First-time setup

The first thing you see is Welcome to CataSEO. It lists the three stages ahead:

1. Tell us about your store — CataSEO analyzes your storefront and drafts a business profile. You correct anything it got wrong.
2. Set your preferences — how to treat your existing layout, how CataSEO should write for you, and what it writes.
3. Import your catalog — this runs at the end, once your answers are saved.

Click Get started to begin.

After the welcome screen, setup opens as a conversation. Catie asks a few questions about how you’d like your product copy written and what to load in first. You can answer in your own words, and she saves each answer as you give it. Nothing is published to your store during setup: CataSEO writes drafts and you approve them.

If you’d rather fill in a form, click Complete onboarding myself at any point. Everything you’ve told Catie so far is kept, and the form opens at the next step you haven’t answered.

The switch only goes one way. Once you’ve moved to the form, there’s no button to go back to the conversation. Your answers aren’t lost either way, and you can still ask Catie questions from the form (see below).

The form has six steps, shown in a progress rail down the side:

1. Store analysis — what CataSEO worked out about your store, in three parts: a Business description, your Market (two to four words, like “upland hunting” or “Scandinavian design”), and the competitor sites it compares your product content against. Edit anything that’s wrong, remove competitors that aren’t real rivals, and add ones it missed. CataSEO reads a sample of your real categories and products to draft this, and nothing is changed in your store. If the analysis can’t finish, setup carries on and every suggestion falls back to a default you can change later.
2. Layout — how CataSEO should treat the structure already inside your product descriptions, such as tabs, accordions and embedded videos:
   • Automatic (recommended) detects product tabs, accordions and embedded media and keeps that layout while it optimizes the wording. Plain descriptions are optimized normally.
   • Always preserve my layout never restructures a description and only rewrites the wording.
   • Rewrite freely restructures descriptions for maximum SEO. Embedded videos, images and links are always kept, but if you use a product-tabs app like Easy Tabs, this will break your tabs.
3. Voice — the language and tone of voice your copy is written in. Each tone is shown as a sample: the same linen kitchen towel written in each voice. Pick the one that sounds like your store, or choose Custom — write my own and describe the voice yourself.
4. Content — what gets written and how it’s laid out: Description Format and Description Length, plus Product Optimization Priority (the order products are optimized in) and Skip inactive products. See SEO profile settings for what each one does.
5. Analytics — the free monthly SEO report, powered by Moz. You can leave it as it is or change it here. See Get your monthly SEO report.
6. Import Catalog — the last step. Click Save and import products at the end of the Analytics step to save your answers and start the import. CataSEO reads your catalog in so it has something to work with. Nothing in your store is changed and nothing goes live.

Use Back and Next, or click an earlier step in the rail, to move between steps. Steps you’ve already answered stay ticked even if you step back.

In the form, a small speech-bubble icon sits beside individual fields, for example next to the business description, the market, the competitor list, the layout choice, tone of voice, format and length, and the monthly report. Click one to ask Catie about that field. Hover over it to see what it asks about, such as “Ask Catie about tone of voice”.

Skip setup and use the defaults is available while you’re in the conversation and on every step of the form. It asks Finish setup with the defaults? and, if you confirm with Apply defaults, applies the default settings along with anything you’ve already answered, including the tone CataSEO suggested for your store. Choose Keep setting up to go back.

Skipping doesn’t start the import. You land on the Import Catalog step and start it yourself when you’re ready, with Import my catalog.

The welcome screen has no skip button; click Get started first.

Nothing you choose in setup is permanent. You can change any of it later in Settings, the gear icon in the top bar. See SEO profile settings and Store analysis settings.

Two things work a little differently after setup:

• Tone of Voice Extension (Optional) — free-text instructions like “Always mention sustainability”, called brand guidelines elsewhere in this help centre — isn’t asked for in the setup form. Add it later on the Profile tab in Settings, under Advanced.
• Existing layout, the Layout step’s choice, is on the Profile tab in Settings.