[How to] Categorize your E-Commerce webshop? What is the best way?

Every producttype a new page?

[elmoes]

Dear Webmasters,

Im currently building a e-commerce webshop and I have a question about indexation, linkjuice and the best way to organize a webshop.

Easy Example: I am selling, Nails, Screws, Bolts in like 50 formats each!. 10x10mm 12x12mm 12x11mm etc. etc. you name it,.

In my opinion there are 3 ways do organize/structure this.

1: Creating 50 pages in each category so that Google can Index each format/type has its own page
Like
www.website.com/screws/10x10mm
www.website.com/nails/11x10mm
www.website.com/bolts/round/11mm

etc. etc. x150

2: Creating only 3 pages that can be indexed in Google.
www.website.com/screws
www.website.com/nails
www.website.com/round-bolts
OR
www.website.com/round?
and users can select on that page the type/format of the nail or screw

3: Creating 50 pages in each category and put them on the main domain
www.website.com/nail-10x10mm
www.website.com/screw-10x10mm
www.website.com/round-bolts-11mm

I have heard that its better to have less pages indexd by Google so you can focus and put more effort on them than its to have millions of 'weak' pages indexed.
its easier to optimize 3 pages with quality content and productinformation than it is to fill 300 pages with content.

And if Google does index your website, that its better to have the product pages stick as close to the rootdomain as possible.

Can someone give me a link/study/case or just your opinion about what the pro's and con's are and what you would do?

// Edit: I know I have read a case study around 2016 about a 2 big online retailers (shoes/fashion?) 1 had milions of pages indexed and the other only ten thousands.

I think that this can be a very interresting topic. [ For what Option would you go and why? ]

Regards,
Elmoes

[edited by: elmoes at 8:55 am (utc) on Jul 26, 2018]

[makeonlineshop]

Yes it is better to have less pages or most of your page would be too similar.

[buckworks]

My preference would be #1, but before you make that decision, do some keyword research to find out how users are likely to search for your products. Note the search volumes, and also give thought to which queries might reach people who haven't heard of you yet. That might influence your planning.

Another question is if the products are your own, or if you're selling things that would also appear on other sites, and thus have more competition in search.

An ecommerce site I'm involved with finds that their main category pages get the most search traffic, because generic searches such as "blue widget covers" are the busiest. Also the most competitive! Many of the generic searchers are new to the site.

On the other hand, individual product pages usually have no trouble ranking for specific product searches such as "blue widget cover 1257". There's not nearly as many of those but the users already know what they're looking for.

[keyplyr]

Yes it is better to have less pages or most of your page would be too similar.

Agree. Stop competing with yourself. Make each page as unique as possible with clear and distinctive content.

[tangor]

You actually have three "products" that come in various sizes, but all of them DO THE SAME THING ie. fasten something to another something (following the example. Would work just as well for footwear or space ships).

Your home page should be about FASTENING THINGS (and much can be written to entice and excite in general fashion), then you have your base products (ie, types), and you can additionally create content on those "uses" then display either a chart, drop down, form select the "sizes", your choice, from there and avoid all those thin single product pages where there's little opportunity to write something distinctive enough to satisfy a "keyword" in a meaningful way.

One other concept in ecommerce: Don't make the user click more than three times to find either the content or the product. They get bored easily.

[siri]

Make user-friendly search i.e., whenever the user wants to search/purchase your product, makes the process simple. keyword selection also very important, think from the users point of view, analyze, what words they want to use for the searching. and also find keyword search volume.