Preferred Category and its Effect on the Webstore Global Search

It is usual that sellers will associate items to several categories where the item can be best associated with so that the item can get the best exposure  to its potential buyers.

SEO standard dictates that items associated to several categories to have a preferred url that search engines can collect to avoid having several links point to the same item.

In Netsuite this is achieved by selecting a preferred category for the item record. This article aims to educate how the preferred category affects that Global Search function of the Webstore.

Since a preferred category is selected on the item record it will create a canonical URL that will be visible in all the pages where the item is assigned.

Example:
Item A  is assigned to the following:
1 Apparel  > Shirts > Mens Wear (Preferred) (Preferred)
2 Clothes > Adult > Mens  Wear
3 Sale > Mens Wear

Since Apparel  > Shirts > Mens Wear is the preferred Category, the system will generate and assign the URL of   Apparel  > Shirts > Mens Wear  to all the drill down pages where the item is assigned, you will see a code similar to the one below:

<link rel='canonical' href='/s.nl/it.A/id.114/.f'/>

The preferred category does not affect the search function of the Webstore. If you use the search feature of the Webstore and search for the item,   NetSuite will determine the preferred category based on the most prominent category or tab on your site where the item is published.