Making More of Blog Categories
-
What are peoples opinions on blog categories and their importance. On many blog I setup a general news category and on others I have gone to town adding detailed categories.
Is there a major benefit in doing this ?
-
I have an active blog getting hundreds of posts per month with most posts going into two categories (one by topic and one by geography). It has nearly 200 categories. We don't use tags. What we have is wild enough - but those categories pull in an awful lot of traffic and on average get a couple of posts each per week.
-
True, I am hearing you there
Just curious, what's your take on tags in that situation of a large site with hundreds of posts per month?
-
I think that if you have a blog with one post a week or one a month then a very small number of categories makes a lot of sense.
However, if the blog is getting hundreds of posts per month and many posts hitting two categories then it could support a lot of healthy categories.
Category pages can attract a lot of traffic if they are in the right niche and optimized well.
-
Hi Garry
At quick glance - I would come up with your 5 or so categories, get them on the top navigation bar. Make sure you have a category for every possible post you might do in the future. The ones you have down on the right sidebar look like a good start.
Then utilize your tags as a way to add real specific words and phrases to each post. These can be generated as you go, you can have dozens or hundreds of tags over time, and several on just one post. Then put a tag cloud maybe in the footer.
So you'll have maybe 5 broad categories that always stay the same and sit on the top navigation, and you'll have lots of tags over time that are more specific.
-Dan
-
Hi Garry
The advise I have heard, and follow, is to keep categories more general, and to only have a handful - say 5-10 categories.
But you want to have lots of tags. Tags can be very specific and unique to each individual post. You can have several tags for one post. I have a lot of pages that get picked up by tag pages, which tend to also make great long-tail URLs.
So let me give an example. Website about cars. Categories might just be: Sports Cars, SUVs, Pick Up Trucks, Station Wagons. Tags however would be very specific: 2 door honda, fastest sports cars, driving and safety - etc etc etc.
And I've also heard to be sure not to have a tag with the same name as a category.
I'm sure you'll see lots of examples that go against this format, but it seems pretty intuitive and has worked for me thus far.
-Dan
-
could I ask for some feedback on this blog I am currently in the process of setting up -
http://www.supplementsnews.co.uk
If this was your project what would be your next move....
-
My blog gets more traffic through category pages than through all other sources combined. There are also lots of links hitting those category pages and lots of people subscribe to their RSS feeds.
It's all about which keywords you can optimize them for. If I had a widgets blog I would have lots of categories by color, what they are made of, and more.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Blog or article length and SEO value
Why do different blog lengths affect SEO differently? Is it directly affected by Rankbrain or the Google Algorithm, or is it more because of user engagement?
Content Development | | CyrusDariusXerxes0 -
What's a good way to find recent blog posts about a given topic?
Let's say I want to find blog posts posted in the past week or so about "key west". These posts could be on a personal blog, travel blog, etc. Google News is mostly news sites (not blogs) and Google blog search doesn't work any more. What other good options are there? So far Open site Explorer Just Discovered is the best option I've found, but there is a lot of other stuff mixed in with a few blog posts.
Content Development | | AdamThompson1 -
Guest blog on my web site.
**I received this email from a lady who wishes to write articles and post them on my site under my news section . Ok, if its quality I dont mind hiring somebody to create a post. Her proposal is as follows and this is her email :-**Basically what I can offer is to write a couple of articles for your News section, something fun and interesting for your visitors which will hopefully drag some traffic your way. I could make them well suited to your site and I could include in each a link to a client of mine - one who wants to be exposed on a good site like yours - and for doing that I can offer you compensation of £33 for each client link - 1 per article. For example, one client is Watches of Switzerland, so I could write an article about ideal wedding gifts for a groom maybe, or something about a perfect Honeymoon destination like Switzerland, and slip a link in there. Other clients include Weddingsite and Lampcommerce - which could be included in something about making a matrimonial home. There are a few stipulations I would need to abide by, like - the article would need to be 500 words, it would need the link to be a 'do follow' link, it would need a picture or two, and it would need a couple of 'sacrifice links' (just links to Wikipedia or something to make it more Google friendly). Question. Is this what a guest article is ? and also is the format ok ? Sorry if this seems a dumb question but still learning guys . King regards to everyone Peter
Content Development | | weddingshoesandaccessories1 -
How can I influence my colleagues to write blog articles for my company?
Hi, I am trying to get my colleagues work in different department to write an article about their expertise area. They are not aware that what type of benefits they would get if they become an online author. I am trying to make a list of reason why they should participate. I was wondering anyone else would also make any recommendation what i should tell them. So far, my points are: Wider your online presence beyond Facebook and LinkedIn Go extra mile and share your thoughts **Show your expertise ** Reach nationwide readers Thanks!
Content Development | | Rubix0 -
Content: Best Blogs Article
Hello, For an Ecommerce site, I think a good way to get known is to write a "Best X Blogs" article, where X is a topic in your industry, and then letting the people you link to know about the article. I got the idea from a Mozinar. My question is, how close does the X from above have to be in your niche? For example, if your product is running shoes can you write a "best athlete blogs" article? I'm worried about them reading the article, then leaving. In some smaller niches the topics closest to the product don't have much in the way of blogs out there. So how close to your niche does the Best X Blogs topic have to be?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Should we be using a blog for news
Our domain has/had a blog on a seperate subdomain. However we were a little slack in always keeping this up to date when we are particularly busy. Rather than reinstating the blog, I have been adding all our new articles directly onto the website rather than as blog posts. Is there any advantage from an SEO perspective to posting articles to a blog rather than as content on a site?
Content Development | | dsmdesign0 -
What is your favorite SEOmoz blog post of all time? And why?
I'll go with this post by Rand: White Hat SEO: It F@$#ing Works
Content Development | | ThomasHgenhaven1 -
How many blog posts per page are enough?
Any thoughts on how many blog posts per page are enough for SEO? Assume about 800-900 words per post.
Content Development | | casper4340