I've gone through all the articles I can find about structuring the categories so they don’t append -en-# to the SEO name, but I'm still not sure about the best practice for structuring my categories.
The site I’m setting up is similar to how a clothing site would have duplicate categories. Only difference is its parts, not pants. This is the structure I’m currently using. e.g.
- Industry 1
-+ Product cat 1
-+ Product cat 2
–+Product sub cat 1
–+Product sub cat 2
–+Product sub cat 3
-+ Product cat 3
- Industry 2
-+ Product cat 1
-+ Product cat 2
–+Product sub cat 1
–+Product sub cat 2
–+Product sub cat 3
-+ Product cat 3
From what I’ve read it looks like I should be doing something like this…
- Industry 1 > Product cat 1
- Industry 1 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 1
- Industry 1 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 2
- Industry 1 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 3
- Industry 1 > Product cat 3
- Industry 2 > Product cat 1
- Industry 2 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 1
- Industry 2 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 2
- Industry 2 > Product cat 2 > Product sub cat 3
- Industry 2 > Product cat 3
Does this need to be done in the root category and linked up someplace else for menus? Does this only need to be applied for SEO name field?
I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.
I’ve been referring mostly to the links below. I have been keeping the drill down as logical as possible, I think… I’m sure it has room for improvement.
http://forum.cs-cart…n-of-seo-addon/
http://forum.cs-cart…-names-problem/
Hello Eric,
Not sure what exactly your problem is, the articles you've read have all useful info, Here are my advices:
- Just give the unique names to your categories and sub categories .
- Enable the SEO add-on and choose the settings that suit your situation. If you don't have too long category, subcategory and product names, you may choose category_name/[subcategory_name/]product_name.html as a Product/page SEF URL format.[color=#404040] [/color]If it forms too long urls, it's better stay with product_name.html only.
- Don't forget to add the Breadcrumbs block to your pages. It will show your customers the full product path and help to navigate the site.
- Category menu with the full category tree can be created automatically. Design → Layouts → choose the location → add block to the necessary grid → Create the New block → Categories. Choose the Template for the block, Filling, etc.
Best regards, Alt-team
To give this real life context. One of our big products are seats. We sell them for multiple industries that have little product crossover, so creating 1 category of “seats†wouldn’t be appropriate. Or at least as far as I know it wouldn’t be… maybe the best way is to handle that with a filter? I guess thats why I’m reaching out to the CS-Cart community. 
So for example, I started building it out like so:

Tractors

-Seats
—Seat Covers

Lawn care
-Seats

Construction equipment

-Seats

Semi

-Seats
—Seat Covers


I’m not sure of the best way to give a unique name to to our simple categories (such as “seatsâ€) in each industry. This is only one example of category crossover that doesn’t share product crossover.
 Thats why I’m wondering if I’m supposed to be doing something like “Tractors > Seats > Seat Covers†as a single category (This is how OpenCart has it set up in a demo), or nested as the above example. I’m also confused about if this needs to be done in the category name, or if it just needs to be a uneque SEF URL in the add-ons tab.
Tractors
-Tractor Seats, (then products in this category may be like ) David brown tractor seat part no 12345, Massey Ferguson tractor seat 23456
-Tractors tyres
-Tractor whatever
Lawn Care
-Lawn Care Seats
-Lawn Care tyres
-Lawn Care etc
This is the best way for seo. If some one is looking for “tractor seats” on search engine they will find your page better and not just a generic SEATS page.
“seats” could be anything. think of what the customer would type to search.
Thanks
John