Categorizing your Products

This five minute video provides an overview of IndieMade's product categorization system. Further details are below.

How Categories Work

Organize your products by using the Store Categories section at the bottom of the Store > Settings page. 

You can create an unlimited amount of product categories (e.g. "Vintage") or sub-categories (e.g. "Vintage Artwork").

Product categories will appear on your site listed as Store Sections (shown above) and as tags beneath the description of your product.

See the information below to:

• Create a Category
• Edit a Category
• Place Products into Categories
• Re-Order Categories
• Make a Category a Sub-Category
• Optimize Categories for Search Engines

Create a Category

1. In your Dashboard > Store Click the Categories in left navigation
      

3. Click the Add a New Category link.
    

4. Enter a name and description for the category, then click Save.

The new category appears at the top of the Category List.

Note: Categories only appear on your store’s page if they have products assigned to them.
 

Edit a Category

1. On your Dashboard, navigate to the Store > Settings page, and then scroll to the bottom of the page.
2. Click the Manage Product Categories link.
3. On the desired category, click the Edit link.
   This opens the Edit Product Category page for the selected category.

4. Edit product category details and then click Save.

Place Products into Categories

You can place each product into one or many categories or subcategories.

To place a product into a category, first navigate to the Store > Products page on your Dashboard and click the Edit link for the desired product.

In the Categories list box, select one or more categories. Hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard to select multiple categories.

Click Save. The product's individual page updates to show the new category assignment(s), and the product appears on your store’s page when the category is selected.
 

Reorder Categories

To change how the categories are listed on your store's page, navigate to the Store > Settings page on your dashboard and click Manage Product Categories in the Product Categories section.
Click and drag the symbol next to the desired product up or down to reorder the category.

The changes to the category order are saved automatically.

Make a Category a Subcategory

To make a category a subcategory, first navigate to the Store > Settings page on your dashboard, and click Manage Product Categories in the Product Categories section.
Click and drag thesymbol next to the desired product below and to the right of the desired parent category.

Optimize Categories for Search Engines

Use the Search Engine Optimization area to help your customers find your products.

The Page Title, Meta Keywords, and Meta Description fields help search engines such as Google and Bing to find and display your site near the top of the search results when your customers search for matching terms. For example, if your customers regularly search for “Vintage Furniture” adding “Vintage Furniture” to the Meta Keywords can help to increase your search engine ranking.

Enter information into the fields described below and click Save to enable this feature.

• Page Title - This is the title for the category. This field is mandatory.
  The title of the category appears when customers search for your products, on the title bar of the customer's browser, and when your customer bookmark’s the category page.

             Tip: Be descriptive, but concise. Keep the title to no more than 70 characters.

• Meta Keywords - Keywords to describe the products within the category.
  If a product does not have keywords assigned to it directly but keywords have been assigned to the category, the keywords appear on both the overall category page and on an individual product’s page. The product page inherits the keywords from the category.
   
• Meta Description - A description of your site that appears in search results.
  The description appears after the title in search results and provides a description of your site to potentially interested parties. If you do not enter a Meta Description, this area is automatically populated with keywords by sites like Google. Fill out this section to draw customers to your site. 

Sort Shop Sections sidebar Alphabetically

You can enable automatic alphabetical sorting for your sidebar.

To do so, in your dashboard, navigate to Store > Advanced Settings and check "Sort shop sections sidebar alphabetically."