Are you blogging? And are you categorising your blog posts?

WordPress categories allow you to sort your blog posts in to broad topics, which means a visitor to your blog can easily browse your content by topic rather than scrolling through your posts in chronological order (which is the default for your blog). Think of your blog categories like a table of content in a book, you don’t want hundreds of categories however you do want enough that provides your visitors an overview of what you write about. The ideal number of categories would be between 4 to 6 categories, and if you needed more you could add sub-categories or use tags.

Besides being useful for your blog readers, categorising your posts can boost your search engine optimisation because not only is there a structure to find your content, it is a guide on how search engines should index your site. This contributes to organically ranking higher on searches.

Do’s and Don’ts for Categories

• DO take some time to think about the topics you will be writing about. You can add new categories at a later date and if you’re not using categories, I highly advise you start. Rememeber you’re creating broad categories that can cover a number of different yet related topics. If you’re unsure, reflect on your services and/or products – can they be used as your categories?
• DO create categories so that your posts will belong to at least one category.  WordPress does allow posts to belong to multiple categories, however I advise against adding posts to all and limit posts to two categories.  If you don’t categorise a post, WordPress will automatically assign the default category.
• DO use descriptive category names and avoid ambiguous, cutsey or clever ones. You want people to relate to your topics and be able find content easily.
• DON’T create too many categories, as mentioned above stick to no more than six. Creating too many categories can overwhelm your readers as well as create confusion.
• DON’T leave the default category as ‘uncategorised’; instead rename it to be your ‘news’ category.
• DON’T create categories that you will not use often; instead revisit your categories and look at how you may be able to either broaden the name or reduce the number.

Now that I have you thinking about your categories, I encourage you to take 10 minutes now to review them, and if needed update them.

If you’re overwhelmed, struggling to get things done, or recognise you need some assistance, organise a call with me to discuss your business support needs.