Catalogue Analysis

Welcome to the Catalogue Analysis tool! This powerful feature provide in-depth insights about your website's structure, content, and potential e-commerce capabilities based on its sitemap. Here's how to use them:

Understanding the Analysis Tools

These tools offer a comprehensive look at how your website is structured, its SEO performance, and potential areas for improvement. They examine:

• Website Organisation: How your content or products are categorised and structured.
• User and Search Engine Navigation: How easily users and search engines can find information or products.
• SEO Performance: Insights into how well your site is optimised for search engines.
• Improvement Opportunities: Areas where you can enhance your site's structure and content.
• E-commerce Potential: For the Catalogue Analysis, it also evaluates if your site has e-commerce capabilities and provides relevant insights.

A well-organised site improves user experience and helps search engines index your content more effectively, potentially boosting your search rankings.

Accessing the Analysis Tools

1. Navigate to the Sitemap Explorer page on your website.
2. Select a sitemap from the list provided.
3. Look for the "Analyse Catalogue" button on the page.

Running an Analysis

1. Ensure you have selected the sitemap you wish to analyse.
2. Click the "Analyse Catalogue" button to start the process.
3. Wait while the system processes the sitemap data. This may take a few moments, especially for larger websites.

Understanding the Analysis Process

The tools work in several steps:

1. They retrieve the selected sitemap data.
2. If a sitemap index is found, they process all individual sitemaps listed in the index.
3. The tools then analyse the compiled sitemap data.
4. Finally, they present the insights in a formatted, easy-to-read report.

Interpreting the Results

Catalogue Analysis Results

The Catalogue Analysis report focuses on e-commerce aspects (if applicable) and includes:

1. Business Context Inference: Identifies the type of business and market niche.
2. Catalogue Structure: Examines the organisation of the product catalog.
3. Category Distribution: Evaluates the distribution of products across categories.
4. SEO Considerations: Assesses SEO-friendliness of URLs and overall structure.
5. User Experience: Analyses how the structure impacts navigation and product findability.
6. Industry Comparison: Compares the site's structure to e-commerce best practices.
7. Growth and Scalability: Evaluates if the structure can support catalog growth.
8. Recommendations: Provides actionable suggestions for improvement.

If the site is not e-commerce, the analysis adjusts to focus on content organisation, SEO, and user experience for the specific type of site detected.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Analysis

• Run analyses regularly to track changes in your site structure over time.
• Compare analysis results before and after making major changes to your website.
• Pay special attention to the "Recommendations" section for actionable insights.
• For e-commerce sites, use the Catalogue Analysis to optimise your product organisation and SEO strategy.
• Remember that while comprehensive, these analyses are based solely on sitemap data. For a full picture, combine these insights with other SEO tools and analytics.

Troubleshooting

• If the analysis fails, ensure your selected sitemap is accessible.
• For very large websites, the analysis might take longer. Be patient and allow the process to complete.
• If you encounter persistent issues, check your internet connection or try again later.

Remember, these tools are designed to give you an overview of a website's structure and content. They're great for understanding content organisation, identifying SEO opportunities, and analysing competitors. Always respect the website's terms of service and robots.txt file when using this information.

The Catalogue Analysis tool is most powerful when used as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy. Use these insights to guide your decisions, but also consider other factors like user experience, content quality, and broader SEO best practices.