Ch. 048 Adding Categories to your sites

Categories

A category is essentially a folder that can contain products on your site. Categories allow you to organize your products into a structure based on the types of products that you will have available on your site. Categories are available on B2C and B2B sites, but are not included on Informational sites.


About Category "Pages"

When you create a category on your site, it will be available as a page at the URL address for the category.

For example, on a site with a category of "books" and a sub-category of "digital-text-books" either category will be available in the browser by adding the category name to the site address plus "/category/" as shown on the two dummy example addresses below.

The Pressero site also has functionality for adding Pages to the site. But categories essentially have a page they are available at because they can be loaded at their unique URL as shown above. For more information on pages please see the article Ch. 043. Creating Pages in Your Sites.

Customizing Category "Pages"

When going to a category "page", any information such as styled text and links shown in the Long Description for that category will display at the top of the category "page". This way you can customize what text, images and relative or external links are shown on the category "page". The overall design and structure of the site comes from the skin that the site uses, but the Long Description for the category "page " allows for limited customization of what is shown to the user when they are visiting the category on the site.

The Root Category

Each site has a single Root Category when the site is first created. You can edit a category by clicking the pencil icon to the left of the category name.


The root category will have tabs for General Information, Long Description and Short Description.

The General Information for a category has options for the name of the category, the Parent Category of the category being edited, and the URL of the category. Note that you will not be able to change the Parent Category or the URL for the root category itself, those settings will be customizable for any additional categories you create.


The Long Description for a category can be customized using the controls for text entry and formatting found on that tab. Text and images can be added styled and linked using the controls on this window.

Default Root Category Text

Note that the root category by default contains the text "--- This text is edited in Sites > Categories > Root ---" that you will want to remove or change for your site, by editing the Long Description for the root category.


The text from the Long Description is shown by default on the home page for a new site. This is because a new site by default uses the Home Page URL setting of "Default (Use plan selected at site level" which shows the root category at the top on the home page of the new site. The default text comes from the root category long description.


Notes about the Home Page URL site setting

The Home Page URL can be set to use a specific category or even a custom page created under Pages on your site. The default setting will show any categories on the site that exist as children of the parent root category first, then followed by any products that exist under the root category. 


Assigning products to categories is done under Catalog Organization for the site after you have created the categories that the products will be assigned to. Note that products must be assigned to a category using Catalog Organization functionality before those products will be visible on the site.

Adding Categories

As you setup your site, additional categories can be added to a site under the root category to provide structure to the products offered on the site, and to make browsing the products easier. You will want to at least create some categories for your products before you create the products themselves.

Click the Add New button on the Catalog > Categories window to add a new category to a site. A site can have an unlimited number of categories.


Categories can also be added within other existing categories as sub-categories using the Parent Category setting on the General Information tab for the category being created or edited.


For example, you may want to have a Business Cards category to hold all the business card products. You might then create categories for the different types of business card products that will be offered, and use the Parent Category setting to assign those categories to the Business Cards category as the parent.
 

Additional Settings for Added Categories

Any categories added to a site will have tabs for General Information, Long Description, Short Description, SEO and Artwork. Note that the SEO tab will show for any added categories, but is really only relevant to B2C sites. B2B sites require a login to view any content, so the SEO tab is not as useful for B2B sites as it is for B2C sites.

General Information

Category Name
Give the category a unique name. You can not have two categories with the same name in the same site, the category names must be unique.  The maximum number of characters that can be used in category name is 80.
 
URL Name 
This provides a URL for the category (a unique address that your category page can be found on) Example: A category with a category name of "My Category" and a URL Name of "mycategory" will have a URL of http://www.mywebsite.com/categories/mhycategory. The URL Name for a category must be unique within a site.

Parent Category
Select another category to be the Parent Category if the category you are creating is intended to be a sub-category. When storefront visitors click the Parent Category, they will see any subcategories and any products assigned to the Parent Category. Categories and sub-categories can be added to the menus for sites, please see the article on Setting Navigation for Your Sites for more information..
 
Long Description
 Just like the long description for the Root category explained earlier, the long description will appear above the products on this category page. You can enter text, images, links, tables, etc. in the text editor. Click here to download a PDF on using the text editor.

 
Short Description
The short description should be a short description of the category. This description will appear if, for example, the category page is changed to display the category contents as a list.


Simple HTML tags can be added to the category short description, as shown with the bolded text styling tags in the screenshot above.

 

SEO

If you would like to specify unique SEO information for this category, enter it here. If you leave it blank, the default settings you set up in the site-level Settings > SEO/HTML will be used. Note that the SEO tab will show for any added categories, but is really only relevant to B2C sites. B2B sites require a login to view any content, so the SEO tab is not as useful for B2B sites as it is for B2C sites,
  • Page Title - To override the title of the page, enter the information here
  • Author - This feature lets you define the author of pages by inserting a meta tag in the head of the page.
  • Content Language - The language attribute tells search engines what natural language the website is written in (e.g. English, Urdu or French)
  • Robots - The robots attribute, supported by several major search engines, controls whether search engine spiders are allowed to index a page, or not, and whether they should follow links from a page, or not (e.g. noindex, nofollow).
  • Copyright - The copyright META tag defines any copyright statements you wish to disclose about your webpage documents.
  • Revisit After - The Revisit META tag defines hw often a search engine or spider should come to your website for re-indexing (e.g. 1 Days, 10 days). 
  • Description - The description attribute provides a concise explanation of a web page's content.
  • Keywords - Provide keywords pertaining to the sites content.
While Pressero provides the functionality you need for good SEO data, we are not SEO experts and do not give advice on what information should be entered into these areas. You should refer to the many helpful resources for SEO or consult an SEO expert. We do have helpful information in our support portal and occasionally we also have webinars on the subject to help you.  

Artwork

Upload Category Image (*.png,*.jpg, *.gif, *.bmp) - upload or replace an image for this category. This will appear as an icon on the category page. Allowed file types are *.png,*.jpg, *.gif, *.bmp but .png is preferred since transparancy is supported. Please note that animated .gif files are not supported and will not animate for category artwork.

Category images should be at least 300px on each side for any uploaded artwork. Pressero will automatically create and use different image sizes within the storefront. If you don't load your own artwork for a Category, a default diskette-like image will display.

Deleting and Undeleting Categories

When you edit a category, there will be a button at the lower-right to Delete the category. Note that to delete a category it must have no products assigned to it under Catalog Organization

A deleted category is not gone, but is essentially deactivated. To undelete a category check the box for Include Deleted at the top-right of the categories page. Any deleted categories will be shown with a red strike-through on the category details. You can edit and then Save a deleted/inactive category to make it active again.


 
Can I center the product and category names below the product or category image on my site?
Can I show pricing on the category page listings for products? What can be shown from the product on the category page listing?
Home Page URL Ends With “/category”. Can I Change That?
How do I add a link to download a file on a product, category or page on my site?
Is there a way the category folder appear when you select assets instead of the files?
On the category pages for my site, there is a Sort By dropdown control at the upper-right of the products listing. Why does it sometimes show options for sorting by highest or lowest price?
What is the character limit for a category name?
Home Page Does Not Display My Categories
Can I change the order of my products and categories on my site?
Home Page Does Not Display Anything in the Center “Body” Area
New Categories (or Products) Wont Save
Is there a way to restrict a group of users on one site to only see Products assigned to a particular category?
How many products are displayed per page?