Magento 2 blog categories are a great way to improve blog navigation and organize your blog posts according to different criteria. Creating categories in Magento 2 Blog, you improve customer experience on your website and allow blog readers to find things they are interested in faster and more effectively.
In this article, you will learn how to create blog categories so you can structure your blog posts.
To create blog category in Magento 2:
1. Go to the Content > Blog > Categories and press the Add New Category button.
2. Set General blog category information.
- Enable Category.
- Enter the Category Title.
- Assign the category to Parent Category, if you want to create multilayered categories.
- Set the Position of the category in the category tree.
- Decide whether to include a category in the top navigation menu.
3. Add blog category Content.
It can be a category description or some other information about the category you want to share with your blog readers.
4. Configure Display Settings.
- Select category Display Mode to define the structure of the blog category. You can display Posts, Posts Links, Subcategories Links or Posts&Subcategories Links.
- Define how blog posts will be displayed in Posts Sort By field. You can select to sort posts by Publish Date, Position and Title.
- Choose the Template for your blog category page. You can select System Settings and Modern (List), or if you have Blog Extra also 22 other blog templates.
- Set Posts Per Page, a number of posts you want to display on one category page.
Note: if you don't set anything here, the number will be taken from the blog posts list configurations.
- Select what customer groups will have access to the blog category in the Visible for Customer Groups field. However, this option is also available for Blog Plus and Blog Extra users only.
5. Define which Website and Store View category will be assigned to.
6. Configure new category Meta Information.
- Set the URL Key which will be used in the category URL. If you leave this field blank, it will be generated automatically.
- Enter the Meta Title which should NOT be more than 50-60 characters. If you don’t indicate this field, the Category Title will be used.
- Indicate Meta Keywords if needed. Please note that according to the latest SEO practices the usage of Meta Keyword is not recommended.
- Set the Meta Description which should NOT be more than 160 characters. If you don’t indicate this field, the Content will be used.
Note: to configure the full route to Magento 2 blog category check blog permalink settings.
If you want to preview how your blog category will look in search results, and make sure metadata is optimized for SEO, use Magento 2 SEO Extension.
7. Add posts to a category directly on the category configuration page in the Posts in Category (Blog Extra) field.
8. Set Magento 2 blog category Design and Custom Design Update.
- In the Design section, set the Layout of the blog category page and enter some custom layout XML in the Layout Update XML.
- Configure the blog category Custom Design Update setting the Date Range (from - to) within which a new design will be applied and specify the New Theme, New Layout and New Layout Update XML for the blog category.
Once you finish, don't forget to Save the new blog category and check it on storefront.
As you have noticed, there are a few options available only for Blog Plus and Blog Extra. However, except for customer group restrictions and blog templates, there are many other useful options.
Read more about the advantages of Blog Plus and Extra to learn about other unique features you will definitely benefit from.