The decision this protects
Which two or three categories receive the SEO work this cycle, and why every other category waits. The score does not make the decision for you; it makes the decision explainable, repeatable when someone challenges it in month four, and reversible on a stated date instead of never.
Before you start
- The full category list, from the store’s own navigation, not from memory.
- Search volume for each category’s head terms, from a keyword tool, with the source and pull date noted.
- Gross margin by category from whoever owns the numbers, even as bands.
- The current ranking picture from Search Console, showing which categories rank anywhere today.
- A fulfilment reality check from operations covering stock depth, lead times and return rates.
Stated limits
- The sheet compares categories inside one store. It does not say whether the store should do SEO at all, or whether the budget is enough to move even two categories.
- Demand figures are tool estimates and margin bands are approximations; the sheet ranks, it does not forecast revenue.
- Weights encode strategy. Two people with different weights will get different winners from the same data, which is the point of writing the weights down.
1. The category roster
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Name and URL | One row per category the store actually operates |
| Head terms | The 3 to 5 queries a buyer uses | The demand and competition columns are measured against these |
| Monthly demand | Combined volume of the head terms, with source and date | The ceiling on what ranking here can ever return |
| Demand trend | Rising, flat, falling, seasonal, from the tool’s 12-month view | A falling category can score well today and be a mistake by launch |
Judgment prompt: Are any two rows really the same buying intent split across two category pages, and should they be scored, and later targeted, as one?
2. Money
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin band | High, medium, low, with the band defined in rupees or percent | Traffic to a thin-margin category is expensive decoration |
| Average order value | From store data | Ties the demand ceiling to money |
| Repeat purchase | One-off, occasional, repeating | A repeating category compounds; a one-off category has to win every customer twice |
Judgment prompt: If this category doubled its organic traffic, would anyone see it in the monthly accounts?
3. Competition
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Who ranks now | The domains holding positions 1 to 5 for the head terms | Names, because “high competition” is a feeling and a list of five domains is a fact |
| Beatable | Yes, maybe, no, with one line of reasoning each | Marketplaces and national brands in every slot means the head terms are closed and the category competes on longer queries |
| Long-tail room | Whether specific, answerable queries exist below the head terms | A category can be closed at the top and open underneath |
Judgment prompt: For the “no” rows, is there a variant of the category you can own instead of the category itself?
4. Current position
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Existing rankings | Queries and positions from Search Console | Momentum is cheaper than a cold start |
| Existing revenue | Organic-attributed sales for the category | A category already earning proves the path works |
| Index health | Are the category and its products indexed cleanly | A category with crawl problems pays a tax on every other score |
Judgment prompt: Does any category already sit at positions 5 to 15 for real terms, where the same work buys more movement?
5. Fulfilment risk
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Stock depth | Can the category absorb doubled demand | Ranking a category you cannot ship converts SEO into refund handling |
| Lead time | Days from order to dispatch | Long lead times raise returns and kill repeat purchase |
| Return rate | From operations | A high-return category loses margin exactly when volume arrives |
Judgment prompt: Has operations actually been asked, or is this column optimism?
6. Readiness
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Content assets | Photos, specs, size guides, copy, each marked present or missing | Missing assets add weeks before the first page can ship |
| Internal linking position | Clicks from the homepage to the category | A category buried five clicks deep starts with a handicap |
| Template quality | Does the category page template have the elements to rank | Fixing a template once helps every category on it; note which rows share templates |
Judgment prompt: Which categories become cheap to add later because a chosen category fixes their shared template now?
7. Score and choose
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Weights | A weight per section, totalling 100, agreed before scoring | The weights are the strategy; changing them after seeing scores is deciding by mood with extra steps |
| Score per category | Each section rated 1 to 5, multiplied by weights | Mechanical from here |
| Chosen categories | The top two or three | The work list |
| Waiting list with reasons | One written line per unchosen category | The line you read out when its advocate asks |
| Review date | A date, one or two quarters out | Turns “no” into “not yet”, which is easier to hold |
Judgment prompt: Does the ranked list surprise anyone who knows the business, and if so, is the surprise an insight or a wrong weight?
The defensible output
One paragraph: “We are working on [categories] because [demand, margin and winnability in a sentence each]. Every other category waits, each with a written reason, until [review date], when this sheet is re-scored with fresh data.” Attach the scored table with its weights, so the decision can be checked, challenged and re-run rather than re-argued.
Where I could be wrong
The sheet assumes concentration beats spreading, which holds when the budget is small relative to the catalogue and fails when the store’s categories are so interlinked that template-level work moves everything at once; in that case the readiness section’s template rows matter more than the whole scoring exercise.
It also weighs measurable things, and the strongest reason to pick a category is sometimes unmeasurable: the founder can write about one category with an authority no agency can fake. If that category loses on points, consider whether the weights are measuring the wrong contest.
Sources
- Google Search Central, SEO starter guide
- Google Search Central, ecommerce site structure
- Search Console Help, performance report