An example of a category directory

Below is an example category directory, displayed using the Atahualpa theme for WordPress.

The above category directory does the following for a store traffic site:

It provides quick navigation between category showcases

It also provides some information about each category.

It provides links to categories on your store which you have not created showcases for

This can be useful when you have a large number of categories and do not want to take the time to create showcases for them all while building your site.

It can also bring in occasional customers via search traffic.

Creating your own Category Directory

To create a category directory like the one above, you will need the following:

• A WordPress site
  • See my store traffic website page for details.
• (optional) The Atahualpa Theme (version 3.2)

Note: These instructions do not work with newer versions of Atahualpa due to changes in the theme.

Setting up your Category Directory Page

Before you create a category directory page, you should decide where you want it to show up on menus.

I recommend placing it in one of four ways:

Use it as the top level page which all category showcases are children of.

This is especially effective when you have a lot of categories on a well structured store.

I recommend using one of your site keywords to name the directory if you go this route.

Place your main category showcases as top level pages and additional category showcases as children of your directory page.

This works well for stores with a large number of categories that are not necessarily related to each other.

Create multiple category directories with a few category showcases under each one

This works well if you sell items which group nicely into related categories.

For example, cat related items, computer hardware, and clothing.

Don’t use a category directory at all

If you have only a couple of types of things you sell and they are not related to each other, I would skip this and simply create each category showcase as a top level page.

Once you have decided on where to place your category directory (or if you want one at all), you will then need to create the page.

Step 1: Add CSS entries to your site

The category directory above uses a single CSS setting to take care of look and placement of each category displayed.

You may want to add more css entries for finer display control.

Add the below stylesheet information to your site

• Atahualpa Instructions:

Copy the contents of the box below

Click in the box

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Login to your wordpress site

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "HTML/CSS Inserts" from the theme options at the top

Paste the copied code into the end of the CSS Inserts box

Scroll down to the end of the CSS Inserts Box

Click at the end of the last line

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Select "Save Your Changes" from the bottom of the screen

• For most other themes, copy the contents into your style.css file.

.pws-cat-list tr td {
    vertical-align: top;
}

Step 2: Create your new Category Directory Page

To create a category directory page like that shown at the top of this page, use the following code snippet for the body and edit it to suit your tastes.

INTRODUCTORY BLURB
<table class="pws-cat-list">
<!-- start individual category description -->
<tr>
<td>

<b><a hef="CATEGORY-LINK" title="CAT-LINK-DESC">CATEGORY X TITLE</a></b>
	CATEGORY X PARAGRAPH
</td>
</tr>

<!-- end individual category description -->
<tr>
<td>

<b><a hef="CATEGORY-LINK" title="CAT-LINK-DESC">CATEGORY X TITLE</a></b>
	CATEGORY X PARAGRAPH
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<b><a hef="CATEGORY-LINK" title="CAT-LINK-DESC">CATEGORY X TITLE</a></b>
	CATEGORY X PARAGRAPH
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Create a new Page in WordPress

Log into WordPress

Select "Pages"Add New" from the admin menu

This will bring up the new page dialogue.

Enter the name you want for your category directory page

If possible the name should use a site or category keyword.

Copy the above text into the body of your new page

Click in the box above which contains the page pieces

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Click in the body of your new page

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Set the page order and parent if wanted

Fill in Description and Keywords for Platinum SEO Pack if installed

Select Save Draft

Edit the page contents for your site

Edit DIRECTORY BLURB

This should provide descriptive introduction to the store categories and category showcases that you are going to list in your directory.

Add your categories

You can have as many or as few category showcases and store categories displayed as you want.

To add more category showcases or store categories, copy one section and add it before the </table> tag.

• A section consists of the 6 lines located between the <!– –> lines.

To list a category showcase or directory:

Edit CATEGORY-LINK

This should be changed to the URL of the category showcase or store category you want to link to.

Find the URL for the category you want to link to

Visit the page you want to link to.

Look for the box containing http://… located at the top of the browser.

Copy the URL

Click in the box containing the URL

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu.

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu.

