Articles and store content

Indexing the blog and the pages, and choosing where they sit in the results without taking space from the products.

Half of what people ask a store cannot be answered with a product. "How do I choose the size", "how long does delivery take", "what is this for": it is written on the blog or on a page, and the theme's search almost never gets there.

Turning it on

The Articles and content option lives in the module configuration, in the store back office. Turning it on means the blog and the store pages start being indexed in an engine separate from the products.

Separate is the essential part: articles show up in the results as a block of their own, and never compete with products for the same space. A search for "sizes" still shows products first; the size guide shows up next to them.

Where they sit

With content turned on, the store record in the panel (Search → Stores → edit) gains the How the articles show up choice, with four designs:

• Closed row that opens on click. Out of the way of whoever came to buy, one click away from whoever came with a question. It is the choice to keep, unless the articles are the point.
• Thin strip above the products. Seen by everyone, and it pushes the products down the screen. It is worth it in stores where it is the guides that sell.
• Strip after the first row of products. The first row keeps the top of the screen and the articles come right after, still without having to scroll on a computer.
• Block in the filters column. To the side, with the filters. On a phone that column is a panel that only opens on a button, so there it goes back to being the closed row.

If you choose the side column, the position of the block inside it is decided in the list of catalogue filters: that is where you send it to the end, instead of leaving it pushing the filters down.

This or the knowledge base?

They are different things and both are worth having.

Articles are published content: they exist on a store page, they are indexed, they show up in the results, and the customer can open them and read them.

The assistant's knowledge base is not published anywhere: they are answers it quotes in a conversation and nothing else. It is for what is not published (opening hours, deadlines that change, what you do not sell). See the knowledge base.

The assistant reads both. The visitor only finds the first.