Product catalogue: why every product needs its own page

Customers rarely search for "sheet metal works" or "manufacturing". They search for a snow guard, a chimney flashing, one product by name. That is why every product you sell needs its own page with its own URL — it is the only way Google can show it as the answer to that search, and the only way a customer can send it to someone as a link. On the redesign for Limgalant Civić, a sheet-metal works in Cazin, that was the main job: a catalogue of 14 products, each on its own page.

Why a single "Products" page does not do the job

When all 14 products sit on one page, that page has one title and one URL. Google can only read one topic from it, and if that topic is called "Products", you are not competing for a single term a customer actually types.

The other half of the problem is human. Someone looking for a snow guard does not want to scroll past rainwater systems. And when a customer asks about that one product, you cannot send a link — you can send a link to the page and say "scroll halfway down".

What we built for Limgalant

Limgalant Civić has made architectural sheet metal in Cazin for over a hundred years, across four generations. Their existing site covered services, but showed no products anywhere — and products are exactly what customers search for by name.

The redesign delivered:

• A catalogue of 14 products across four categories: rainwater systems, flashings and drip edges, snow guards, and made to measure.
• A separate page, with its own URL, for every product.
• Service pages: laser cutting, bending, and powder coating in RAL colours.
• A quote request form based on measurements, because sheet metal is not sold by the piece off a shelf.
• Structured data (LocalBusiness and BreadcrumbList) — the data Google reads to understand who the company is and where a product sits in the catalogue.

The full project is written up on its case study page.

A catalogue kept apart from the code

The most important decision on that project was not a design one. I kept the catalogue content separate from the site's code, which means a new product is added as a content entry rather than as a change to the site.

That sounds technical, but for an owner the difference is simple: when you start making a new profile or a new colour next year, it is not another job for a developer. A company that sells products adds products constantly. If each one needs a developer, your catalogue freezes at whatever was true on launch day.

Who needs this, and who does not

You need it if:

• you sell named products that customers search for by name — sheet metal, joinery, a plant nursery, car parts, equipment;
• customers ask about dimensions, colours or variants before they ask about price;
• you want to be able to send a link to one product rather than the whole catalogue.

You do not need it if you offer a handful of services that do not come in models — a hairdresser, a café, a videographer. There, a page per service works better than a page per product, and it is a smaller job.

What next

If you have products that exist nowhere as a page, get in touch — send me your product list and I will tell you how many of them are worth putting in a catalogue and what it would cost. A website with me starts at 800 KM, and the review is free.

Frequently asked

How many products is too many for a catalogue? There is no upper limit, but it makes sense to start with the ones customers actually search for by name. Fifteen well-described products are worth more than a hundred empty pages with one photo each.

Can I add products myself later? Yes, if the catalogue is kept apart from the code from the start — that is how Limgalant's was built. We agree up front whether you will add them yourself or I will, because it changes how the site is built.