Over time, you may want to reorganize your website or update the names of your product categories (for example, changing “Living Room Seating” to “Sofas & Sectionals”).

However, you must be very careful when altering existing categories. Changing the wrong setting can instantly break your website’s links and sever the connection to your automatic catalog updates.

Here is how to safely manage your existing categories.

Part 1: How to Safely Rename a Category

You can easily change the public-facing name of a category without breaking any links, as long as you follow one golden rule: Never change the Slug. The “Slug” is the exact web address for that category, and our automatic API catalog feed relies on that specific slug to know where to place your new inventory!

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to Products in your main left-hand menu and click Categories.

2. Look at the right side of your screen to find the category you want to update.

3. Hover your mouse over the category name and click Edit.

4. In the Name box at the very top, type your new, updated category title.

5. CRITICAL STEP: Look at the box directly below it labeled Slug. Do absolutely nothing to this box. Leave the text exactly as it is.

6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the blue Update button.

What just happened? Your customers will now see the brand new name on your website menus and pages! But because you left the slug alone, any old links from Google or Facebook will still work perfectly, and your API catalog will continue to sync seamlessly.

Part 2: How to Safely “Remove” a Category

If you no longer sell items in a certain category, your first instinct might be to click the red “Delete” button. Please do not do this! Deleting a category completely erases its web page, meaning anyone who clicks an old link to that category will hit a “404 Page Not Found” error, which hurts your Google search ranking.

Instead of deleting it, the safest method is to simply hide it from your customers.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Remove it from your Navigation Menu: If the category is listed in your website’s main drop-down menu at the top of the page, navigate to Appearance > Menus (or your Header Builder). Click the arrow next to the category name, click Remove, and save your menu.

2. Empty the Category: Navigate to Products > All Products. Reassign any remaining products inside that category to a different one, or mark those products as “Hidden.”

3. Note: On most store layouts, if a category has zero visible products inside it, the system will automatically hide that category from your main shop pages so customers won’t see an empty page!

Need a Category Permanently Deleted? > If a category absolutely must be permanently deleted, please submit a Help Desk ticket. Our team will safely delete the category and set up a “301 Redirect”—a piece of code that automatically catches anyone trying to visit the deleted link and smoothly sends them to your homepage instead of an error screen!