SEO
Ecommerce SEO
Webshops have their own SEO problems, and almost all of them are structural. Overlapping categories, filters generating a thousand near-identical pages, and products going out of stock without anyone deciding what happens to the page.
- Same-day reply
- Fixed price
- No lock-in
- Category structure
- Filters without duplicates
- Product data and schema
- Discontinued items
Service
Ecommerce SEO
Category pages carry most of it
People search by category, not by SKU. "Running shoes for women" has volume, the exact model name does not. Yet category pages are often the most neglected — a couple of lines of text, if anything at all.
What I do here is make the category structure match how people search, and give each important category a page that actually says something. Not a block of text under the products, but content that belongs where it sits.
Filters and parameters
- Decide which filter combinations deserve an indexable page. Colour plus size plus brand is rarely one of them.
- Close off the rest with canonicals or robots, depending on whether they should be crawlable at all.
- Avoid the same product list existing at five different addresses because sorting lives in the URL.
- Make sure pagination does not bury products on page seven where no crawler goes.
Discontinued products
It is the decision most stores never make. A product page that has earned rankings for three years gets deleted, and the traffic goes to a 404.
The rule I use: if the item is coming back, the page stays with a clear message. If it is not, we redirect to the closest replacement, not to the front page. If there is no replacement, the page stays and points to the category.
Deliverables
What you get
Concrete deliverables, not a report of recommendations someone else has to find time for.
- A category structure
Built around how people actually search, not around how the range is organised in the ERP.
- Filters under control
A decision on which filter combinations deserve an indexable page, and the rest properly closed off.
- Product data and schema
Structured data matching what the page actually says, including stock status and price.
- Rules for discontinued items
What happens to a product page when the item is not coming back. It is the decision most stores never make.
Process
How it works
Four steps. You know what happens when, and you can stop after any of them.
- 01
Find what blocks you
I start with a full crawl and a review of Search Console. There is nearly always something technical in the way that makes the rest of the work wasted if it is not cleared first.
- 02
A prioritised list
Everything I find gets sorted by return on effort. You can see the reasoning behind each item, so you can judge for yourself whether I am right.
- 03
The fixes get made
I deliver the work as pull requests in your own repository, not as recommendations someone else has to find time for. That is the whole reason to hire a developer for SEO.
- 04
Measurement and follow-up
We measure before and after on real visitors. You get a short monthly update, including the months where nothing happened, because that is information too.
Who does the work
I am the person you will be working with
My name is Mikkel and I have been building for the web since 2010. There is no project manager in between, and you will not get a junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built, and I am the one building it.
Day to day I am a partner at Bigum&Co, and I have worked on more than 400 projects across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Call or write — I usually reply the same day, and I will say straight away if the job is not a fit.
- Experience
- 16 yrs
- Projects
- 400+
- Rating
- 5.0
- Reply time
- Same day
In depth
Ecommerce SEO
Category pages are where the money is
People search the category, not the SKU. "Running shoes for women" has volume. The exact model name does not, unless the brand itself is large. Yet category pages are the most neglected part of nearly every Danish webshop — an h1, a product grid, and maybe a block of text at the bottom nobody reads.
There are two reasons that is a mistake. One is search: a category page with no content struggles against one that actually helps you choose. The other is conversion: people landing on a category are often mid-decision, and a couple of lines on what separates the three types sells more than another product in the grid.
What I do here is make the category structure match how people actually search, and give the important categories content that belongs where it sits. Not a block of text under the products for Google's benefit, but something placed where it is relevant to read.
At the same time we clear up overlapping categories. If you have both "running shoes" and "sports shoes for running", they compete, and Google picks — usually the wrong one.
Filters, variants and discontinued items
Filtering is the fastest way to create ten thousand pages without meaning to. Colour times size times brand times price band becomes a number nobody imagined, and each one is nearly identical to the others. Googlebot spends its time on those instead of on the categories.
The decision is which combinations deserve a real page. "Black running shoes" may well be one, if people search that way. "Black running shoes in size 42 from brand X sorted by price" is not. The rest gets closed off, either with a canonical or with robots, depending on whether they should be crawled at all.
Discontinued products are the other classic. A product page that has earned rankings for three years gets deleted, and the traffic lands on a 404. The rule I use: if the item is coming back, the page stays with a clear message. If it is not, we redirect to the closest replacement — not to the front page, which helps nobody. If there is no replacement, the page stays and points to the category.
All three are decisions rather than technology. The technology is easy once someone has decided what should happen.
Reviews
What people say about me
He is simply a pro. Highly competent and precise, brings good input, and is a huge support.
Carsten Johan Thessen(translated from Danish) I have never come across a developer as dedicated and capable as Mikkel.
Jonas Krogslund(translated from Danish) Mikkel is seriously good, helpful, lightning fast to reply — and on top of that he is a nice person.
Trine Handskemager(translated from Danish)
Services
Why me
- 16 years of experience
I have built for the web since 2010 and seen most of the ways a project can come off the rails. It makes the estimates more honest.
- 400+ projects
Across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Chances are I have seen something close to your job before.
- You talk to the person coding
No project manager in between, and no junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built.
Brands I have worked with
A selection. Some freelance, some through agencies, some across several years.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Our product copy comes from the supplier. Is that a problem?
- It is a problem for the products everyone else also sells, because nobody stands out. The answer is rarely to rewrite four thousand descriptions — it is to make your category pages and filtering better than the competition's.
- Does the same apply to Shopify and WooCommerce?
- The principles are the same, the tools differ. Shopify has fixed constraints in its URL structure you have to work around. WooCommerce is more open, and therefore easier to make a mess of.
- What about Google Shopping feeds?
- I am happy to set them up and fix the fields that get products rejected. Bid management itself is not my area.
- Our product copy comes from the supplier. How bad is that?
- It is a problem for the items everyone else also sells, because nobody stands out. But the answer is rarely rewriting four thousand descriptions. It is making categories and filtering better than the competition's, and writing your own copy for the hundred items that make the most money.
- What about product reviews?
- They help both conversion and the search result, if marked up properly. But they have to be genuine and come from people who bought. Anything else is a risk not worth taking.
- Does the same apply to Shopify and WooCommerce?
- The principles yes, the tools no. Shopify has fixed constraints in its URL structure to work around. WooCommerce is more open, and therefore easier to make a mess of.