Paste the URL between the quotes after href=

Place your cursor between the quotes

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu.

Edit CATEGORY X TITLE

This should be a descriptive name of the category you want listed.

It will be used as a link to your store category or category showcase.

Edit CAT-LINK-DESC

This gives a description to the link.

It is normally shown when someone places their mouse over the link.

Edit CATEGORY X PARAGRAPH

This should contain a short description of the category you are linking to.

Repeat this process for each category you want to link.

Set extra information for the category directory

If using Platinum SEO, enter your meta description and meta keywords

Note whether you want to allow comments or not ( I recommend not )

Specify any parent page if necessary

Specify a menu order if you are manually ordering your pages

Save your changes as a draft

You could just publish it, but I recommend always looking at new posts and pages before actually publishing them.

Publish your category directory

Once you are satisfied with the look, publish it.

An example of a category showcase

Below is an example category showcase built for the Atahualpa 3.2 WordPress theme.

The above category showcase does the following for a store traffic site:

It provides a general page for driving traffic related to roleplaying games

It has sections for information relevant to potential customers:

• Reasons to buy from you
• Links to news and resources published on site which are updated automatically as you create new content.
• A quick selection of subcategories for those interested in particular roleplaying items or systems
• A list of recently added roleplaying games which is generated automatically from the most recent product showcases published on site.
• A store widget to showcase a couple of specific products

Creating your own Category Showcase

To create a category showcase like the one above, you will need the following:

• A WordPress site
  • See my store traffic website page for details.
• The Recent Posts plugin for WordPress
• The Post Plugin Library for WordPress

Note:
See Setting up new plugins in WordPress for help with installation.

Step 1: Setting up the Recent Posts Plugin

The Recent Posts plugin needs to be configured to allow output in content.

Log into WordPress

Select "Settings" → "Recent Posts"

This will bring you to the recent posts setting screen.

Select "Placement" from the top menu

This will bring up the recent posts Placement Settings screen

Set "Output in content:" to "Yes"

This lets you place special tags in posts and pages to display recent posts.

Select "Save Placement Settings"

This will save your settings

Step 2: Add CSS entries to your site

The category above uses a few CSS settings to take care of placement.

You may want to add more for finer display control.

Add the below stylesheet information to your site

• Atahualpa version 3.2 Instructions:

Copy the contents of the box below

Click in the box

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Login to your wordpress site

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "HTML/CSS Inserts" from the theme options at the top

Paste the copied code into the end of the CSS Inserts box

Scroll down to the end of the CSS Inserts Box

Click at the end of the last line

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Select "Save Your Changes" from the bottom of the screen

• For most other themes, copy the contents into your style.css file.

.pws-cat-list tr td {
    vertical-align: top;
}
.pws-cat-show tr td {
    vertical-align: top;
}

Step 3: Update Atahualpa Theme Options

Disable the right sidebar on "Page" pages

To do so:

• Log into WordPress.
• Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options".
• Select "Sidebars" under the Atahualpa Theme Options header.
• In the "Right Sidebar: Display on" section, uncheck "Page pages"
• Save your changes

Step 4: Create your new Category Showcase Page

To create a category page like that shown at the top of this page, use the following code snippet for the body and edit it to suit your tastes.

 CATEGORY BLURB 
<table class="pws-cat-show">
<tr>
<td width="50%">
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<th>Why buy from us?</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

REASON-AND-INCENTIVE-INFO
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>News and Resources</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
  <!--RecentPosts limit=5&tag_str=*********************-->
 </td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td>
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<th>Our store categories</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>RECENTLY_ADDED_CAT_NAME_HERE</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><!--RecentPosts limit=5&included_cats=**^**^**^**^**^**^**--></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<center>


WIDGET_HERE


</center>

Create a new Page in WordPress

Log into WordPress

Select "Pages"Add New" from the admin menu

This will bring up the new page dialogue.

Enter the name you want for your category showcase page

This should be the primary keyword for your category.

