Product Grid Opportunities

This is an advanced SEO opportunity 🚨

I recommend you work with a developer to implement this.
This requires technical resources and or knowledge of HTML/theme editing.

First, what the heck is the ‘product grid’?

The product grid is the grid of products that display on a collection page in Shopify.

All the information in the product grid positively impacts your SEO. Why is that?

Because the more unique information you can share on the page, the better the browsing experience for your customers.

If you can output more relevant product information into the product grid, it will be easier for your visitors and Google to understand:

And all of that will help your collections (and products) rank higher in Google.

Product Grid Customization Example

Here’s an example of one way you can optimize your product grid to include more information: you can output the first X characters of the product description.

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On the right, you can see a customized example. In this example, the first ~30 words of the product description are also output.

Including more product information in the product grid helps your customers as they navigate and browse your store and helps Google understand your products and collections.

Compare these two contrasting examples of the opposite ends of the collection optimization spectrum.

Let’s say you’re browsing for an iPad Folio as a gift for a friend. You land on a collection page and look at the product grid as you start to browse. Of these two examples, which:

Example 1

Example 2

This is an extreme contrast and it’s helpful to see the difference.

Including more information in your product grid on your collection pages will help improve your browsing and shopping experience. The more relevant information we can share on the collection page in the product grid, the better the browsing experience for the customer and the better for Google and your SEO.

Example Product Grids on Shopify

Here are a few example product grids (some optimized, some natural), so you can see what this looks like.

Here’s an example from The Chocolate Season:

The Chocolate Season outputs the product:

Here’s an example from My Favorite Quilt Store:

My Favorite Quilt Store displays the product:

Mac-Case Product Grid SEO Example

This is a collection from Mac-Case, a Shopify store selling iPad Cases and Bags.

Here, the product grid is more optimized than we’ve seen in the other examples. Their product grid shows the following for each product:

However, Mac Case is not displaying product reviews in the product grid. That’s one opportunity for them.

How do you edit the product grid?

You edit what your product grid outputs by editing your theme files, and that’s what makes product grid optimization for collection SEO an advanced opportunity.

Most likely, to implement these sorts of product grid opportunities, you’ll need to work with a developer.

How much impact does product grid content have on your rankings?

A lot! Increasing the amount of content displayed in the product grid can have a substantial amount of impact on your SEO and rankings.

Why is that? Because Google cares about relevant content on the page. If you can increase the amount of relevant content on a page (like by adding a description to a collection or adjusting the product grid content), you’ll get more relevant content on the page and help boost your SEO.

Let’s take a look at an optimized example.

This bit of on-page product description content output into the product grid on the collection page is very impactful. That text is naturally keyword-rich, so when Google sees it, it helps inform Google’s understanding of what this collection is about and what the product in the collection is about.

Multiply that ~30 words of product description content across 10, 20, or 30 products per page in the collection, and you end up with quite a lot of additional high-quality on-page content for Google. That’s an SEO win.

Outputting the first ~20-30 words of the product description into the grid gets you more:

What are the significant product grid opportunities for collection SEO?

With this more advanced opportunity, your strategy should be to increase the content included in your product grid. More helpful + relevant content is always better. The more relevant information you can share in the product grid on the collection page, the better the browsing experience for your customer, and the more likely they’ll click.

I recommend focusing on these optimization opportunities:

Include pricing information and, if applicable, product units. Include your current pricing or starting price and any discounts in the grid. Include that information in the product grid if you sell in specific units (e.g., per yard, per foot, per six-pack, per case). (e.g., Starting at $X/per yard)
Incorporate product review information. Get that information output into the product grid if you’re collecting product reviews and displaying them on your products. It’s worth showing your high-quality social proof, like “17 Reviews, 4.5 🌟,” in the product grid.
Excerpt and output a small bit of your product description in the product grid. Outputting just the first ~20-40 words of your product description into the product grid can make a huge difference in your SEO. This product description content is keyword rich, relevant, and helps visitors (and Google) better understand collections and individual products in collections.

Are product grid optimizations worth it for collection SEO?

Yes. Optimizing the content output in the product grid is high-impact. However, it likely will take you development resources, so it is also high-effort.

If you don’t have development resources, I recommend you focus on making your product titles more descriptive (so they include relevant secondary keywords) and prioritize optimizing collection SEO titles and writing collection descriptions.

Now that you’ve finished reading this chapter on collection SEO, you can:

Read the previous chapter

Meta Descriptions and Collection SEO

Read the next chapter

Splitting Collection Descriptions

Or you can jump to one of these reader-favorite chapters:

If you want help growing your Shopify store, I encourage you to check out my Shopify SEO + Growth services or get in touch and tell me about your store.