There Isn't A Product Category For Photography Prints?

[frankbiganski]

Hello,

I'm a photographer who will be selling my photography and photographic prints, and I've implemented the Whitewall print fulfilment plugin. 

Under the "Category" drop-down menu, I cannot find an option that fits my needs. I expected to find something similar to photographic prints, wall décor, or anything that remotely matches the products I will be offering. But Shopify doesn't provide a category selection for selling photographic prints.

I read the functionality of the Category drop-down menu is, in part, to add metafields to improve search and cross-channel sales.  Since Shopify doesn't provide an option for photographers selling their photographic works, would it be better to use an SEO plugin like Yoast; will the Yoast plugin override the Shopify category feature?

I have over 30 years experience building my own business websites using the Yoast plugin for SEO optimisation, so I'm very familiar with the Yoast plugin and SEO in general.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Frank

[Moeed · Accepted solution]

Hey @frankbiganski 

For SEO, using an app like Yoast (or similar SEO tools) is a great idea, but it won’t override Shopify’s category system. Instead, it can help refine your meta titles, descriptions, and keywords to improve visibility. Given your experience with Yoast, you could definitely leverage it to optimize your product pages and drive more organic traffic.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else.

Best Regards,

Moeed

[frankbiganski]

Thanks for your reply Moeed. I've used the free version of Yoast in my WordPress business website for decades and find it an invaluable tool for fine-tuning my SEO, which results in an organic no. 1 placement in nearly all searches. So I will give it a go for the approx. £14.75 per month, which is a small price to pay to try and have my pages found.  I just wish they provided a free Shopify version. And thanks for defining what the Shopify category's function does too.  Cheers!

[bryan76]

the metafields do not effect SEO as those field never appear as text on your site.   if you use Google Merchant for Shopping ads you can use the Google taxonomy code: 500044 - Home & Garden > Decor > Artwork > Posters, Prints, & Visual Artwork.  

You can use the Category metafields for some navigational functionality internally on the site.  but honestly, if you don't have a reason for them, you can skip or delete them altogether.  for 90% of sites they do nothing.   This is part of some new bells and whistels as they want to show they use ai since it is such a buzzword.

I wouldn't use Yoast with Shopify.  you can run your site through something like Screaming Frog for free and fix issues.  and the fixes will be permanent. if you remove Yoast you lose all the changes.  that is not the right way to do SEO.  they just want your money.   

[lynth]

This, the Category field isn't that important.

[frankbiganski]

Thanks for your reply Bryan and for clarifying what the category function does and for pointing out that taxonomy code. I obviously missed that one which would work for me but as you pointed out, not really needed for my intensions.

The free version of Yoast for WordPress has been very good for my work website over the past 10+ years so for the approx. £14.75 per month, I'll at least try it in an A/B setting to see if it helps. The Screaming Frog tool seems great but a little too much for my right-brain to deal with. Cheers!

[bryan76]

for WordPress you need a plugin in order to do most basic SEO like entering Meta Descriptions, etc.  I use The SEO Framework on WP myself.   but Shopify has all that built in.  you just need to run the site with some sort of outside SEO tool to find the problems then go in and fix them.  Screaming Frog is a bit intense, I agree.  but something like SERanking also does a very good job at scanning the site for SEO fixes.  

I am for SEO tools.  just not any of the apps in the Shopify app store. Yoast is needed for WP but not the right tool for a Shopify site.

Enjoy our evening!!!

Bryan