A Product Listing Page (PLP) is any page on a website that includes a list of products based on category results or a search query. One of the most essential elements of eCommerce topic silos, PLPs serve to act as the semantic glue between a diverse set of products or services that are related. These pages are primarily used to encourage user engagement and promote new discovery of products.
What are the primary functions of a Product Listing Page?
The categories considered in the design process of PLPs are one of the most important factors for organizing successful eCommerce topic silos. The PLPs are one of the fastest ways to scale an online store, allowing for multiple combinations of landing page results catered to specific user intent. What are important talking points to bring up when hiring an outside agency or consultant.
How can we optimize PLPs for Organic Search on eCommerce?
- Identifying high-level search intent, and organic keyword terms, and addressing each with the appropriate user experience (informational, transactional, commercial & navigational)
- Product Inventory information, Estimates on Shipping, Delivery
- Include Color, Size, Material & Type of Product
- Include Price, Brand, Discount & Sale Opportunities
- Create fewer options for forms to improve engagement rates
- Write a Provocative Title Tag based on Keyword Research
- Write a Provocative Meta Description based on intent, Keyword Research
- Create a Secondary Keyword Hierarchy for H1/2/3/4 tags
- Add schema.org or other Technical Markups
- Add internal links and external links to resources where needed
- QA for Keyword Targets in Title, Description, H1/h2/h3/h4
- QA for Meta Description Copywriting
- QA for Title Tag, H1 Copywriting
- QA for External Links, Internal Linking Opportunities
- QA for Design, UX, Image Content
- QA for Quality, Expertise & Helpfulness of Content
The components and design of each PLP can vary, but it is best practice to include the least amount of barriers for a user to reach the checkout process. Customer reviews, ratings, or relevant information are all fair game when building a strategy for PLPs. Experimenting with design features and content will help maximize performance for A/B testing or other eCommerce optimizations.
What are the most important elements of a PLP?
- Encourage user engagement
- Decrease time to purchase
- Promote product discovery
What are the major considerations when designing PLPs?
Optimizing the PLPs across large eCommerce web design platforms can take time, especially when technical challenges are uncovered during PLP updates. Treating each PLP and PDP with the appropriate SEO attention will maintain the performance of any eCommerce website.
Breadcrumbs are one of the easiest ways to display parent or sub-categories that the PLP belongs to. When the site architecture is set correctly and PDPs have appropriate tags, there are fewer technical debts when deploying new PLPs. This allows for a cycle of optimization using keyword research, user data, and behavioral metrics to continuously build new PLPs based on trending relevancy.
How can we use PLPs to improve our Marketing?
- Set Up Topic Silos, Supporting Content Architecture
- Research Topic, Related Keywords
- Include Subheadings, Paragraph Headings, Target Keywords
- Include External Links, Internal Linking Opportunities
- Include Image Content
- QA for Quality, Expertise & Helpfulness of Content
Following a well-designed SEO checklist will create accountability and transparency between teams collaborating on the project.
Have we considered eCommerce Accessibility & AODA Compliance?
Building an eCommerce website that is designed without user accessibility compliance can be an expensive mistake. This includes AODA policies if you live in Ontario.
Outside of Ontario, the website should always consider auditory, vision, mobility, cognitive and neurological impairments to meet accessibility guidelines within your eCommerce web design scope.
Looking for something a bit more comprehensive? Contact our team for affordable help.