Choose commercial priorities before page quotas
We start with the ranges you want to develop, stock reliability, fulfilment limits and the buying questions your customers ask. A popular item with unreliable availability needs a different plan from a well-supported category you can consistently supply.
Search and sales data, where available, help identify useful category and product work. Revenue is considered alongside returns, cancellations and product mix when those records exist; traffic alone cannot explain whether the work is commercially useful.
Give categories and filters different jobs
Category pages should help customers understand and browse a coherent range. Filters help them refine it. We review which combinations deserve discoverable landing pages and which merely generate repeated versions of the same selection.
The plan covers navigation, product links, pagination and URL behaviour together. A blanket instruction to index every filter, or block every parameter, can overlook useful pages and existing search demand. Decisions need examples from your actual catalogue.
- Identify priority ranges and the questions needed to compare them.
- Check that important products are reachable beyond the search box.
- Document which filtered URLs should be discoverable and why.
Replace thin descriptions with buying information
Product work focuses on specifics you can substantiate: dimensions, materials, compatibility, care, included items and useful photographs. Supplier copy can provide facts, but a useful page should also address the decisions your own customers face.
Where product structured data or Merchant Center information is in scope, it is checked against visible product details. Conflicting availability or delivery information deserves attention before adding more promotional copy. Ratings and reviews must never be manufactured to fill a template.
Plan for a catalogue that changes
Temporary stock shortages, discontinued products and seasonal ranges need different handling. We agree a policy for retaining useful pages, showing alternatives and redirecting only where an appropriate replacement exists. Removing every unavailable item immediately can discard information customers still need.
The handover combines category priorities, product content requirements and technical tasks. Your platform, development capacity and merchandising calendar shape the release plan, with checks on browsing and purchasing journeys before wider template changes.
Common questions
Should every product have a long description?
No. It needs enough accurate information to support the decision. A clear specification and useful photographs can matter more than several paragraphs of repetition.
Will you change my whole catalogue at once?
The scope should identify priority ranges and representative templates first. Wider changes follow testing and approval, particularly where product or inventory data is involved.
Is Merchant Center the same as SEO?
No. It is a separate product-data system that can complement website work. Access, feed changes and responsibility for maintaining product facts are agreed explicitly.