How to Optimise WooCommerce Category Pages (7 Steps)

Here's the problem with most WooCommerce category pages: they're a heading and a grid.

That's fine for shoppers who already know what they want.

But it gives Google almost nothing to rank, and it gives your hesitant buyers nothing to help them choose.

In this guide, I'll show you how to optimise WooCommerce category pages in 7 steps. It's the same order I use on store audits, starting with the change that matters most.

You'll need admin access to WooCommerce, your SEO plugin and, for step 4, either the Site Editor or a developer.

Step 1: Pick the Search Each Category Should Win

Every category needs one target search before you touch its copy.

Without one, you end up writing vague text that ranks for nothing in particular.

Here's how to choose:

1. List the main ways people search for what the category holds, such as "cordless drills" or "oak dining tables".
2. Search each one in Google and look at the top results.
3. If they're mostly category pages from other stores, you've found a category query.
4. If they're mostly guides or single products, the category probably isn't the right page for that search.

That third check matters.

The results tell you what kind of page Google wants for the query, which is the heart of search intent.

Then make sure no two of your categories chase the same query. If "cordless drills" and "drills" both target the same search, merge them or split the targets. My guide on avoiding keyword cannibalisation covers how to spot overlap.

Step 2: Rewrite the Title Tag and H1

The title tag and the H1 confirm to Google and shoppers what the page is about.

They don't have to be identical, but both should carry the target search.

The H1 is usually the category name. If your category is called "Drills" but the search is "cordless drills", rename the category or change how your theme outputs the heading.

The title tag comes from your SEO plugin's settings for the category. A pattern that works on most stores:

Check the result in the SERP snippet preview tool so it doesn't get cut off. My guide to writing title tags goes further.

Tip: Write a custom meta description too. It won't move rankings directly, but a description that names the range and a reason to buy can earn the click.

Step 3: Add an Intro Above the Grid

The intro tells shoppers they're in the right place, then gets out of the way.

Keep it to 40 to 80 words.

Any longer and you push products below the fold on mobile.

WooCommerce gives every product category a description field. Its taxonomy documentation describes the field as optional and notes that only some themes display it.

Check one of your live category pages to confirm your theme shows it.

A good intro covers:

• What the range includes, in plain words
• The one or two choices that split it, such as size, material or use
• A link to the most popular subcategory

Here's an example for an oak dining tables category:

Solid and veneered oak dining tables for two to twelve people. Choose a fixed table for a set space, or an extending table if you host often. Short on space? Start with the round tables, made for smaller rooms.

Short, specific and useful. No keyword stuffing.

Step 4: Add Buying Help Below the Grid

This is where a category page earns its depth.

Below the products, you can answer the questions that stall a purchase without getting in your shoppers' way.

Good topics for below-grid copy:

• How to choose between the main types
• Sizing, fit or compatibility advice
• Materials, care or warranty points
• Two or three common questions, answered briefly

Where it lives depends on your theme.

Block themes: WooCommerce's guide to customising products by category shows how to create a Products by Category template in the Site Editor. You can make one for a specific category or for all of them, then add content blocks below the product collection.

Classic themes: the description field usually prints above the grid only. Below-grid copy normally needs a custom field and a small template change, which is a quick brief for a developer.

Either way, write each category's copy fresh. The same paragraph pasted across twenty categories helps none of them.

Step 5: Structure Subcategories and Internal Links

Category pages are hubs. They should link down to narrower ranges and across to related ones.

Choose What Each Category Displays

In classic themes, go to Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce > Product Catalog. WooCommerce's product catalog settings let category pages show products, subcategories or both.

As a rule of thumb:

• Broad parent categories: show subcategories, or both, so shoppers can narrow down
• Narrow categories: show products only

Add Links That a Grid Can't

Breadcrumbs link each category back to its parent. Your intro and buying copy can link across to neighbours, such as "dining chairs" from "dining tables".

Restructuring a catalogue around how buyers actually search was the core of my work for a fine string instrument dealer. Clear parent and child categories did much of the heavy lifting.

For the wider principles, see my internal linking strategy guide.

Step 6: Get Pagination and Sorting Right

Large categories split across several pages.

Handle that badly and products deep in your range never get crawled.

Google's pagination guidance for ecommerce is clear on three points:

• Give each paginated page its own canonical URL. Don't point page two back to page one.
• Link from each page to the next with normal links.
• Google no longer uses rel="next" and rel="prev", though other search engines may.

Check your SEO plugin isn't canonicalising every page to the first one.

Sorting is different. The orderby parameter shows the same products in a different order, so sorted URLs don't need to be indexed.

Two settings help here:

1. Default sorting in the Product Catalog settings decides the order most visitors and crawlers see. Put your best sellers or most relevant products first.
2. Products per row and rows per page decide how many products sit on page one, and so how many pages the category needs.

Step 7: Stop Filters Competing With the Category

Layered navigation filters add filter_ parameters to category URLs.

Each combination is a new URL showing a slice of the same products. Left alone, those URLs can outnumber your real pages many times over.

Here's how I handle them:

• Most filters: keep the URLs out of the index and stop crawlers following them where you can.
• Filters people search by name, such as "round oak dining tables": build a proper subcategory with its own title, H1 and copy, then link to it from the parent.

That way the category stays the main page for its search, and the filtered slices that deserve to rank get a page built to do it.

My WooCommerce SEO guide covers filter parameters, attribute archives and sort URLs in more depth.

Start With Your Top Five Categories

Don't try to fix every category at once.

Open your analytics and find the five categories that bring in the most revenue.

Run them through steps 1 to 4 this week. Then check their clicks and positions in Search Console after a month.

Once you see what moves, roll the same approach out to the rest of the catalogue.

Want help with the rest of the store? Category work is a core part of my WooCommerce SEO service, and the same thinking sits behind my on-page SEO for ecommerce. If you'd like me to review your categories first, get in touch about WooCommerce SEO.