Thin content in WooCommerce categories is bad. It is an example of a problem that affects all e-commerce websites. As I am familiar with WooCommerce I am addressing how to solve the problem in WooCommerce only.
A good word count of original and relevant text in WooCommerce category pages is good. Here is an example of a page with good content. And note where the content is on the page. See the end of this article for how to put it there.
Now to why adequate content is good – and it is good for several reasons.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search engines like Google use various algorithms to determine the relevance and quality of web pages. By including a sufficient amount of original and relevant text on your category pages, you provide search engines with more content to analyze and understand. This can improve the visibility of your pages in search engine results and drive organic traffic to your WooCommerce store.
Keyword Optimisation
When you have a significant amount of text on your category pages, you have more opportunities to naturally incorporate relevant keywords. Keywords are the terms and phrases that users search for when looking for products or information online. By strategically including keywords in your category page content, you can improve the chances of your pages appearing in search results when users search for those specific keywords.
The User Experience
This is a tricky one. It’s absolutely true that adequate text content on Single Product pages helps enhance the overall user experience. When users visit your WooCommerce store, they expect to find detailed information about the products or services offered. By providing informative and relevant text, you can help users understand the purpose and characteristics of the products in that category. This, in turn, increases user engagement and improves their overall shopping experience. While all of this is true, it is actually unlikely that a typical user would look at or even see the text that relates to the category within which the product is listed. They might, but most likely they will look at individual products and simply not see the whole array of products listed under a category. But Google sees it, and takes note of it.
Menus and Navigation
Category pages in WooCommerce are designed to group similar products together, making it easier for users to navigate and find what they are looking for. By including descriptive and informative text, you can provide additional context and guidance to users, helping them locate the products they need more efficiently. Clear and concise text descriptions can aid users in understanding the differences between products within a category and make informed purchasing decisions.
What Is Unique About You – Your Unique Selling Proposition
Category page content can be an opportunity to highlight the unique features, benefits, or selling points of your products. By incorporating persuasive and compelling text, you can showcase why your products are worth considering over those of your competitors. This can help you differentiate your brand and products, attracting more customers and increasing conversions.
The bottom line is that well-crafted category page content can enhance online visibility, attract more qualified traffic, and ultimately drive sales.
Thin Content in WooCommerce Categories
So now we know that thin content in WooCommerce categories is bad. The problem is that if you write text for your Product Category pages it will appear above the product images, and if you write more than a couple of lines of text it will push the product images way down the page.
What you want is to have the text appear below the grid of product images, and this is how to accomplish it.
I am using a child theme on one of my e-commerce sites, and I have a functions.php file within that child theme. So I added the php there. If you are using a parent theme then you can put your code in a snippets plugin.
Here’s the code:
remove_action( 'woocommerce_archive_description', 'woocommerce_taxonomy_archive_description', 10 );
add_action( 'woocommerce_after_shop_loop', 'woocommerce_taxonomy_archive_description', 100 );