---
title: "VIDEO: Categories (4/4): How to Optimize Categories for Search Engines"
description: Your store may look different than the one shown in this video, but most click paths were not affected.
---
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# VIDEO: Categories (4/4): How to Optimize Categories for Search Engines
***Video coming soon***
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Transcript
The first step to optimizing category pages for search engines is to change your URL formatting. By default, category URLs are formatted like this:
```
http://www.yourvolusionstore.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1
```
This formatting isnt ideal for search engines. To optimize it, go to **Marketing** \> **SEO** in your Admin Area. Locate the **Search Engine Friendly URLs** section, select **Enable Search Engine Friendly URLs**, and save. Now, your category URLs are formatted like this:
```
http://www.yourvolusionstore.com/category_s/1.htm
```
To customize the generic "category" portion of the URL, go to the Category edit page, expand the **Advanced Info** section, and click the **Search Engine Optimization** tab. Here, enter the text of your choice in the **Category URL Text** field and save. The URL now displays like this:
```
http://www.yourvolusionstore.com/Category_URL_Text_s/1.htm
```
Underscores, hyphens, and period characters are allowed, and the text is case-sensitive. The numeric portion of the URL corresponds to the category ID number. This portion and the "s" character are always present.
The **Meta Tag Title** displays on browser windows and tabs.
The **Meta Tag Description** typically contains two to five brief sentences about the page content. It's most often used as a page summary.
The **Meta Tag Keywords** field should contain five to ten key words or phrases that reference important page content.
Neither of these fields appear on the storefront, but search engines use them to index your pages more accurately.
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