The editor
The editor lives under Products > Category SEO, on the Category editor tab. It lists every term of one taxonomy, empty ones included, sorted by name and laid out as a tree.
Categories, tags and brands
Section titled “Categories, tags and brands”Above the list, a switch picks what you edit: Categories, Tags or Brands, each with its count. Every list works the same way, with the same fields, filters, views and CSV.
Brands appears when your store has product brands: WooCommerce 9.6 and newer registers them, and so do most brand plugins. Without them, the switch shows categories and tags only.
The top of the screen
Section titled “The top of the screen”- The pill (top right) shows the logo and name of the SEO plugin that was found, for example “Rank Math detected”, or says “No SEO plugin detected”.
- Search filters the list as you type. It looks in the name, slug, description, SEO title and meta description. When a child term matches, its parents stay visible so the tree still makes sense.
- Export CSV and Import CSV are in the toolbar and work on the list you have open. See CSV export and import.
- Visible fields has one switch per field: Slug, Description, SEO title, Meta description and Robots. Turn off the ones you do not use and the rest get the width. The choice is remembered in your browser.
- Show filters the list to the terms that need work, with a count on each: No SEO title, No meta description, Title cut off, Duplicate titles, Empty (no products) and Noindex. A filter with nothing in it is hidden. All brings everything back.
- The count line says how many terms are shown out of the total.
Cards and table
Section titled “Cards and table”Next to the count line, Cards and Table switch the view. Your choice is remembered in the browser.
Cards show every field of every term at once. Child terms sit indented under their parent.
Table puts one term per row, with the name, slug, description, SEO title, meta description, robots and status in columns. Click into a cell and type; the texts are shown in full and the cell grows with them. A changed row is marked Unsaved in the status column. Open panel under the name opens the side panel for that row.
Both views edit the same values, so you can switch at any time without losing anything.
The card header
Section titled “The card header”The header of a card shows the name, how many children it has (“3 subs”) and how many products are in it. On the right:
- The status: what is missing or wrong, such as “No SEO title”, “Title cut off”, “No meta description”, “Duplicate title” or “Noindex”. When nothing is, it says “Complete”.
- View opens the term on your shop, in a new tab.
- Edit with and two logos: WordPress opens the normal WooCommerce edit page in a new tab, Brainrune opens the side panel.
The fields
Section titled “The fields”| Field | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Name | The name shown in your shop and in wp-admin. |
| Slug | The URL segment of the term. See Changing a slug. |
| Description | The description shown on the archive page. The same HTML is allowed as in a post. |
| SEO title | The title tag, saved in your SEO plugin. |
| Meta description | The meta description, saved in your SEO plugin. |
| Robots | Whether search engines may index the term, saved in your SEO plugin. |
SEO title and meta description
Section titled “SEO title and meta description”Leave either field empty and your SEO plugin’s global template applies, as the placeholder says. Clearing a field you filled earlier removes the value from the SEO plugin, so the template takes over again.
Both fields are disabled when no SEO plugin is active, because there is nowhere to save them.
Pixel counts
Section titled “Pixel counts”Google cuts titles and descriptions by width, not by characters, so the counters measure width the way Google draws them:
- SEO title: Arial at 20px, against 580 px.
- Meta description: Arial at 14px, against 920 px, about two lines on desktop.
The counter reads like 386 / 580 px. It turns red past the limit, and the Title cut off filter lists every title over it. These are guides; the plugin saves whatever you type.
Robots
Section titled “Robots”The Robots menu has three choices:
- Default (index): no per-term setting. The site-wide setting of your SEO plugin applies.
- Index: index this term.
- Noindex: keep this term out of search results.
With Rank Math or SEOPress a nofollow box sits next to the menu. Yoast SEO has no per-term nofollow, so the box is hidden when Yoast is active. Details per plugin: SEO plugins.
The side panel
Section titled “The side panel”The side panel opens from Open panel in the table, or from the Brainrune logo next to Edit with. It holds:
- Google preview: the result as search shows it, with your site icon, site name, the URL as a breadcrumb, the title and the description. Desktop and Mobile switch the width. It updates as you type.
- Every field of the term, with the pixel counters.
- Previous and Next, to walk through the list without closing the panel. They follow the filters and the search.
- Save this one, which saves the term on its own.
Esc or the close button shuts the panel. Changes made in the panel show in the table and the cards at once, and the other way round.
In the cards view, a smaller Google preview also appears under the SEO title or meta description field while you type in it.
The site name comes from Rank Math’s website name when it is set, and from the site title otherwise. The icon is your site icon from Settings > General.
Changing a slug
Section titled “Changing a slug”A new slug means a new URL for the term. The old URL returns a 404 until you add a 301 redirect from it to the new one, the same as when you change a slug in WooCommerce.
The editor warns you twice:
- As soon as you type in the Slug field, a note appears under it: “New URL. The old one needs a 301.”
- After saving, a notice counts how many slugs changed.
Saving
Section titled “Saving”As soon as you change something, the card gets a yellow border and a footer appears: “Unsaved changes on this category.” You then have three ways to save:
- Save this one in the card footer, or in the side panel, saves only that term.
- Save all in the bar at the bottom saves every changed term. The bar counts them, for example “3 categories changed, not saved yet”.
Revert in the bottom bar throws away every unsaved change on the screen. If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, the browser asks you to confirm.
After a save the page reloads on the same list with “Category saved.” or “Changes saved.”.
Without an SEO plugin
Section titled “Without an SEO plugin”A notice at the top says Rank Math, Yoast SEO or SEOPress needs to be active before the SEO fields have anywhere to save to. The SEO title, Meta description and Robots fields are disabled. Names, slugs and descriptions still save as normal.