Copy the below text into the body of your new page

Click in the box below

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Click in the body of your new page

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Set the page order and parent if wanted

Fill in Description and Keywords for Platinum SEO Pack if installed

Select Save Draft

Edit the page contents for your site

Edit CATERGORY BLURB

This should provide descriptive information about your category.

Edit REASON-AND-INCENTIVE-INFO

This should offer information on why buying from you is a good thing

Edit tag_str=***************

The *********** should be changed to a list of tags seperated by commas.

Posts with the tags listed here will automatically show up in the News and Resources box on the page.

For example, tag_str=books,fiction,adventure

Enter links to related store categories

These should be links directly to categories in your store.

Replace URL_HERE with the URL to your store category

Visit your store category in a different browser window or tab

Click in the box at the top where you see http://….

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Back in your wordpress editor, delete the URL_HERE you want to replace

Place your cursor between the quotes after href=

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Replace LINK_NAME with the name you want for the link

This should be your primary keyword for the linked category.

Repeat for each category link you want to display

Remove any extra list item lines

To add more links copy a line and edit it.

Edit RECENTLY_ADDED_CAT_NAME_HERE

Something like "Newly added whatevers"

Set categories to have recent posts displayed for

Delete the **^**^**^**^**^**^** after included_cats=

Enter the IDs post categories you want to display here

Finding post category IDs

In a new window, go to your wordpress admin panel

Select "Posts" → "Categories" from the menu

Click the category you are interested in

In your browsers URL line, find cat_ID=#

That number is the ID for the category you selected.

Multiple IDs can be specified by seperating them with commas

Edit WIDGET-HERE

If you don’t want a widget, just delete everything after the last </table> tag

If you do want a widget:

Delete the WIDGET-HERE text

Copy a widget into the area it was in

See Bonanzle Widget Instructions

Select Save Draft

Select Preview to view your showcase

Make sure that everything looks ok

Test the links out to ensure they work

When you are satisfied that everything looks good, publish your new page.

Creating a Template for Future Category Showcases

Now that you have your first category showcase created, you might want to go ahead and create a template for it.

Read how to create templates for faster wordpress posting for full instructions on how to make a template for your category pages.

Note: As of WordPress 2.8, template creation is more difficult than it was because you can no longer edit templates with the plugin I use…but it still works just fine.

For the purpose of buiding a site to drive traffic to an online store, we will be using them to do the following:

• Provide a navigation panel on one of your sidebars.
• Provide easy links for jumping to similar products and articles on your site.
• Provide a means for automatically listing related items in category showcases.

If you haven’t done keyword research for your post categories, be sure to do so before you create them…though changing them later isn’t typically too painful.

Organizing your post categories

For post categories, I recommend using the following structure:

• News and Updates
• Products
  • Category One
  • Category Two
  • …
  • Category N
• Other post categories

In the above, you can use any name for News and Updates. The idea for the category is to provide information concerning your site, general information about your store, and other such things.

Products can be named whatever you wish. For tightly focused theme stores, you might use a much more specific term. For example, if you sell exclusively kids toys, you might use kids toys in place of products

Your main keyword for each of your store categories should be placed in the slots shown as Category One through Category N, with subcategories underneath of them unless you want to treat sub categories just the same as top level categories.

Creating a category

1. Log into your WordPress admin panel
2. Select "Posts" → "Categories" from the admin menu
3. Enter the name for your category
   This should be semi short so that it can fit into a sidebar without wrapping.
4. Leave category slug blank
   It will be created automatically from your category name.
5. Set the Category Parent for your category
   • For top level categories this should be "None"
   • For second or third tier categories this should be the name of the post category you want this category to be a child of
   • Enter a short description for your post category
6. Select "Add Category"

Editing a Category

Should you decide that you want to change a post category for some reason, here is how you do so:

• Log into your WordPress admin panel
• Select "Posts" → "Categories" from the admin menu
• Place your cursor over the category you want to edit
  You should see options come up under it when you do so.
• Select "Edit"
  This will bring up the post category editor.
• Make the changes you want
  • Change the category name
  • Change the category slug
  • Change the category parent
    This will move the category to be a child of a different category or to be a top level category.
  • Change the description
• Select "Update Category" to save your changes