Managing blog categories

Use blog categories to group related posts, such as Store stories, Guides, or Announcements. Create the category first, then select it in each post's settings. A post can belong to more than one category.

Categories organize blog posts. Product collections and product categories are managed separately.

Open and find categories

1. Sign in as the owner or with Blogs access.
2. Open Blog posts under Contents, then click Manage categories. You can also open Blog Categories directly in the admin.
3. When categories exist, use Search categories to search by title or handle.
4. Use Add filter to narrow by Status, Items, Created, or Updated. Status offers Active and Draft.
5. Use Sort to arrange categories by Title, Items, Created, or Updated. Open a category row to edit it.

This is the actual empty demo list. Select any image to enlarge it.

For a populated list, the columns are Category Name, Handle, and Items. Items counts associated posts, including posts that are not published. It is not a count of posts currently visible to shoppers. Use the page controls to reach additional results; row selections apply to the current page.

Create a category

1. Click Create category.
2. In Category details, enter a Title, such as Store stories. A title is required.
3. Optionally add a Description. Use the editor toolbar to format it or add links.
4. Review Status. New categories start as Active. You can choose Draft while organizing the category.
5. Review the Search engine listing preview, including its title, description, and category handle.
6. Click Add. The saved category opens for further editing.

This example is unsaved. Creating a category does not automatically assign any posts to it; add them through their post settings.

Add or remove posts

1. Save the category so it is available to select.
2. Return to Blog posts and open a post, or start with Create post.
3. In the editor's Post settings sidebar, find Organization → Categories.
4. Search for and select the required category. You can select several categories for the same post.
5. Click the post editor's Save action.
6. Return to Blog Categories to review the category's Items count.

To remove a post from a category, remove that category from the post's Categories selection and save the post. The post and category remain available; only their association changes.

The category editor has no post picker. Make membership changes in each post's settings. Categories and Tags are separate fields under Organization, so adding a tag does not assign a category.

Edit category details and search listings

Open the category from the list, change its title, description, or status, then click Save. Save becomes available when the form has changes. Discard restores the form's saved values.

Under Search engine listing preview, click the pencil button, Edit page SEO, to show:

• Page title: the search-listing title, up to 70 characters in the form.
• Page description: the search-listing description, up to 320 characters in the form.
• URL handle: the category's URL ending under /blog/category/.

The preview initially follows the category title and plain-text description. Editing a search field gives it its own value. Review existing search text after renaming or rewriting a category; previously saved text can remain unchanged. A search preview does not guarantee the exact wording a search engine will display.

On a new category, the handle follows the title until you edit it manually. Renaming an existing category keeps its saved handle. Handles use URL-friendly text, and a handle already used by another category can receive a numeric suffix when saved. Reopen the saved category to check the final handle before sharing its link.

The way a category description and its posts appear depends on the storefront theme. A nonzero Items count does not guarantee visible posts: review each post's Published status, its category assignment, and the saved category URL.

Delete an unused category

Categories with associated posts cannot be deleted. This includes posts that are Draft or Archived, so hiding a post alone does not make its category empty.

1. Open every post assigned to the category.
2. Remove the category from each post's Categories selection and save each post. Assign a replacement category if needed.
3. Return to Blog Categories and confirm Items is 0.
4. Open the category's Row actions menu and choose Delete, or open its editor and choose Delete from the header actions menu.
5. Review the category name in the confirmation, then confirm Delete when ready.

For several empty categories, select their rows on the current list page and use Delete in the selection controls. Review the selected count before confirming. If some categories cannot be removed, check the error and refresh the list; other selected categories may already have been deleted.

Troubleshooting