Related categories, related items and related products are widgets that you place on your mobile and desktop sites to enhance discoverability and user value. The widgets for related categories and related items optimize your link structure, and the widget for related products optimizes your page content.
Text on product results is usually in a form like JavaScript that isn't always readable by search engine bots. When a customer views your site, the widget API provides data to populate the related categories, related items and related products widgets on the page. Each link in the related categories and related items widget is highly relevant both to the page it's on and the page it's pointing to. These links create a relationship from one page to the next, assisting users and search engines to find new relevant pages. Each product in the related products widget includes a picture, title, and a lead-in snippet with a view more link to expose a popup of the description of the product.
The title and description of related products are readable by search bots, increasing the likelihood of discovery by bots. The links for related categories and related items flatten your site's hierarchy for bots, making it easier for them to crawl your site.
Here are some of the methods we use to populate the content of your related categories, related items and related products widgets:
- Examine relationships between products and categories on your site.
- Analyze your product attributes to link similarly patterned items together.
You need just one widget API call for the related categories, related items and related products.
Related categories and related items
The widgets for related categories and related items adds relevant links to your category and product pages, flattening the structure of your site. These widget helps web crawlers easily discover other related pages from this single page as well as pass on the strength or authority from this single page to these other pages, helping them to rank and receive more organic search traffic from search engines. The Related Categories widgets links to category and thematic pages. The Related Items widgets links to product pages.
These widgets are particularly helpful to users who don't immediately find exactly what they're looking for on a particular page. For example, a customer named Lucia searches your site with the query, white dresses. The list of related categories and related items on the category page or product page might include wedding gowns, summer dresses, and lace dresses. Lucia can click these links to find more pages that are highly relevant to her search for the perfect white dress.
The number of searches that you can have in your related categories and related items widget is fixed at five. Bloomreach always tries to display the maximum number of links in the related categories and related items widget. However, the widgets can shows fewer links if we can't find relevant product pages to link to, or if the products in those linked pages go out of stock.
Display requirements for related searches widgets
For each link within related categories and related items, the following requirements apply:
- Clearly display the entire link or anchor text. Do not truncate any of the link or anchor text with ellipses. For example: blue lace dres...
- Show all the links that are in the widget and do not truncate the list. For example, don't show three links upon page load followed by a link or button to show more or show fewer links.
Related products
The widget for related products adds products on relevant category and product pages. The related products widget leverages your site’s product content, adding it to relevant pages to enrich the content on those pages with additional and unique content. Adding this content helps these pages rank in additional searches when customers make queries on search engines.
For example, Dresses by Colette sells a pink dress called Sweet in Pink on its product page. This product appears on multiple category and product pages in the related products widget. The content for this product is served in HTML and is readable by search engines. As a result, when Lucia uses a search engine to find a hi-lo pink dress, chances are increased that Dresses by Colette's Sweet in Pink product appears in her search results.
The default number of products you can have in your related products widgets is four. Let your Bloomreach TPM know if you want to display more than four products. Bloomreach always tries to display the maximum number of products in the related products widget. However, the widget shows fewer products if we can't find relevant products that match the content of the page, or if products in the widget go out of stock.
Upon page load of every page, the related products widget must be visible to site visitors and search engine bots. This widget contains individual items that each include information like a product title, product image, preview of the product description, and a quickview link. When a site visitor clicks the quickview link, a popup HTML lightbox displays detailed content, including the product title, product image, and an expanded product description.
Display requirements for related products widgets
For each item within related products, the following requirements apply:
- Clearly display the entire product title and the image, if available.
- Show a snippet of the product description with a link below it, such as view more or read more. We recommend that the snippet be approximately eight words long.
- Upon clicking a view more link, a popup HTML lightbox activates an expanded view to display the full product description, title, and image. There must be a way to close this lightbox.