Category Page SEO – Avoid “The Price List Problem”

0:00What the Price List Problem Is

It's Brendan from WP Speed Fix. In this video I want to talk about something called the price list problem, or more accurately, avoiding the price list problem. This is one of our simple, not obvious concepts: a super simple idea that's not very obvious. A lot of people are making this mistake and it's a very simple one to fix. It's a really common problem with ecommerce sites and sites that have category pages.

These pages are often ignored from an optimization perspective and often end up being just a price list. There's nothing else on that page other than products or things you're selling, and prices. That's a problem because you're not differentiating yourself from competitors. If you're not telling someone why you're different on that page, then they only have price to choose from, essentially.

0:46Why Category Pages Are Landing Pages

This goes hand in hand with an idea we've talked about on the website before: in order to rank for something, you need a page for it. So in an ecommerce scenario, the category pages are the ranking pages, and someone might enter the site via a category page. It's a very similar thing for any site that has categories. It could be an ecommerce site, a content site, or any type of directory site. I've got some examples I'll show you in a second, but essentially all of these pages are landing pages. They all rank in Google, or they rank in LLMs and ChatGPT, so they could be the first page that visitors see on the site. We want to make sure that they're optimized and that we're selling stuff.

It also goes hand in hand with the idea of the early close, which I talked about in the last video.

1:33Examples of the Price List Problem

I'll just give you some examples. I picked out some random sites that I know of and some other ones. This is a crystal site, and this is the category for black crystals. This would be the page that ranks if someone searched for black crystals or black crystal beads. You can see it's not a great page from an optimization perspective. It doesn't have any content telling me who the business is, why I should buy from them, or why they're different. There's nothing here apart from products and price. This is what we're calling the price list problem. We're not giving the customer a reason why they should buy from us versus the four other sites that they clicked on from Google or Google Shopping or wherever they came from.

Here's another one, kind of similar, also selling crystals. This is black tourmaline crystal, so a very specific search term. Someone who's searching this is looking very specifically for this product, and again it's just a price list. There's nothing about the business. It doesn't tell me they have fast shipping, free shipping, or that they have all products in stock. I know nothing. I'm not given a differentiator or a reason to stick around this business other than products and price.

I just searched some random ones here. This one's not as bad, there is at least some content here, but with barbecue grills I'm just looking at a list of products. Why should I buy from these people as opposed to someone else? I'm just going to choose on price. Same thing again with cookers and cooktops. It's just a list of products and prices. There's nothing about this business. Why would I buy? I don't even know if this is a brand. It must be a brand, Sub-Zero or Wolf. I know nothing about it because they're not telling me. So Wolf cooking range cookers: is it a European brand? Why are they so expensive? Why are they so good? I don't know. There's nothing on the page. Price list problem.

3:28A Real Estate Example and the Fix

This one here is actually the reason why I made this video. I was talking with this client about this particular problem. This is a real estate website and it has the price list problem as well. This would be the page that ranks for villas for sale in Phuket. In the same sort of idea as ecommerce, I'm just getting properties and prices. There's nothing about this business being a luxury specialist, anything like that. There's no reason for me to stick around.

Using something as simple as the early close idea we talked about in the last video would probably be enough for someone to stick around or explore further. A simple one-liner, one paragraph: specialists in luxury real estate in Thailand, Phuket, and so on. Call us on this number, or click here to schedule a consultation with one of our team, or complete this form to get some more information on how we can help you. Something simple like that, some sort of differentiator and some call to action, can make these pages perform dramatically better.

4:38Good Examples: A Didgeridoo Store and James Clear

Here's a couple of examples. As I said, we put it in a mail out, and I'll make a blog article for this so you can find these links. If you're watching this video, I'll link you up to it in the description. This is a very old client of ours. They are a didgeridoo store selling didgeridoos. There's another concept here that I'll talk about in a different video, called secondary homepage. This is the category page for didgeridoos, the primary product we sell, and it doesn't have this price list problem. This is the page that ranks, and it's usually getting nearly as much traffic as the homepage. It tells me all about buying a didgeridoo. There's a didgeridoo buyer guide, very basic stuff: what is a didgeridoo, information on shipping, information on lessons.

So this doesn't have the price list problem, and this is what I'm talking about. There is a reason for me to stick around, a reason to buy from this business. Why would I buy from these guys versus maybe Amazon, where I can get a cheap plastic didgeridoo? I'm giving the customer a reason to stick around. This will also help the page rank. More content on the page, to a degree, will help the SEO of the page and help it rank in LLMs as well.

Here is a good one: James Clear, the author. It's a simple concept to understand in the ecommerce example, or even that real estate example, where the category pages are a list of products. This is a bit of a different one. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, has probably the best category pages we've seen for a content site. This is the category page for habits, and if we look at their SEO info here, this would rank for "how to build good habits". You can see there's a summary of blog posts here, "What are habits?", and then links to all the different articles he has on habits. It's like a one-liner or a summary with a link to more. From a content perspective, this is a really good category page. It isn't just a list of blog posts with an image, it's a really rich category page for a content site. If you were a content site or an affiliate marketer, this would be a good example to build from. We're actually building some of our category pages on WP Speed Fix based on this.

6:56The Takeaway and Free Tools

So that's the price list problem in a nutshell, and I won't go on for too long. Essentially, we want to avoid having category pages that are just a list of products and pricing. We want to have a USP, a unique selling proposition: why you're different, why someone should buy from you. Maybe also a call to action, the early close we talked about in the last video. I'll leave you with that. If you have any questions, post in the comments below.

If you want more stuff like this, come over to our website and sign up to our mailing list, under free tools. This is our mailing list, Simple, Not Obvious, where we share tactics like this. If you need help with your website, you can request a free site audit here. Tell us what you need help with, and one of our team will have a look at your site and come back to you with some recommendations. We also have a bunch of free tools here: a free SEO audit, a free Core Web Vitals report, and a free site speed test, and those are all completely free. No opt-in required, they take 60 to 90 seconds and will give you detailed insights on things you can do to improve your website. That's it. As I said, if you have any questions, post in the comments below and we'll come right back to you. Cheers.