{"id":45,"date":"2026-05-05T03:15:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/2026\/05\/05\/categories-locations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T03:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:15:55","slug":"categories-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/2026\/05\/05\/categories-locations\/","title":{"rendered":"Categories & Locations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Categories & Locations<\/h1>\n\n\n

Categories are how visitors browse your marketplace. Locations are how they filter by city\/region. Best Classifieds uses standard WordPress categories<\/strong> for the free theme (with an optional listing_category<\/code> taxonomy when Pro is active) \u2014 your data stays portable.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

How the taxonomy is structured<\/h2>\n\n\n\n \n Listings<\/text>\n parent category<\/text>\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n Vehicles<\/text>\n \n Property<\/text>\n \n Electronics<\/text>\n \n Furniture<\/text>\n \n Fashion<\/text>\n \n Jobs +2<\/text>\n\n Each listing belongs to one sub-category AND the parent \u2014 the theme uses this dual-membership<\/text>\n to detect “this is a listing” vs. “this is a regular blog post.”<\/text>\n<\/svg>\n\n\n

The 8 default sub-categories created by the WOW Feeder are: Vehicles<\/strong>, Property<\/strong>, Electronics<\/strong>, Furniture<\/strong>, Fashion<\/strong>, Jobs<\/strong>, Pets<\/strong>, Services<\/strong>. Each has a Tabler icon assigned via the best_classifieds_category_icon()<\/code> helper.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Adding your own categories<\/h2>\n\n\n

Via WordPress admin<\/h3>\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Posts \u2192 Categories<\/strong> (or Listings \u2192 Listing Categories<\/strong> if Pro CPT is enabled).<\/li>\n
  2. Set the parent to Listings<\/strong> to make it a listing sub-category.<\/li>\n
  3. Fill in name, slug, and description. The description shows on the category archive page.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n

    Get an icon to render in the homepage grid<\/h3>\n\n\n

    The category card shows an icon based on the slug. The mapping lives in inc\/template-functions.php \u2192 best_classifieds_category_icon()<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n

    $slug_to_icon = array(\n    'vehicles'    => 'ti-car',\n    'property'    => 'ti-home',\n    'electronics' => 'ti-device-laptop',\n    \/\/ ... add yours here ...\n    'real-estate' => 'ti-building',\n    'rentals'     => 'ti-key',\n);<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n
    To override without editing the theme<\/strong>, drop this into a small custom plugin or a child theme’s functions.php<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n
    add_filter( 'best_classifieds_category_icon', function( $icon, $slug ) {\n    $custom = array(\n        'real-estate' => 'ti-building',\n        'rentals'     => 'ti-key',\n        'classes'     => 'ti-school',\n    );\n    return isset( $custom[ $slug ] ) ? $custom[ $slug ] : $icon;\n}, 10, 2 );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Browse all available icons at tabler-icons.io<\/a>. Use the icon name with the ti-<\/code> prefix.<\/p>\n\n
    \n\n
    How the homepage grid works<\/h2>\n\n\n
    The Categories section on the homepage shows up to 8 sub-categories of “Listings”, ordered by post count (most-populated first). To control the order manually:<\/p>\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Add a term_order<\/code> to each category via SQL or the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.<\/li>\n
    2. Or filter the query:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
      add_filter( 'best_classifieds_homepage_categories_args', function( $args ) {\n    $args['orderby'] = 'name';      \/\/ or 'slug', 'count'\n    $args['order']   = 'ASC';\n    $args['number']  = 6;            \/\/ show only 6\n    return $args;\n} );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
      \n\n
      Locations<\/h2>\n\n\n
      Locations are stored in the _bc_location<\/code> post meta as a free-text field (“Brooklyn, NY”). The WOW Feeder also writes _bc_lat<\/code> and _bc_lng<\/code> for OSM map rendering on the listing detail page.<\/p>\n\n\n
      Why not a custom taxonomy?<\/h3>\n\n\n
      We tried it. It adds complexity (term creation UX, choosing parent regions, normalizing input) that hurts most marketplaces more than it helps. A free-text field with city\/state autocomplete is faster for sellers and simpler for buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n
      That said, if you’re a country\/region-specific marketplace (e.g. India-only with state filtering), Pro adds an optional listing_location<\/code> taxonomy:<\/p>\n\n\n
        \n
      1. Classifieds Pro \u2192 Settings \u2192 Taxonomies<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      2. Toggle Enable location taxonomy<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      3. Add your locations under Listings \u2192 Locations<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      4. The submission form gets a location dropdown, the search dropdown gets location filters.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
        Auto-extracting city from _bc_location<\/code><\/h3>\n\n\n
        The trust strip on the homepage shows “X cities served” by counting distinct _bc_location<\/code> values. If your free-text values are inconsistent (“NYC” vs “New York” vs “Manhattan, NY”), the count will be inflated. The simple fix: nudge sellers toward a consistent format with a placeholder:<\/p>\n\n\n
        add_filter( 'best_classifieds_location_placeholder', function() {\n    return 'City, State (e.g. Brooklyn, NY)';\n} );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
        \n\n
        Category archive pages<\/h2>\n\n\n
        Category archive URL: \/category\/{slug}\/<\/code> (or \/listing-category\/{slug}\/<\/code> for the Pro CPT).<\/p>\n\n\n
        The archive uses archive.php<\/code> with full-width grid layout (sidebar is suppressed for listing categories). To customize the archive header or filters, edit archive.php<\/code> in a child theme.<\/p>\n\n\n
        Each archive shows:<\/p>\n\n\n
          \n
        • A clean breadcrumb: Home \u203a Property<\/li>\n
        • A title: “Category: Property”<\/li>\n
        • The category description (if set)<\/li>\n
        • All listings in a 3-column grid (4 columns at 1680px+)<\/li>\n
        • Pagination at the bottom<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
          \n\n
          Renaming the parent “Listings” category<\/h2>\n\n\n
          If you want to call it “Ads”, “Posts”, or anything else:<\/p>\n\n\n
            \n
          1. Posts \u2192 Categories<\/strong> \u2192 click “Listings”.<\/li>\n
          2. Change the Name<\/strong> (the slug stays the same).<\/li>\n
          3. The display label changes everywhere; the slug-based URLs and code references continue to work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
            To also change the slug (e.g. listings<\/code> \u2192 ads<\/code>), update the slug too \u2014 but be aware that the WOW Feeder + Pro plugin reference the slug via the best_classifieds_get_listings_category_slug()<\/code> filter:<\/p>\n\n\n
            add_filter( 'best_classifieds_listings_category_slug', function() {\n    return 'ads';\n} );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n
            After changing the slug, set up a 301 redirect from \/category\/listings\/<\/code> to \/category\/ads\/<\/code> to preserve any existing inbound links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
            Categories are how visitors browse your marketplace. Locations are how they filter by city\/region. Best Classifieds uses standard WordPress categories for the free theme (with an optional listingcategory\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-getting-started"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/best-classifieds-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}