Adding sub categories to existing site - implications of

[gowzel]

When I first set up my site all categories are under General. Now one of my categories has too many products in and needs some organisation hence I want to add some sub categories. From what I understand I will need to remove all products from this category (Bulbs) and add the sub categories ie. Red, White, Blue and then place the products that were in the Bulbs category into the correct sub categories. Is this correct?
At the moment my products in this Bulbs category are ranked highly in the search engine results, is adding these sub categories and moving the products in them going to mess up things with search engines ie page not found etc.
Thanks

[Ajeh]

If you wanted the new categories to end up under the existing category, you could add a new Category at the Top level and then Move to your existing Category then Move Products into it ...

Keep repeating that until ALL Products are out of the original category and into the subcategories ...

[gjh42]

To keep your search engine results/ranking, you need to add 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. This can be done in an .htaccess file. Search the forum or google for more info.
This tutorial shows an example:
http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...-dont-enter-it
There are lots of tutorials online.

[lat9]

I had to do this on one of my sites a while ago; here's a template for the 301 redirects in your .htaccess:

# Redirect &products_id=[1|2|6|10] from cPath=1 to cPath=6_7
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=1&products_id=(1|2|6|10)(&.*)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ http://www.mysite.com/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_7&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]

It might not be totally efficient, but it did the trick for me!

[gowzel]

Thanks for the help.
I dont think I would need any redirects as any links to the products would still link to the products as there id is the same. Any links to the category would still link to the category as the category will still be there, just not filled with products but filled with some new categories.
i.e. My category now is 'bulbs' it has 60 products in it I am going to remove the products to a temp category and then in 'bulbs' add 3 new categories - 'red 'white' 'blue' then I am going to place the products from the temporary folder into the 'red' 'white' or 'blue' folders.

Or will there be links out there in search engine land to both category and product i.e. :

http://shop.xxxxxxxxx.co.uk/index.ph...products_id=34

in which case I will need to make a redirect to all those product currently in category cpath=6

EDIT: Ah I think the above post answers my question, Thankyou will look more closely now I have edited this

[gowzel]

Bulbs category presently is ID=6

6 NEW CATEGORIES = A, B, C, D, E, F
A=ID=12
B=ID=13
C=ID=14
D=ID=15
E=ID=16
F=ID=17

Product ID'S are 27 to 44 inclusive, 49, 58, 59, 62,63,64

so is this correct?

# Redirect &products_id=[27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|49|58|59|62|63|64] from cPath=6 to cPath=12_13_14_15_16_17
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=1&products _id=(27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|49|58|59|62|63|64)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ http://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php...oducts_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]

Not sure on the '&products_id=%2%3'

[gjh42]

The rewrite rule can't know which of the six new subcats a particular product should be redirected to without explicit direction. You will need a separate conditions and rule set for each new subcat with the group of products that redirect to it.
The ...iews_write)&cPath=1 in your conditions needs to be &cPath=6 with the product id list tailored to each subcat,
and the rules need to be like &cPath=6_12, &cPath=6_13, etc

[gowzel]

I think this is correct now, but not sure on the %2%3 at the end of the url
If I change the url to the correct one can I just copy and paste this as is in my htaccess file?
Many many thanks, learning all the time

# Redirect &products_id=[27|28|29|30] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_12
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(27|28|29|30)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_12&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[41|42|43|44] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_13
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(41|42|43|44)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_13&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[37|38|39|40|62|64] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_14
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(37|38|39|40|62|64)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_14&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[31|32|33|34|35] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_15
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(31|32|33|34|35)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_15&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[58|59] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_16
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(58|59)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_16&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[63] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_17
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(63)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_17&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]


# Redirect &products_id=[36|49] from cPath=6 to cPath=6_18
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^main_page=(product_info|product_reviews|product_reviews_write)&cPath=6&products _id=(36|49)(&. *)?$
RewriteRule ^(index\.php)?$ ttp://shop.xxxxxxx.co.uk/index\.php?main_page=%1&cPath=6_18&products_id=%2%3 [r=301,L]

[lat9]

The %2 fills in the products_id and (I think) that the %3 fills in any remaining GET variables.

If your .htaccess file doesn't include the following

# Start redirects
Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

add those lines before the redirects in your previous post.

Remember to test, test and then test again!