
- Get rich snippets: Product taxonomy can improve breadcrumb navigation and boost your chances of getting rich snippets. These enhanced search results tend to get more clicks than standard listings, resulting in higher traffic.
- Gain better insights: With this approach, you’ll gain deeper insights into customer behavior and your overall sales performance. For example, you’ll be better able to tell which product categories get the most traffic and sales.
A well-built product taxonomy will ultimately improve the user experience. As a result, buyers may stay on your site longer and discover products based on their interests, which can lead to higher conversions.
Product Taxonomy Best Practices
Generally, it’s best to use a Product Information Management (PIM) system to organize your eCommerce store. Some popular choices are Contentserv, Agility PIM,Toriut, Pimcore, and Akaneo.
These tools allow you to centralize product information and automatically categorize products. Not only do they increase efficiency, but they also reduce human error.
Once you have chosen a PIM system, follow these rules for a good product taxonomy:
Leverage Behavioral Data
Use heatmaps and other analytics tools to understand how users interact with your products. For example, you’ll want to know how they are navigating your site and what products they’re searching for.
Leverage this data to create more relevant product categories. If, say, your customers search for “silk party dresses” instead of just “party dresses,” add a category or subcategory for the former. This way, they’ll be able to find what they need with one or two clicks.
Don’t Over-Categorize
Having too many too many subcategories can confuse buyers. It may also lead to decision fatigue and, ultimately, hurt sales.
On top of that, customers may have a hard time finding specific items if they’re buried deep within a complicated category hierarchy.
Ideally, stick to two or three sub-categories. Add filters to enable users to narrow down their search.
Use Clear Category Names
Make sure your product category names resonate with your audience. Check your website analytics and data sources to see your customers’ search queries.
Let’s assume you sell prescription eyeglasses. Your catalog includes bifocal, trifocal, and varifocal lenses and similar products.
Chances are, most shoppers will search for “progressive lenses” instead of “varifocal lenses.” The latter term is used by opticians, and your customers may not be familiar with it. So, you’d be better off creating a product category or subcategory for “Progressive lenses.”
Also, avoid vague or ambiguous category names. Be clear, relevant, and descriptive to ensure customers can easily find what they need.
Optimize Your Product Taxonomy for Search Engines
Last but not least, use relevant keywords in product category names and descriptions. Also, craft SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions for each category page.
Go one step further and optimize your product images and videos for the target keywords. If you have a blog, link from it to your category pages to help readers discover your products.
These strategies can boost your website’s visibility in search results and drive click-throughs. In one study, well-optimized category pages got 413% more estimated traffic than individual product pages. More traffic equals more customers and, potentially, higher revenue.
