Your store is competing with Jumia for the same query.
E-commerce SEO grows organic revenue for an online store through category and product page architecture, structured data, and control of faceted navigation. Haryes builds this for Kenyan stores competing against marketplaces for the same queries.
Marketplaces win on authority. You win on specificity.
A Kenyan store will not out-rank a marketplace on a broad product term, and chasing those terms burns a year. The queries that convert are narrower, and marketplaces are structurally bad at them.
What usually blocks a store from taking those queries:
- Category pages with nothing on them but a product grid, so there is nothing to rank.
- Filters generating thousands of crawlable URLs that compete with each other.
- Product descriptions copied from the supplier, identical to every other store selling it.
- Out-of-stock products returning errors instead of being handled deliberately.
- No structured data, so no price, availability or review information appears in results.
How store SEO runs
Architecture first, because content on a broken structure is wasted.
Map demand to the catalogue
Which queries exist, what intent sits behind them, and whether your catalogue can answer them at all.
A category structure based on demand.
Fix the architecture
Categories, subcategories and the internal links between them, so authority reaches the pages that sell.
A structure search engines can follow.
Control the facets
Decide which filter combinations deserve an indexable URL and block the rest before they multiply.
Crawl spent on pages that matter.
Write what the supplier did not
Category introductions, buying guidance, sizing, local delivery realities, and product copy that is yours.
Pages with a reason to rank.
Structure and measure
Product, offer and review schema, then monthly reporting against organic revenue rather than sessions.
Results measured in sales.
Where store SEO is won
Four areas, in the order they usually pay off.
Category pages
These are the pages that rank for the queries with real volume. Treated as grids, they rank for nothing.
Give them content.
Faceted navigation
Uncontrolled filters are the single biggest source of index bloat on Kenyan stores we audit.
Decide, then enforce.
Product detail
Specific, local, honest detail is the one thing a marketplace listing rarely has.
Write it once, properly.
Lifecycle handling
Discontinued and out-of-stock products need a deliberate plan, not a 404 and a shrug.
Keep the equity.
What you get
Delivered against the store you have, on Shopify, WooCommerce or custom. See SEO pricing.
Category architecture
Built from demand, not from your stockroom.
- Category and subcategory map
- Internal linking plan
- URL structure that survives growth
Faceted navigation rules
What gets indexed and what does not.
- Indexable filter combinations defined
- Crawl controls implemented
- Duplicate URLs collapsed
Content
On the pages that rank.
- Category introductions and buying guidance
- Product copy that is not the supplier's
- Local delivery and sizing detail
Structured data
Product, offer and review.
- Price and availability in results
- Connected to one Organization entity
- Validated against live pages
Questions clients ask before they commit
Can we actually beat Jumia?
Not on a term like "phones". On narrower, specific and local queries, a focused store regularly outranks a marketplace, because the marketplace page is a generic listing and yours can be the best page on the subject.
Our filters create thousands of URLs. Is that bad?
It is the most common serious problem we find on Kenyan stores. A few filter combinations deserve indexable pages, most do not, and the fix is deciding which rather than blocking everything.
Does this work on Shopify?
Yes, with platform constraints we will be upfront about, particularly around URL structure. We build and optimise on both Shopify and WooCommerce.
How is success measured?
Organic revenue and organic conversion rate, not sessions. Traffic that does not buy is a vanity number on a store.
Existing store, or building one?
Traffic is flat and the filters have got out of hand.
We start with architecture and crawl control, then content.
Grow store trafficYou want the structure right before launch.
Far cheaper to design the architecture now than to migrate it later.
See e-commerce developmentCategory pages are where store SEO is won, and most stores treat them as furniture.
