No, a category page does not need a wall of text to rank; it needs enough unique, useful content to establish relevance and help shoppers, which is usually far less text than the wall-of-text habit assumes. The pivot is useful relevance, not volume. A concise intro that explains what the category covers, helpful structure, and perhaps a short buying guide does the real work, while a long SEO paragraph stuffed below the fold adds little and often nothing.
The habit of pasting a long keyword-laden block onto every category page comes from an outdated belief that more text means more ranking power. What a category page actually needs is to make clear, to both shoppers and search engines, what it is about and why it serves the query. A tight introduction that states the category’s scope and value, well-organized products, sensible filters, and maybe a brief guide to choosing among the options gives search engines genuine relevance signals and gives users something that helps them buy. That is unique, useful content, and it is what earns the ranking.
The hidden text-dump below the fold, the paragraph written for crawlers and folded out of users’ way, contributes little because it is not serving anyone. It rarely adds unique value, it often repeats boilerplate found on similar pages, and content deliberately tucked where users will not read it does not improve the experience that search engines increasingly reward. Worse, padding the page with filler can dilute the signals that matter and make the page feel thin in substance even as it grows in word count. Volume is not the lever; usefulness and distinctiveness are.
So skip the wall of text and add content that actually helps. Write a concise, specific intro for the category, organize products and filters so they are easy to navigate, and include a short buying guide only if it genuinely aids the decision. Keep what is unique and useful, cut the SEO filler, and let relevance, not length, be what the page offers search engines and shoppers alike.