Understanding WordPress Categories and Tags
You want to make your site as reader friendly as possible. Categories and tags are tools within your WordPress Dashboard to allow both visitors and search engines to understand what your site is about.
Categories and Tags
You will find categories and tags under the Posts menu on the Dashboard. You can create and edit categories and tags using these sub menu links. You can also create categories and tags from within your New Post page using the boxes in the right sidebar.
Categories
During the planning stages of your blog, it will help to define 6-8 categories. Think about blog like a book with the categories as your table of contents or chapters of the book. They help define both the content and the organization of your site. Categories are hierarchical, so you can include sub-categories.
Tags
Tags function like a book’s index. They provide specific details about your posts. An index of a book is usually much more extensive than the table of contents.
Each post requires a category but does not require a tag or tags. If you do not categorize a post, it will automatically be categorized under the “uncategorized” category.
Thoughtfully choose your categories. Make sure your topics are broad but not vague. You can use tags to loosely connect multiple posts. The goal is to make your site as reader friendly as possible.
Your site is about your readers not about search engine metrics. If you make your decisions based upon what will be most beneficial to your reader, you will almost always find that SEO will benefit as well.
Wisely considering your categories and tags also provides the benefit of making your blog more “sticky” for visitors. Making it easy for visitors to continue to read about a particular topic will cause them to stay on your site longer.
Resources:
To understand the importance of choosing your niche and how it can guide your categories, read this article from Debi Stangeland.
Do you need a quick answer to a WordPress question, please join my Facebook Group WordPress Support for Bloggers.
