Google: Extra Content Not Always Needed For Category Pages

credit: Matt Southern

Product category pages do not always need extra content if Google can understand what’s on the page based on the names of products.

Google advises that it’s not always necessary to add extra content to product category pages if the product names describe what’s on the page.

This is stated by Google’s John Mueller during the Google Search Central SEO hangout recorded on September 17, 2021.

An SEO named Kamal Allazov asks Mueller about the minimum word count for product category pages.

It’s common for Googlers to field questions regarding the ideal word count for webpages, but it’s not often they get asked about doing the bare minimum.

So, what’s the least amount of copy a category page needs to rank in Google?

The answer is, it may not need any additional content beyond listing the products themselves.

Here’s Mueller’s full response.

Google’s John Mueller on Product Category Pages

As it relates to the minimum number of words a category page requires, Mueller says there’s no limit.

Allazov presses Mueller for more details, asking if 300 words would be acceptable, but Mueller doesn’t want to say that it is or isn’t.

There has to be at least some information on the page so Google can understand what’s on it. In many cases that information is communicated by the product names.

“We don’t have any limits. There’s no limit so I’m not going to say yes or no. I think it’s something where, especially with category pages, you have to have some information on a page so that we understand what the topic is. But that’s generally very little information, and in many cases we understand that from the products that you have listed anyway.”

That sounds logical, but it wouldn’t work in cases where products have non-descriptive names.

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