Categories

Categories are the backbone of your marketplace: sellers file each listing under one, and buyers browse and filter by them. A good tree is short at the top (around 6 to 12 main categories) with subcategories underneath, using the words your buyers would search for.

Everything is in Listings › Categories. The page shows your tree, with the number of published listings in each category (including its subcategories), and tools on the right.

Add categories quickly

1. Go to Listings › Categories.
2. In Quick add, type several names separated by commas, for example Cars, Furniture, Electronics.
3. Click Add categories.

They are added at the top level. Drag them under another category to make them subcategories (see below).

To create a large tree in one go, use a spreadsheet: see Import categories and locations.

Add a category with all its details

1. Go to Listings › Categories and click New category.
2. Fill in the fields below.
3. Click Submit.

Field	What it does
Name	The name shown on your site, up to 145 characters.
Order	Its position among its sister categories. You can also drag it into place later.
Parent	The category it sits under. Choose Home category (the invisible top of the tree) to make it a main category.
Seoname	The part of the web address for this category, for example /used-cars. Filled in from the name; letters, numbers and dashes.
Description	A short text about the category. Themes show it on the category page and it is used for search engines.
Price	The price to post a listing in this category, used when you charge for posting (see below). Leave 0 for free.
Icon Font	Pick an icon from the icon library. See Category icons and images.

Once the category exists, its edit page has more:

• SEO Meta Data — a Meta title and Meta description for search engines (up to 255 characters each). Leave them empty to use the name and description. On a multilingual site this card is replaced by Translations, where you enter the name and description in each language.
• Category icon — upload an image icon.
• Custom Fields — which custom fields apply to this category. Click + Add to add one, Remove to take it away.
• View on site ↗ — opens the category page.

Nest and reorder categories

Drag a category by its handle to move it up or down, or drop it inside another category to make it a subcategory. The new order is saved as soon as you drop it.

You can nest as deep as you like, but buyers find two levels (for example Vehicles › Cars) much easier than four.

Charge for posting in a category

A category’s Price is charged only when new listings go live with Payment on or Payment with Moderation (set under Settings › Payments › Pay to post, see Pay to post). Categories that charge show a … to post pill in the tree.

• A subcategory with a price of 0 uses its parent’s price.
• If neither has a price, posting there is free.
• If a seller moves a listing to another paid category, they are asked to pay for the new one.

You also need a payment gateway to take the money.

Change the price of many categories at once

There’s no bulk price editor: each category’s Price is changed on its own page. To save work, use the parent’s price:

1. Set the price you want on each top-level category.
2. Set the subcategories under it to 0. They now charge their parent’s price.
3. Next time the price changes, you only edit the top-level categories.

This works one level down: a subcategory with 0 uses the price of the category directly above it. Give a subcategory its own price only when it should cost something different.

Hide categories from the home page

Some categories are useful but don’t deserve a place on the home page.

1. Go to Listings › Categories.
2. In Hide from the home page, select the categories. Hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) to pick several.
3. Click Save.

Hidden categories still work everywhere else: sellers can post in them and buyers can browse and search them. To show them again, unselect them and click Save.

Delete a category

1. Open the category and, in Delete this category, click Delete category.
2. Confirm.

Nothing is lost with it: its subcategories and its listings move up to its parent category.

Start over › Delete all categories removes every category at once. All listings move to Home category, and members’ email alerts for specific categories are deleted too. It can’t be undone.

Good to know

• Each listing belongs to exactly one category. A listing in a subcategory also shows up when buyers browse the categories above it, so put it in the most specific one (Vehicles › Cars rather than Vehicles). If an item really fits two places, the seller posts it in the one buyers are most likely to look in.
• Changing a Seoname changes the address of the category page, so old links to that page stop working. Listing pages keep working.
• New categories may take a moment to appear on your site because of caching. If they don’t show up, see My changes don’t show up.
• The Categories widget adds a category list to a sidebar or footer.

Related guides

• Category icons and images — make categories recognisable.
• Custom fields — different fields for different categories.
• Import categories and locations — build a big tree from a spreadsheet.
• Locations — the other way buyers narrow down listings.