Categories & displaying # of items

What looks better?

[Compworld]

I was thinking of adding the # of items listed in the categories for our site. Does it look bad to do that? We have over 1000 products, and it might look better in the long run... No?

Thanks,

CompWorld

[jweighell]

I don't think it necessarily looks bad however, I'd be looking at more whether the information is really that useful for your customers.

You really want to avoid cluttering up you pages with things which don't add any value.

If anything, I'd add a textural description of the category, which may help in terms of SEO.

[pete_m]

Putting the number of items could be useful.

For example, if there were dozens of items in a category I'd probably want to use a search to find what I was looking for. If there were only 10 or 20 I might prefer to page through a list. Showing the number of items would help me make that decision.

[Compworld]

Yea, thats what I thought. Just have to think of a way to integrate it will all the sub cats.

Thanks guys,

CompWorld

[danieljean]

It would be interesting to see that tested, rather than the advice of a bunch of web geeks :)

The thing that definitely shouldn't happen though is displaying a category with 0 items. Happens all the time, though!