Category: Ecommerce Systems

Assigning a primary category in NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced sets a breadcrumb path on your e-commerce product (item) pages which helps Google, search engines, and users understand your site better. Here’s how to assign a primary category (or add breadcrumbs to products pages) in SuiteCommerce.

1. Log in to NetSuite SuiteCommerce at https://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml
2. Go to Lists > Website > Commerce Categories.
3. Click Edit next to the Commerce Category that corresponds to the primary category of the item you want to assign a primary category for. Productivity tip: If you want to do many of these, you can Ctrl or Cmd-Click to open them in new tabs.
4. Click the Items heading.
5. Click the first item you’d like to assign from the list, then click under the Primary Category heading to reveal a checkbox (screenshot below). Check the box, then click OK to save.
6. Click the next item where you’d like to assign a primary category.
7. When finished, click Save.

How can I tell if a Primary Category is assigned in SuiteCommerce?

The easiest way to tell if a primary category is assigned to the items (products) on your website is to look at the product page on your website. If a primary category is assigned, you’ll see a proper breadcrumb path, as shown below.

If there is no primary category assigned, you’ll see Home > Product in the breadcrumb path, as shown below.

Why breadcrumbs are important to user experience and SEO

Breadcrumbs are important for user experience and SEO. Breadcrumbs help a user understand where they are on your site, and quickly navigate to other sections of your website. If the user lands on a product that isn’t quite what they want, they can quickly move up a level to look at related products in the same category. Breadcrumbs help search engines understand your website hierarchy and improve internal linking which helps visibility in organic search results.

How to set up 301 redirects in NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced (SCA)

1. Log in to NetSuite SuiteCommerce at https://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml
2. Go to Setup > SuiteCommerce Advanced > Redirects.
3. Click New, then select your website from the Domain Name drop-down.
4. Enter the URL to redirect from in the Redirect From URL field. Only include everything after website.com, (i.e. /blue-widget).
5. Enter the URL to redirect to in the Redirect To URL field. Enter the protocol, www (if-applicable), and website.com, (i.e. https://www.google.com/all-widgets).

Importing Redirects via CSV

You may also import redirects into SuiteCommerce using a CSV file with the following column headings and data.

1. Domain name – This should match the domain name in your NetSuite configuration and generally follows this pattern: www.website.com
2. Redirect From URL – This is the URL you want to redirect from. Use everything after the .com, starting with a slash (/). I.e. /widget
3. Redirect To URL – This is the URL you want to redirect to. On this one, enter the entire URL, including the https:// and www. I.e. https://www.website.com/new-widget

A few clients recently began using the NetSuite GTM Editor bundle on SuiteCommerce Advanced (SCA) version 2018.2. The clients reported unusually low bounce rates in Google Analytics after implementation of the GTM Editor bundle. After some analysis, we discovered an issue with how events are configured by the GTM Editor bundle. Anyone else? Shoot me an email to discuss.