Why does Shopify change Product Category automatically in exported files?

Technical Q&A
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1

Hi there,

I wanted to know if anyone has experienced this and if you found a solution.

I am aware that my store has multiple products miscategorized, so I am recategorizing my products for better Google indexing.
However, when I export my products, it shows a different category than in Shopify. I contacted customer support, and they told me that, during the exportation, Shopify automatically changed the categorization according to the best-fitted one based on the product description. So now, I can’t trust the Shopify report to use as a guide to recategorize my products. In addition to that, no one could answer me if that “automatic recategorization” would be enough for optimizing Google’s indexing process or if Google would still use the wrong one that it’s in my Shopify store.

So now, I don’t know if I need to change the categories in the Shopify store to optimize the indexing process. Second, if I need to change it, I have no other option than going through product by product in Shopify because I can’t use their reports.

Can anyone help me on that issue?

Thanks

2

I recommend changing the categories using feed rules in Google Merchant Center. For example using the product type to identify what value it is then assign a category value.

Here is a guide: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7450276?hl=en-GB

You could also use supplement feeds to manually edit each product.

Or even using the manual editor.

Here is a guide on all the ways you can edit in GMC.