Adapting SEO strategies for large eCommerce sites or content-heavy blogs can feel like wrangling a herd of wild cats-each page wants attention, but you've got to be smart with your time. One trick I've picked up over the years is to focus on building a solid content hierarchy. Think of it like a digital roadmap: prioritize the top categories or clusters and optimize those first, then trickle down to the more niche pages. It's not about optimizing everything at once - that's a fast track to burnout. Instead, identify the pages that drive the most traffic or conversions and double down on those. When I first tackled this approach, I honestly thought I'd miss out on a ton of traffic from smaller pages. But surprise, surprise, those optimized hubs started pulling their weight, and the long-tail traffic followed naturally. It's not perfect, but it's saved me from chasing after every page with the same intensity! Feel free to attribute me as Damilola Ademuyiwa, SEO Specialist and founder of dammyade.com. :blush: Cheers! Damilola
Content clustering revolutionized our approach to large-scale SEO. Instead of optimizing pages individually, we group related content around central themes, creating powerful topical authority. One project perfectly demonstrates this strategy. Our e-commerce client sold over 5,000 products across multiple categories. By implementing topic clusters, we organized products into themed groups with optimized pillar pages. The results? Organic traffic increased by 65% within three months. The key lies in prioritization. We analyze search intent and conversion potential to identify high-value pages deserving deeper optimization. Supporting pages receive templated optimizations based on successful patterns. Three essential elements make this work: Automated meta tag generation Internal linking frameworks Category-specific content templates This systematic approach ensures consistent optimization while maximizing resource efficiency. The focus stays on driving results rather than getting lost in endless individual page optimizations. Remember, effective large-scale SEO requires smart systems over manual effort. Build processes that scale with your content growth.
When working with clients with larger websites, I warn them: "If we don't focus on one area of the site, we'll end up doing everything and nothing at all." You'll dilute your SEO efforts if you spread yourself thin and work across a large website. The best thing you can do is pick one topic and hone in on it for a period of time, maybe a month or even a quarter to six months. Within one topic, choose - Several products - A few categories - Content that supports your chosen topic (eg. case studies, blogs, success stories, guides, etc.) Ideally, your chosen products will have the strongest SEO opportunity (products that solve one problem, for example). Your content strategy will take place on the product pages themselves and support content that supports the money-generating pages (products and categories). You want to break your website into manageable chunks and document your strategy. I use Google Sheets for that. Working this way allows you to - Focus resource - Work on authority and relevancy through content - Build your internal linking strategy - Work efficiently, it's easier for writers, for example, to focus and research one topic, then move onto the next. - Backlinking efforts have a purpose and can link to a range of pages Many products will be searched for in the same way. To some degree, you can get your strategy working for one part of your site, then rinse and repeat your strategy.
When managing sites with a lot of content, a content audit is important to keep your SEO on track: 1. Check click depth: Ensure your important pages are close to your homepage so search engines can easily find and index them. 2. Use a site audit tool: Assess your internal links to find out how many pages have no internal links or just one. This helps improve their visibility by linking them better within your site. 3.Evaluate content types: Take a close look at the type of content you have. Is it mostly informative, transactional, or a mix? Understanding this helps you tailor your content for different stages of the customer journey. 4. Include breadcrumbs: For eCommerce sites, breadcrumbs show users where they are on your site and make navigation easier. Organize products into clear categories or collections to help customers find what they need. 5. Focus on top-performing pages: Prioritize your optimization efforts on the pages that bring in the most traffic. This way, you can make the most of your resources and get the best results from your SEO strategy.
Every site is different, but when it comes to websites with a high volume of content, products and pages, a little bit of content can often make a big difference. When checking competitor sites, I often find that not many of them opt to add content on their product and category pages. This often provides a great opportunity to experiment with different types of content that can be added to your own pages. Even 50-100 words on each category page, providing context, useful insights or links to resources surrounding the product can be extremely helpful and may set you apart from your competitors.
Look at the last 12 months of URL data in Search Console to see whether there are pages that either have never, or no longer, provide any value both from an SEO and a broader usability perspective. This way, you can start to either redirect or blend content to the URLs that are working, and you're cleaning-up the crawl budget of the site in the process (a very important SEO aspect for large eCommerce websites in particular).
Don't prioritize quantity over quality. Having 1 in-depth page or piece of content is much more valuable from a search ranking perspective, than 10 pages of "good" content. Focus on providing REAL expert content that answers the user's needs and questions, and results will follow.
With our floral Shopify store, we manage a large catalog with SEO strategies that prioritize categories and main product lines. Instead of optimizing every single product page right away, we focus on category pages, ensuring they rank well and act as entry points for customers to explore our offerings further. This approach helps us concentrate our SEO resources where they can make the most impact while gradually optimizing individual product pages over time. A great strategy is to analyze search intent and focus on a few strong keyword groups that drive significant traffic to related pages. For example, we've optimized pages around popular floral categories like "wedding bouquets" and "birthday arrangements," knowing these keywords attract customers looking for specific occasions. By targeting primary keywords and linking to sub-pages, we can still boost individual product rankings indirectly. To streamline SEO further, we use tools to track keywords and page performance to see which pages need additional optimization. This way, we're always focusing efforts where they matter most, leading to steady growth in search rankings without exhausting resources.
