Category Page Brief Skill

Category pages are the workhorses of e-commerce SEO and discovery — they rank for high-intent "buy" searches and decide what a browsing shopper sees first. A good one balances search relevance (the right keywords, copy, and structure) with merchandising (the right products, order, and filters). This skill briefs that page so it earns traffic and converts it.

Working from a brief

Given "a category page for women's running shoes", produce the full brief anyway — infer the search intent, likely keywords, sensible filters, and merchandising logic, marking inferences. Don't invent search volumes or inventory; flag them to confirm. Never withhold for missing detail.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided (else infer and label):

• The category — what it covers, and where it sits in the catalogue hierarchy.
• The shopper & intent — who lands here and what they're trying to do (browse vs. specific need).
• Inventory & attributes — roughly what products/variants exist and their key attributes (for filters).
• SEO context — target keywords if known, and the platform (Shopify, Magento, custom).

Output Format

Category Page Brief: [category]

• Search intent & keywords — the primary head term, secondary/long-tail terms, and the intent (commercial). Note any to validate with real volume.
• Page H1 & intro copy — the H1 and a short (skimmable, keyword-aware) intro that helps shoppers and SEO — placed so it doesn't push products below the fold.
• Merchandising & default sort — what shows first (bestsellers, new, margin, seasonal) and the rule behind it; promoted/pinned products; out-of-stock handling.
• Filters & facets — the filters shoppers need (price, size, colour, brand, attribute), and which should be crawlable vs. noindex to avoid thin/duplicate pages.
• Internal linking — links to subcategories, related categories, and key products; breadcrumb structure.
• Trust & conversion elements — reviews/ratings on cards, badges, shipping/returns reassurance, a strong category image.
• SEO / technical notes — title tag & meta description, canonical strategy for filtered URLs, pagination, and structured data.
• Supporting content — an optional bottom-of-page FAQ/buying-guide block for long-tail terms.

Mark inferred keywords/inventory (confirm).

Quality Checks

• Target keyword and search intent are explicit and reflected in H1, intro, and title tag
• Intro copy serves shoppers and SEO without pushing products below the fold
• A default sort/merchandising rule is defined with its rationale
• Filter/facet strategy addresses crawlability (avoids thin/duplicate filtered pages)
• Internal linking and breadcrumbs connect the page into the catalogue
• Technical SEO (title/meta, canonical, pagination, structured data) is covered; invented data flagged

Anti-Patterns

• Do not dump a keyword-stuffed paragraph above the products — it hurts UX and rankings
• Do not let every filter combination create an indexable URL — that spawns thin/duplicate pages
• Do not default-sort by accident — choose and justify the order shoppers see first
• Do not invent search volume or inventory — flag for validation
• Do not ignore out-of-stock handling — dead-end products lose the click and the ranking

Based On

E-commerce SEO & merchandising practice — intent-driven category pages, faceted-navigation crawl control, default-sort strategy, and on-page/technical SEO.

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Design a category page."
• "Write a brief for our collection page."
• "Improve category SEO and merchandising."
• "Plan a product listing page that ranks."