Creating and managing categories

To create a new category:

1. Navigate to Products > Categories
2. Select create category and enter the details for the category (described below)

3. Use the Title/Name setting to enter the name of the category (e.g. Luxury Toys)
   • Try and use unique names for categories, they will be easier to identify on your ShopWired account and website
   • If you find yourself creating a lot of categories with the same name, it's a good indication you should be using filters instead
4. Use the Category description setting to enter a description for the category
   • Category descriptions should describe the types of products you are selling
   • They are displayed on the category's page on your website and are a great way to improve the SEO of your category pages

5. Upload an image for the category using the Image option
   • Select the image from your device's hard drive
   • Category images are displayed on your website (for example, if the category appears on your website's home page) and should represent the types of products that the category contains
   • Once you've uploaded an image, use the edit image option to edit the image in ShopWired's image editor
   • Read more about image sizes
   • The Image ALT tag setting is used to specify text for the image and is used where the image doesn't load or can't be viewed by the visitor (for example, if they are using screen reading software as a result of a visual impairment). ALT tags should concisely describe what the image displays

6. Use the Assign as a featured category setting to set the category as a featured category

7. If you are using the trade accounts feature and are configuring separate categories for trade visitors, select the Assign as a trade only category setting
   • This setting will only appear if you are using the trade accounts feature and have configured your trade settings appropriately

8. If you are creating a subcategory, select the category's parent category(s) in the Parent categories section
   • By default, you can configure up to 3 parent categories for a subcategory
   • You can specify more than 3 parent categories by changing your account settings
   • Read more about category structures here

9. ShopWired will automatically create SEO tags for the category
   • The title tag and page URL are created from the category's name, the meta description from the category description
   • You can override these automatic tags by entering your own values into the Title tag, Page URL and Meta description settings
   • ShopWired does not automatically complete the meta keywords field which is deprecated
   • Read more about SEO tags for pages here

Existing categories are shown in a table on the Categories page.

To delete a category, select the delete option. When deleting a category:

• The category is permanently removed from your ShopWired account; this is irreversible
• Any subcategories or products assigned to the category remain unchanged
• ShopWired strongly advises configuring a 301 redirect to forward visitors to a different page

You can make a category inactive by deselecting the active setting for the category.

When a category becomes inactive:

• It is not displayed in your website's category menus
• When the category is a subcategory, it will not be displayed when viewing the category's parent category page
• The category page can still be viewed on your website by visiting the page's URL
• The category page will not be removed from search engine results
• The category page will not be included in your website's sitemap.xml file

The order in which categories appear on your website is determined by the category's sort order. The sort order of categories affects the order in which categories appear:

• In your website's category menus
• Where the category is a subcategory, when viewing the category's parent category page
• Where the category appears as part of a content block such as featured categories or an embedded categories section

Important notes about category sort orders:

• Sort orders are set by entering a sort order number
• A category with a lower sort order appears above a higher sort order
• Where categories don't have a sort order, they are sorted in alphabetical order
• Where categories share the same sort order, they are sorted in alphabetical order

To configure a sort order for a category:

1. Navigate to Products > Categories
2. Locate the category in the table
3. Use the Sort order column and select the existing sort order (or the + icon)
4. Configure the new sort order and click out of the setting
   • The new sort order will be automatically saved when you click outside the setting

You can set sort orders on categories using the category import/export system using the Sort Order column. Only enter numbers in this field.

Leave the cell blank to not set a sort order.