Displaying Your Product Category Description in WooCommerce Using Shortcodes: A Beginner’s Guide
Want to showcase your product category descriptions more prominently on your WooCommerce website? Using shortcodes offers a simple and effective way to do just that, avoiding complex coding and themes modifications. This guide will walk you through the process, explaining everything step-by-step.
Why Display Category Descriptions?
Before diving into the technical aspects, let’s understand *why* you might want to display your category descriptions. Think of it like this: you’ve carefully crafted descriptions for each category, highlighting key features, benefits, and potentially even a brand story. Burying these descriptions within a simple category page limits their impact. By using shortcodes, you can:
- Improve User Experience: Clearly present category information upfront, guiding customers towards the right products faster.
- Boost Conversions: Highlight relevant information, leading to more informed purchase decisions.
- Enhance SEO: Rich, detailed category descriptions improve your site’s search engine ranking.
- Create More Engaging Pages: Add context and personality to your product displays, making your site more interesting and user-friendly.
The Basic Shortcode: `[woocommerce_product_categories]`
The core of this process involves WooCommerce’s built-in shortcode: `[woocommerce_product_categories]`. While this shortcode displays your categories, it doesn’t inherently display the description. We need to enhance it.
Let’s imagine you have a category called “Organic Coffee Beans”. Its description might be: *”Ethically sourced, 100% Arabica beans, roasted to perfection for a rich and smooth flavor.”* You want this description to appear prominently on your homepage, alongside the category name and image. Simply using `[woocommerce_product_categories]` won’t achieve this.
Adding the Description: Modifying the Shortcode
To display the category description, we’ll need to slightly modify the shortcode’s output using a small snippet of PHP code. This requires access to your theme’s `functions.php` file or a custom plugin. Always back up your files before making any changes!
Here’s the code to add to your `functions.php` file:
add_shortcode( 'product_categories_with_description', 'show_product_categories_with_description' );
function show_product_categories_with_description( $atts ) {
$args = array(
‘taxonomy’ => ‘product_cat’,
‘hide_empty’ => 1,
‘hierarchical’ => 1,
);
ob_start();
?>
-
<a href="term_id ); ?>”>name; ?>
description; ?>
<?php
$product_categories = get_terms( $args );
foreach ( $product_categories as $category ) {
?>
<?php
}
?>
<?php
return ob_get_clean();
}
This code creates a new shortcode: `[product_categories_with_description]`. It retrieves all product categories, iterates through them, and displays both the category name and description within a formatted list.
Implementing the Shortcode
After adding the code, save your `functions.php` file. Now, simply place the shortcode `[product_categories_with_description]` wherever you want to display your categories and their descriptions (e.g., a page, a sidebar widget).
This will generate a nicely formatted list, showing each category’s name as a heading (`
`) with its description directly underneath (`
`). You can customize the HTML (headings, paragraph styles, etc.) within the function to match your theme’s design.
Further Customization
This is a basic example. You can customize this code further to:
- Filter categories: Display only specific categories.
- Limit the number of categories: Show only the top ‘n’ categories.
- Change the output format: Use different HTML tags for better styling.
- Add images: Include category images alongside the name and description.
By understanding and utilizing this approach, you can effectively display your valuable WooCommerce product category descriptions, enhancing your site’s presentation and user experience. Remember to always back up your files and test changes thoroughly before making them live on your website.
