Shop categories should be viewed as the spring board to launch all products. Some of the best print catalogues dedicate a small region on a category's introduction page to announce the products showcased within the category. The introduction is typically short, but it's job is to quickly engage its audience and to create excitement in the reader. Learn more about building effective product categories.

Text isn't the only important component on your shop category pages. Elements such as product image size, add to cart buttons, price, description, etc. all play a part in how your customers interact with your shop. Your customers can also control how the category page displays within their web browser, with Grid, List and Mini View options all available.

This section discusses those elements and how to apply them to your category pages.

Add a Product Category

Product categories are the main groups into which the products of your shop are organised. It is best to keep your category structure as simple as possible to make navigation easy for your visitors. Once created, you can edit a category at any time by clicking on the category name from within My Shop.

The information that you enter during the following detailed instructions are important to your shop’s SEO, so create this information thoughtfully; avoid rushing these steps.

To create a new shop category, carry out the following:

1. Go to My Shop.
2. Click the New Category button.
3. The General  navigation tab is opened by default. Enter details as follows: 

• Category Name: Enter a name for the category. It must be unique and not used for any other category or subcategory in your shop.
• Category Link (URL): By default what you type into the Category Name field will appear automatically as your Category Link. However, you can override this by entering a URL that perhaps better describes your category. Like your Category Name, the URL must be unique and not used for any other category or sub category in your shop. Use a hyphen '-' to separate words; you must not use spaces when creat ing this URL.
• Description: Write a short but descriptive introduction to your category.

• Category Image: Upload or select an already present image to use as a top-page banner for this category.
• Click the Images button to open the Category Images pop up window. If images are already present they will appear by clicking the View current button.
• From within the Category Images pop up window,select a category image from the available list or upload a new category image by clicking the Choose Files button before selecting an image from your computer.
• With a new image file selected, click Open; the file name of the selected image will now appear highlighted beneath the UPLOAD IMAGE list. Click Upload to upload the image to your shop.
• Once uploaded, select the image file from the list of AVAILABLE IMAGES and click Use Image.
• Delete any existing image from your website server by checking the Delete checkbox.

1. File Attachment: Upload a document such as a PDF brochure by clicking the Files button,andusing the same method described for uploading a category image above.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

1. Click the SEO navigation tab. This tab features elements that enable you to optimise your product categories for search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Although this information is treated differently by each search engine, it is good practice to complete each field 

• Meta Title: This text appears as the clickable link in a search engine’s SERPs and should therefore be written so as to be relevant to the category content, not the website as a whole. Aim to restrict to ~65 characters.
• Meta Keywords: Enter up to 30 keywords and/or short phrases specific to the new category that you are creating, not keywords that describe the website as a whole.
• Meta Description: This text typically displays beneath your Meta/Page Title within a search engine's SERP. Keep the description short and precise and specific to the shop category . Aim for a maximum character count of approximately 166 including spaces.

1. To finish without creating category-wide (global) product options, click the Save Category button to create your new shop category.
2. To create global product options for all products placed inside this category, click the Options navigation tab.

Options

Place a tick in the check-box Ignore any global options that may apply to this category to prevent any other global (shop-wide) option changes from affecting this category.

1. To create a new options group, click the + Add a New Option Group link.
2. Enter information as described in the section Focus: Product Options.
3. When finished click the Save Changes button to save your new options group/s.

Products

The Products tab page lists all products within your shop and is an opportunity to assign products across multiple categories. Check or uncheck any product/s so that the selected product/s appear within the category you are editing.

1. Check or uncheck products as required. 
2. Click Save Category to finalise.

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Add a Product Sub-Category

Sub-categories are created when product categories are divided into smaller, more specific groups. You can have up to five (5) levels of sub-categories. Sub-categories can be edited at any time.

1. Go to My Shop > Click the Cog button next to a category or subcategory that you want to add the new sub-category to. The Modify Category pop-up window will appear.
2. From the Modify Category menu, select Add a New Subcategory to this level. Click the Continue button.
3. Complete the new sub-category’s information (refer to the section Adding categories for detailed description of each field. 
4. When finished click the Save Category button.

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Editing Product Categories

Once a product category or sub-category has been created, you can update its details at any time.

1. Go to My Shop > Click the Cog button next to a category or subcategory. The Modify Category pop-up window will appear. 
2. Select Edit this category and click the Continue button.
3. Make necessary changes then click Save Category once you are done.

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Deleting Product Categories

Once a product category or sub-category has been created, you can delete it at any time. You must move or delete all products out of the category before being able to delete a category.

1. Go to My Shop > Click the Cog button next to the category or sub-category you wish to delete. The Modify Category pop-up window will appear.
2. From the Modify Category menu, select Delete this category and click the Continue button.

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Changing the order of Product Categories as they appear in your Shop

You can update the display order of your product categories and sub-categories at any time. You do this by moving categories and sub-categories up and down the navigation menu structure.

1. Go to My Shop > Click the Cog button next to the category or sub-category you wish to delete. The Modify Category pop-up window will appear.
2. From the Modify Category menu, select Change order of categories. Click the Continue button.
3. Next to each category, enter a numeric value into each Order field. The category with the lowest number will appear first. For example, 1 appears before 10. 
4. Click Save Changes when finished.

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Set Global Product Options for a single Product Category

Once a product category has been created, you can add product options that will affect every product or sub-category within the category. The advantage of this is that you don't need to edit each product’s product option/s individually.

1. Go to My Shop > Click the Cog button next to the category or sub-category you wish to delete. The Modify Category pop-up window will appear.
2. From the Modify Category menu, select Set global options for this category. Click the Continue button.
3. Enter details for the global options as detailed in the Product Options.
4. Click Save Category when finished.

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Set Global Product Options across all Product Categories

While you are able to set individual product options for all products, there are often times when one group of options needs to be applied to every single product in your shop.

Rather than editing each product individually, you can set global product options and apply them across your entire inventory.

1. Go to My Shop.
2. Click the GLOBAL OPTIONS button.
3. Enter details for the global options as detailed in Product Options.
4. Click the Save Changes button. The options will now appear for all products in your store unless you have created an exemption (ignore global options) at a product record.

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Can I add category information (files and images) into a CSV?

The CSV contains details for every product in your store. It does not contain extra information about categories such as category description, images, files, keywords and description.