WooCommerce gives you product categories, subcategories, tags and attributes, all of which can generate indexable URLs. Left at defaults, a store ends up with four overlapping taxonomies covering the same products, and the category pages that should be earning traffic are competing with tag archives nobody intended to publish.
Categories versus tags
Use categories. In almost all stores, tags should not be indexed at all.
- Categories are the browsing structure — hierarchical, in navigation, and the pages you want ranking.
- Tags are a flat cross-reference. They create archive pages that list the same products as your categories, with no unique content.
Tag archives are the single most common source of duplicate content in a WooCommerce store, because they are enabled by default and nobody looks at them. Noindex them unless you have deliberately built a tag into a real landing page with its own content — and if you have, it should probably have been a category.
Depth
Two levels handles most catalogues. Three is workable for large ones. Beyond that, products sit too far from the shop page to be crawled reliably and customers stop finding them.
The other failure is the opposite: one flat level with forty categories, none of which has enough products to be worth ranking. See category vs subcategory.
The category base
WooCommerce inserts /product-category/ into category URLs by default, and /product/ into product URLs. Both can be changed under Settings → Permalinks.
- On a new store, removing or shortening these produces cleaner URLs and is worth doing before launch.
- On an established store, the gain is marginal and every category URL changes, which means a full redirect map and a recovery period. Usually not worth it.
If you do change it, treat it as a migration rather than a settings tweak. See SEO migration.
Assign each product to one primary category
Products assigned to several categories appear in several places, which is fine for browsing. The problem is the product URL: WooCommerce can generate a different path depending on the route taken, producing multiple URLs for one product. Ensure products resolve to a single canonical URL regardless of how they were reached.
Give categories real content
An empty category page is a product grid with a heading, which is not enough to rank against competitors who wrote something. Add an introduction above the grid explaining what the range covers and how to choose within it.
Keep it above the fold in the markup but not so long that it pushes products down the page. See category page SEO.
Attributes
Attributes drive variations and filtering. Attribute archives can generate their own URLs, and in most stores those should not be indexed for the same reason as tags. See product variations SEO.
Frequently asked questions
Should the shop page or a category be the main landing page?
Categories, in nearly all cases. The shop page lists everything and rarely matches a specific search well. See shop page SEO.
Can I use tags for SEO?
Only if you build them into genuine landing pages with unique content, at which point they are categories in all but name. Indexing tag archives as they come out of the box creates duplication.
How many products per category?
Enough that the page is substantial — a dozen or more is a reasonable floor. Fewer than that and the category is probably premature.
Does the category base affect rankings?
Marginally at best. It is worth setting well on a new store and rarely worth the disruption of changing on an established one.
Consulting CTA
For a review of your store’s taxonomy and indexation, book an SEO consultation. See also WooCommerce site architecture.