How Decathlon scales long-tail SEO without losing control – MVP Podcast highlights
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Decathlon, one of Europe’s leading e-commerce retailers, recently revealed its strategy for scaling long-tail SEO during the MVP Podcast. Loïc Hélias, SEO Leader at Decathlon, shared how the retailer uses Verbolia’s Vpage to scale efficiently without compromising on quality or control. Here’s what we learned.
The MVP Podcast, hosted by French SEO experts Paul Vengeons and Antoine Veyrieres, features insights from top SEO leaders. In a recent episode, Loïc Hélias joined to break down Decathlon’s approach to scaling SEO, and why Verbolia is a key part of their stack.
Scaling SEO with listing pages
When does Decathlon open a new listing page?
When is it worth creating a product listing page for SEO? That’s the question asked during the MVP Podcast to Loïc Hélias, Leader SEO at Decathlon.
Loïc shared a simple but powerful rule: a listing page needs at least four products to be worth opening.
Why four? That’s the minimum to fill one full visual row (or “floor”) and anything less risks being ignored by Google or harming crawl efficiency.
“I say four products because it’s a complete visual line. Below that, Google just doesn’t want the page.”
— Loïc Hélias, SEO Leader at Decathlon
How does Decathlon publish listing pages?
“We use Verbolia solution” answers Loïc Hélias when asked whether Decathlon relies on an in-house tool or an external partner to publish its listing pages. Decathlon uses Verbolia’s Vpage solution to publish SEO-optimized product listing pages at scale.
Loïc explains the concept of automated listing page publication at Decathlon. They use Vpage to identify thousands of listing page opportunities and publish them with a controlled, human-led process. This is exactly what Vpage is making for:
- Identify at scale thousands of potential keyword opportunities
- Build the page at scale in a few clicks
- Allow SEO team to save time in this process to focus on reviewing the page
- Publish at scale the listing pages in a few clicks
Vpage helps large e-commerce sites identify thousands of long-tail keyword opportunities and automatically build matching listing pages. The tool uses intelligent matching to select the most relevant products for each keyword, ensuring user and SEO relevance.
Verbolia enables Decathlon to:
- Identify thousands of long-tail keyword opportunities
- Generate listing pages quickly
- Review and validate them manually
- Publish pages in a few clicks at scale
How does Decathlon ensure each listing page has enough products?
Stocks shift. Seasonality hits. Products come and go. So how do you ensure every listing page stays relevant when you’re managing over 20,000 product listing pages, like Decathlon?
To avoid thin or empty listing pages, Decathlon uses Verbolia’s built-in rules to manage pages at scale:
- If a listing page has fewer than X products, it is redirected to a semantically close page with a 302 redirection.
- If the product returns, the page reactivates automatically with a 200 status.
Redirection rule available in Vpage.
This system allows Decathlon to:
- Avoid thin or empty pages live on the site.
- Avoid managing unnecessary redirects manually.
- Keep its site clean and user-friendly.
Cross-listing control
One key insight: Decathlon limits each product to 3-4 categories maximum, avoiding excessive cross-listing and ensuring users find relevant listings without diluting product focus.
Using Verbolia for agile, low-risk SEO testing
“When a Verbolia page performs exceptionally, we evaluate integrating it into our main site navigation” explains Loïc Helias. Think of Vpage as a SEO A/B testing ground. If a page drives consistent organic traffic, Decathlon promotes it into the site’s primary architecture for maximum visibility.
“Verbolia gives us technical agility we sometimes can’t achieve internally. It’s become a playground for us to test, learn, and scale what works without risking our main architecture.”
— Loïc Helias, Leader SEO, Decathlon
Vpage, the long-tail SEO platform trusted by Decathlon
Decathlon has been using Vpage for 4 years now.
“We’ve worked with Verbolia for four years now, and we’ve helped them grow the product. They’re incredibly receptive, and with the tool, we never open a page without human review.”
— Loïc Helias, Leader SEO, Decathlon
Verbolia enables Decathlon to:
- Scale long-tail SEO efficiently.
- Maintain human oversight on quality and brand safety.
- Test pages dynamically without heavy IT dependency.
- Integrate high-performing pages into core navigation for permanent wins.
As Loïc shared: “Verbolia is a solution we trust fully at Decathlon. It’s allowed us to scale our SEO intelligently while staying in control.”
From France to group-level success
Decathlon began using Verbolia in France in 2021. Since then, they’ve rolled it out to eight additional countries across the group.
Want to learn more? Check out their story:
Key takeaways for e-commerce SEO leader from Decathlon, Loïc Helias
- Minimum viable product count: At least 4 products per listing page.
- Use automated rules + human validation for scalable, safe SEO.
- Leverage tools like Verbolia for agile testing without sacrificing structure.
- Expand based on clear, data-driven opportunities, not blindly.
About The Author
How can Verbolia help your e-commerce platform.