The best way to maintain SEO across large websites is to make sure to manage resources smartly. This comes in two steps. First, I make sure that I know which resources I have on hand, which team members I can assign to manage this website, and how much time they have. Second, we analyze which pages are the most important to focus on. These include the pages that are most important for driving traffic, such as homepages, as well as pages that have the worst SEO (we use a site audit tool to identify these).
When optimizing SEO for large-scale content sites like eCommerce websites or extensive blogs one effective strategy is prioritizing high-impact pages-those that bring the most traffic or have the highest potential for conversions. By focusing on optimizing key pages first, like top-selling product pages or high-traffic blog posts, you can achieve better overall performance without spreading resources too thin. For a practical boost in this optimization, using FastPixel.io can streamline the process significantly. FastPixel automatically optimizes the pages site-wide, which is especially valuable for image-heavy and content-heavy sites like eCommerce platforms. This means that every page benefits from faster load times without requiring individual image or page adjustments, ensuring a more efficient use of resources while improving user experience across the entire site. With FastPixel, each page not only loads a lot faster but also meets SEO performance standards, boosting Core Web Vitals and reducing bounce rates. This allows your team to focus on other SEO aspects, like content quality and keyword targeting, knowing that FastPixel is handling page optimization across the board. This comprehensive approach ensures that critical performance optimizations are consistently maintained, even as your content volume grows.
For large sites such as eCommerce stores or large blogs, I prefer to prioritize content (with a content audit / content clustering style) I usually perform an audit of the site and look for high-value pages - pages that are either likely to get a lot of traffic or pages that are important to the business. After that, I group similar pages into topic clusters and build a top-level core "pillar" page that targets relevant primary keywords, and then I link the similar topic pages back to that core pillar page, which helps to achieve high-level SEO objectives. This strategy does not require that every page needs to be optimized in order for it to strengthen SEO. A recommendation is to leverage SEO tools to automate pieces of the process, for example, identifying duplicate and thin content so that resources go to the pages that will have the greatest impact. That way, the website is highly optimized without stretching resources too early, leading us on pages that actually convert.
For large websites with extensive content, like eCommerce sites, I prioritize strategic content clustering to focus resources effectively. This means organizing content into clusters around core topics or product categories, with one main "pillar" page that links to related subpages (or "spokes"). For example, on a skincare site, I might create a main pillar page for "Moisturizers" that links to subpages for specific types, like "Moisturizers for Dry Skin" or "Anti-Aging Moisturizers." This approach ensures that each main topic is thoroughly optimized without the need to over-optimize every individual page. It also improves internal linking and helps search engines understand the site structure, boosting visibility for high-priority keywords. By focusing efforts on pillars, we can efficiently cover large volumes of content and drive stronger SEO results without overextending resources.
When managing SEO for a large eCommerce site like our cannabis vaporizer platform, prioritization is key to avoid spreading resources too thin. My strategy is to focus on a content clustering approach. By organizing related products, blog posts, and guides into clusters around key topics or search intent-such as 'dry herb vaporizers' or 'vaporizer maintenance'-we ensure that each page supports others in the same cluster, strengthening overall SEO performance. One tip is to optimize the highest-traffic or most profitable pages first, such as best-sellers or top blog posts, and then build out supporting content around them. This not only drives more traffic to your most important pages but also boosts topical authority, making your site more likely to rank for a broader range of relevant keywords.
A simple way to do this is by using content clusters. This means you group related pages around one main page (called a pillar page), which links to all the other related pages. Doing this makes it easier for visitors to find what they need and helps boost your SEO. Search engines can better understand your site and rank you higher for important keywords.
To adapt SEO strategies for websites with a large volume of content, such as eCommerce sites or large blogs, it's essential to prioritize content audits and optimization. Conducting regular audits helps identify high-performing pages and those that need improvement. This allows you to allocate resources efficiently and focus on optimizing the most impactful content. One effective tip is to implement a pillar and cluster content strategy. Create comprehensive pillar pages around core topics and link them to related cluster content. This not only improves internal linking but also enhances the site's overall authority on specific subjects. By concentrating your efforts on key areas, you ensure that each page is optimized without spreading your resources too thin, ultimately driving more organic traffic and improving overall SEO performance.
For large content-heavy websites, such as eCommerce stores or extensive blogs, my go-to strategy is prioritization through content clustering. This involves categorizing content into clusters based on topic relevance, so you can optimize the most important pages first. For example, we create pillar pages for core topics and link related sub-pages to them, ensuring SEO value flows between pages and search engines can easily understand the site's structure. To avoid spreading resources too thin, we focus on high-impact pages first-those with the highest traffic potential or business value. By regularly auditing these pages, we can ensure that our SEO efforts are maximized where it matters most. This also helps us identify underperforming pages that need updating or deletion. Lastly, automation tools are a huge asset. Tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb allow us to identify technical issues, broken links, or duplicate content across thousands of pages efficiently. By using automation for technical audits, we save resources for strategic decision-making.
To adapt SEO strategies for large content websites, I prioritize creating a robust content hierarchy and implementing a comprehensive internal linking strategy. This involves categorizing content into relevant sections and ensuring that related pages link to each other, which helps search engines understand the site's structure and improves user navigation. One effective tip is to focus on optimizing cornerstone content-key pages that address primary topics-while ensuring that these pages link to supporting articles. This targeted approach allows for better resource allocation and ensures that important content gets the visibility it deserves.