How to set up a Magento product catalog correctly

Open a spreadsheet. Column A: attribute label (e.g., "Material"). Column B: attribute code (snake_case, lowercase — e.g., `material`). Column C: input type (text, dropdown, multiselect, price, date, etc.). Column D: scope (Global, Website, Store View). Column E: is filterable in layered nav? Column F: is used in search?

Default rule: most attributes should be scope=Global. Only translatable attributes (description, name in multi-language stores) or per-store-price attributes should be Website/Store View scope.

Filterable attributes: keep under 10 per category. Each one becomes a "Shop by" filter on the storefront and an index entry. 20 filterable attributes = reindex hell.

For dropdowns/multiselects (color, size, material, brand), define ALL possible option values upfront. Adding options mid-import causes duplicate-value chaos.

Distinguish between display-only attributes (e.g., 'Care Instructions' — shown on product page, not searchable) and structural attributes (color, size — used for variants and filters). The first should be `Used for Sorting in Product Listing` = No.

Stores → Attributes → Attribute Set → Add New Set. Use the 'Default' set as a base, then customize.

Name sets after product type, not category: "Apparel," "Electronics," "Books," "Furniture." A product can only belong to ONE attribute set — picking the wrong set means rebuilding the product.

Drag attributes from "Unassigned Attributes" into the relevant Groups (General, Prices, Meta Information, Images, Design). Group order matters — it determines the order on the product-edit page.

For variant-based products (apparel, anything with size/color), make sure `size`, `color`, and any other variant-defining attributes are present in the set and configured as "Visible on Storefront" = No (handled by the configurable product layer instead).

Save. Test by creating one product with the new set: do all expected fields appear? Anything missing? Edit the set, don't create a new attribute mid-product.

Each variant (e.g., 'Red T-shirt size M') must be a Simple Product first. Create the variants via Catalog → Products → Add Simple Product, set unique SKUs, weights, and stock. Don't enable them for the storefront yet (Visibility = Not Visible Individually).

Create the configurable parent: Add Product → Configurable. Pick the same attribute set. In the Configurations tab, select the attributes that define variants (e.g., size + color).

Magento generates the matrix (Red×S, Red×M, Red×L...). Either link existing simples (the recommended path) or have Magento auto-create them — auto-creation is usually messy and creates duplicate SKUs.

On the configurable parent: set Visibility = Catalog, Search. On every variant simple: set Visibility = Not Visible Individually. This is the difference between one product showing on category pages vs all 24 variants polluting search.

Inventory: configurable products use the SUM of variant stocks. Setting stock on the parent does nothing. Set it on each simple.

Pricing: configurable parents inherit from the cheapest variant by default. To force a single 'starting from' price, configure custom price logic via a sales rule or set per-variant prices that align.

Catalog → Categories. The Root Category is the top of your store hierarchy — never assign products directly to root. Build categories below it.

Recommended depth: 2-3 levels. Example: Root → Apparel → Mens → T-Shirts. Anything 4+ levels deep hurts crawl depth and customer findability.

Enable 'Is Anchor' = Yes on every category that should aggregate sub-category products into its listing. Without this, a category page shows only directly-assigned products — the typical store has Tops → T-Shirts where Tops is empty because nobody set the anchor flag.

URL keys: category URL key + parent URL keys form the URL. /mens/t-shirts/ is good. /category-9824/ (default if nobody sets a key) is terrible for SEO. Set every category URL key explicitly.

Meta data (title, description, H1 override) per category — Magento defaults to "{Category Name} - Buy Online" which is generic. Custom meta titles + descriptions per category lift category-page CTR 20-40% in our experience.

Set "Display Mode" per category: "Products only" (most common), "Static block only" (for landing categories), or "Static block + products" (best for SEO — adds a content paragraph above the product grid).

System → Data Transfer → Import. Entity Type = Products. Image File Directory = pub/media/import/ (create this directory and upload images there first).

Download the sample CSV: System → Data Transfer → Export to get the exact column order. Magento is strict about column names — 'sku' not 'SKU,' 'product_type' not 'type.'

Required columns: sku, product_type (simple/configurable/grouped/virtual/bundle), attribute_set_code, name, price, qty, weight, visibility (Catalog Search / Not Visible Individually), status (1=enabled), and category_ids or categories.

For configurable products, the import handles them via two passes: first import the simples, then import the configurable parents with a `configurable_variations` column listing variant SKUs and attribute values.

Run the import in "Validate" mode first. If errors appear (missing attribute, invalid category, image not found), fix the CSV — never proceed with errors. The "Stop on Error" behavior is the default and right setting.

After successful import, reindex: `bin/magento indexer:reindex`. On a 5K SKU catalog, expect 2-10 minutes depending on hardware.

Stores → Configuration → Catalog → Layered Navigation → Display Product Count = Yes. Without this, customers see filters with no idea how many products they will yield.

Layered navigation uses Elasticsearch in 2.4.x. Confirm your search engine is set to elasticsearch7 (or opensearch) at Stores → Configuration → Catalog → Catalog → Catalog Search.

Set "Number of Top Search Terms" + "Number of Bottom Search Terms" via Marketing → SEO & Search → Search Terms. Monitor weekly — your top search terms reveal navigation gaps and demand you cannot see in category browsing.

Configure search weight per attribute: Stores → Attributes → Product → [attribute] → Storefront Properties → Search Weight (1-10). SKU and name should be 10. Description should be 5. Color/Size should be 7 if you want filter matches in fulltext search.

Run `bin/magento indexer:reindex catalogsearch_fulltext` after any search-weight change. Effects do not appear until reindex completes.

System → Tools → Index Management. You see 8-10 indexers (Product Price, Category Products, Catalog Search, Stock, etc.). All should be "Update by Schedule," not "Update on Save."

Update on Save sounds convenient — it reindexes every time you save a product. On a small catalog it's fine. On a 5K+ catalog, saving one product can lock the admin for 30+ seconds per save. Switch all indexers to Update by Schedule.

Set "Update by Schedule" via the bulk action at the top of the index list. Cron will then run reindexing in the background every minute.

Monitor via `bin/magento indexer:status`. All indexers should show "Ready" most of the time. "Reindex required" persisting for >30 minutes means cron is broken or an indexer has died.

For catalog imports of 1K+ products: switch to manual reindex mode (`bin/magento indexer:set-mode manual`), run the import, then `bin/magento indexer:reindex` once. This is 5-10x faster than letting it reindex per-row.