> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/shops-and-cashback-rates/shop-categories.md).

# Shop categories

Shop categories group your shops — Fashion, Electronics, Travel. They work like WordPress categories, and they are separate from the ones your posts use.

`Cashback Tracker` → `Shops` → `Shop categories`, or the box on any shop page.

### What they drive

Categories do more than a filter list suggests:

* **The directory filter**, so visitors can narrow a long list of shops
* **Category archive pages**, one per category, listing its shops
* **The breadcrumb** at the top of each shop page
* **Related shops**, which prefers shops sharing a category

That last one is the quiet benefit. A shop with categories gets a *More in Fashion* block; a shop without falls back to *Popular shops*, which is a weaker recommendation.

![A shop category page](https://3545740495-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-M69sU0hfZj3QsteYxmI%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-124c704938bfe2541bc81a6b2da7b47777ed33fe%2Fcategory-page.webp?alt=media)

### How many to have

Fewer than you think. Ten to twenty broad categories serve visitors better than a hundred narrow ones, because the point is to help someone browsing decide where to look — not to describe every shop precisely.

A category holding one shop is not a category. If you find yourself creating one, the shop probably belongs in a broader one you already have.

Nesting works, and is worth it only when a top-level category grows big enough to be unhelpful.

### Assigning them

**On one shop** — the Shop categories box while editing the page.

**On many** — the Shops list has WordPress's usual bulk edit. Select the shops, choose **Edit** from the bulk actions, and add a category to all of them at once.

{% hint style="info" %}
Categories are **not imported from your networks**. Networks do have their own categorisation, but it is built for advertisers rather than shoppers, and it differs between networks — so a category set stitched together from several networks reads as a mess. Yours will be better, and [AI can propose one](/ai-and-seo/shop-categories-with-ai.md) from your own catalog.
{% endhint %}

### Categories on a page you created in bulk

Pages created from the Shop catalog arrive with **no categories**. There is nothing to copy them from.

That is fine — the pages work, they just get the weaker related-shops block.

If you have AI set up, **Bulk tools** → **Categories** does both halves of the job: it proposes a category set from your own catalog for you to approve, then sorts the shops into it. See [Sorting shops into categories with AI](/ai-and-seo/shop-categories-with-ai.md).

By hand, bulk edit makes it quick if you sort the Shops list by name and work through in groups.

### Removing one

Deleting a category removes it from every shop that had it. The shops themselves are untouched, and they simply lose that grouping.

### Related

* [The shop directory](/shops-and-cashback-rates/shop-directory.md)
* [Shop pages](/shops-and-cashback-rates/shop-pages.md)