# How to Get Products on Your WooCommerce Page: A Beginner’s Guide
So you’ve set up your WooCommerce store, but your shop page is looking a little…empty. Don’t worry, getting your products displayed is easier than you think! This guide will walk you through the process, from the simplest methods to more advanced customization.
The Easy Way: WooCommerce’s Automatic Product Display
WooCommerce is designed to be user-friendly. By default, products are automatically Check out this post: How To Complete An Order In Woocommerce added to your shop page. Once you add a product through the WooCommerce interface (Products > Add New), it will usually appear on your shop page. This is the simplest way to get started.
Let’s imagine you sell handmade soaps. You add your “Lavender Soap” product, including images, description, and price. Save the product, and refresh your shop page – *voilà!* Your Lavender Soap should be there.
Understanding WooCommerce Product Categories and Tags
While automatic display is convenient, organizing your products is crucial for a good customer experience and better SEO. This is where categories and tags come in.
Categories: Broad Product Groups
Categories are like the main sections of your store. Think of them as the aisles in a supermarket. For our soap example, you might have categories like:
- Bath & Body: This would contain all your soaps, lotions, and bath bombs.
- Gift Sets: This would hold pre-packaged gift options.
- Home Fragrance: This could include candles or diffusers.
- Lavender Soap: Could have tags like “Lavender”, “Herbal”, “Relaxing”, “Handmade”.
- Citrus Soap: Could have tags like “Citrus”, “Refreshing”, “Zesty”, “Uplifting”.
- Displaying all products: `[products]`
- Displaying products from a specific category: `[products category=”bath-body”]` (replace “bath-body” with your category slug)
- Displaying products from a specific tag: `[products tag=”lavender”]` (replace “lavender” with your tag)
- Displaying featured products: `[featured_products]`
Creating categories helps customers easily navigate your store and find what they need. To create a category, go Check out this post: How To Charge A Travel Fee In Woocommerce to Products > Categories.
Tags: Specific Product Attributes
Tags are more specific keywords related to individual products. They are like sub-sections within categories. Using our example:
Tags improve searchability Explore this article on How To Do Load More On Woocommerce Shop Page within your store and can enhance your SEO. To add tags, edit your individual product pages.
Customizing Your Shop Page Display (Using WooCommerce Shortcodes)
While the automatic display is a great starting point, you might want more control over how your products are presented. WooCommerce shortcodes allow you to display products in specific ways. These are snippets of code you can insert into your page content to customize the product listings.
Here are a few examples:
You can add these shortcodes via the page editor when creating or editing your WooCommerce shop page. Remember to replace the example slugs/tags with your own.
Advanced Customization: Using the `woocommerce_before_shop_loop` and `woocommerce_after_shop_loop` Hooks
For even more control, you can use WooCommerce hooks. These are points in the WooCommerce code where you can add your own custom functionality. This is more advanced and requires some knowledge of PHP.
For instance, to add a custom message before or after your product listings, you could use the following code snippets in your theme’s `functions.php` file or a custom plugin:
// Add a message before the Check out this post: How To Install A Plugin From Woocommerce Store shop loop add_action( 'woocommerce_before_shop_loop', 'custom_message_before_shop_loop' ); Read more about How To Disable Shipping In Woocommerce Multi Vendor Mrketplace function custom_message_before_shop_loop() { echo 'Welcome to our amazing selection of handmade soaps!
'; }
// Add a message after the shop loop
add_action( ‘woocommerce_after_shop_loop’, ‘custom_message_after_shop_loop’ );
function custom_message_after_shop_loop() {
echo ‘
Browse our full collection today!
‘;
}
Important Note: Always back up your website before adding any custom code. If you’re not comfortable with PHP, consider hiring a developer.
Conclusion
Getting your products displayed on your WooCommerce shop page is a straightforward process. From the simple automatic display to more advanced customization using shortcodes and hooks, you have several options to tailor your shop to your specific needs and create a visually appealing and functional online store. Remember to organize your products effectively using categories and tags to enhance the customer experience and improve your SEO.
