How to optimize the content of website list page?

When operating a project, Feng Chao from Dongguan Internet Marketing discovered that some website owners have the habit of "grasping the two ends and leaving the middle" when doing website SEO content optimization. That is to say, they attach great importance to the content optimization of the homepage and content page, but ignore the list page in the middle. In fact, SEO content optimization is an overall task, and list page optimization is also an important part of it. In this article, Dongguan Internet Marketing Feng Chao will talk to you about how to build SEO content on list pages.

How to optimize the content of website list page?

1. Successful cases of list page content optimization

When talking about the optimization of list pages, many colleagues focus on technical aspects such as page turning link optimization and time bar display, but few articles explain the importance of content optimization. Feng Chao from Dongguan Internet Marketing will first share with you a few search results to illustrate the advantages of list pages that have been optimized for SEO content in competing for rankings.

Taking the keyword "sweater" as an example, the homepage diagram of Baidu search results is as follows.

The search results framed in red in the figure are all content-optimized website list pages, ranked 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th, accounting for half of the natural rankings on the homepage. Especially the first four pages, namely the "sweater" list pages of Ruili, Aimee, Pacific Women and Poster Fashion Network, have made careful arrangements in content optimization.

"Sweater" is a word with high commercial value. There are more than a dozen paid promotional links on the homepage, and the number of related included pages reaches 47,600,000. For a keyword with such fierce competition, the five sites mentioned above only used list pages as login pages and defeated wealthy and powerful opponents such as portal sites and e-commerce sites. Except for the four Baidu related result pages on the homepage, five of the remaining six rankings are occupied by them.

2. Why do list pages need SEO content optimization?

As mentioned earlier, the list page content optimization strategies of some sites are very effective and have achieved good rankings. So, why do we need to do SEO content optimization for list pages? Or, to put it more concretely, why is the effect so good after content optimization for list pages?

1. List pages have higher weight than content pages and have advantages as landing pages

Compared with content pages, list pages have more inbound links within the site and have higher weight, making them more advantageous as landing pages. Therefore, many webmasters like to use list pages to optimize keywords with higher competition, as they feel more confident. Feng Chao from Dongguan Internet Marketing also believes that it is more cost-effective to optimize list pages instead of optimizing individual content pages. But everything has two sides, and list pages also have shortcomings in ranking. Feng Chao from Dongguan Internet Marketing believes that list pages have the following four shortcomings.

2. List pages are usually limited in number

The logic behind the formation of a list page on an ordinary website is to first define the columns for the website, then assign the content pages to the corresponding columns, and then retrieve all the content in a certain column and aggregate them to form a list page. In this case, the number of list pages is restricted by the number of website columns. If page turning is not taken into account, the number of list pages is usually only dozens, and it is difficult to reach a higher order of magnitude. This is a very real constraint for optimizers.

3. Keyword density on list pages is usually difficult to control

As mentioned in point 2, the list page is formed by aggregating the existing content in the column. If the page content is not further organized by SEO editors, it is difficult to ensure that its keyword density is within an appropriate range.

4. List pages are usually not as important as competitors’ homepages and channel pages.

This is easy to understand. When competitors are content pages of sites at the same level, list pages have an advantage in weight. But when competitors use pages with higher weight, such as the homepage or channel page as landing pages, list pages are at a disadvantage.

5. Search engines don’t like secondary search pages

In a broad sense, aggregation pages such as list pages are not the final result pages, but a kind of secondary search page. That is, after the user comes to the list page through the search engine, he cannot get the required results immediately, but has to search for the page he wants again on this page and then click to view it. Therefore, from the perspective of user experience, search engines do not like this type of page.

Baidu's technology is relatively traditional and still gives higher weight to list pages. Looking through Google's search results, we can see that Google pays more attention to the quality of the page itself, and many content pages also have good rankings. Of course, this is not absolute. After the content of the list page is optimized, the user experience can be effectively improved.

3. Three strategies for optimizing list page SEO content

Knowing the problem, SEO people can prescribe the right remedy. In response to the various deficiencies in list page optimization, Feng Chao of Dongguan Internet Marketing summarized three strategies to solve the above problems one by one. The first is the solution to the two problems of limited number of list pages and poor user experience.

1. Aggregate pages based on content

The list page generated based on content has a more focused and detailed theme, is more in line with users' reading habits, and greatly improves the user experience. In the previous examples, the list pages of Aimei, Pacific Women, etc. are all pages that are aggregated based on content.

This actually involves SEO structure optimization. Upgrading the site from a linear structure to a mesh structure can easily aggregate a large number of list pages and solve the problem of insufficient number of list pages. Below are two types of site diagrams created by Feng Chao of Dongguan Internet Marketing.

• Linear site structure: an article page can only belong to one list page.

• A mesh-structured site: an article page can belong to multiple list pages.

In a mesh-structured site, an article can be retrieved multiple times based on different attributes, easily generating large quantities of list pages. For example, an article about matching a blazer with leather boots and accessories can belong to multiple list pages such as "leather boots", "blazer", "motorcycle style", "earrings", etc.

2. Powerful tagging system

In order to retrieve articles at will to form a list page, enough attributes must be identified for the article page, and for this purpose a tag system needs to be created. Below, Feng Chao, an online marketer from Dongguan, uses the Pacific Women’s “sweater” list page in the previous example to illustrate the importance of the tag system to a website.

As can be seen from the figure, each article on this site has 4-5 tags added based on the content. By matching the tag "sweater", the relevant article pages are retrieved to form the "sweater" list page.

• You can call up article pages at will based on tags to form a list page;
• The tag itself is a text link. The repeated appearance of the "sweater" tag in the list page increases the keyword density from an SEO perspective.
• Tags can realize cross-linking within the site, enrich the internal links of the site, and improve the weight of key pages.

3. Add a brief introduction to the page content and increase keyword density

Feng Chao, an online marketer in Dongguan, believes that adding a brief description of the page content not only increases the density of keywords, but also makes the list page more readable to optimize the user experience. There are many ways to achieve this.

• Add an introductory text to the first screen of the list page: The list page of AiMei.com adopts this strategy, as shown in the screenshot below.

• A short introductory text is displayed under each article link on the list page: Take the list page of Mingpin.com as an example.

In addition, some sites can display user comments on their list pages, which are all ways to increase page content.

In short, Feng Chao of Dongguan Internet Marketing believes that as long as the list page content is optimized according to the above guiding ideology, the specific methods can be infinitely expanded. The ultimate goal is to create a list page with high-quality content, high authority, and that users like to read, to replace low-authority content pages in the ranking battlefield, to obtain rankings on more highly competitive hot words, and to attract high-quality traffic to the website.

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