Should I noindex our WordPress Categories?
-
What are the conditions under which we should noindex blog categories?
I'm asking because I want to decided whether or not to noindex our categories. here.
-
I think that your "hub" pages can be category pages and more.
Imagine a hub page for widgets with.... "how to do it" articles down the left column, "widget reviews" down the center column, and tips on "how to enjoy widgets" down the right column.
These could look like your sample page or look like the homepage of Slate.com... or any other news site's homepage or category pages if you have enough content.
-
-
Nice, I think that is going to be killer. Let me know how it works.
-
Exactly. This is what I did for one such page last week.
-
"...use "hub" pages that link to all my other content. "
Yes, exactly. That is actually what we are working on next week. We are going to create hub pages for the entire website. They will link out to all of the best content for their topic that is both "on the blog" and "on the website". These will also link to product pages. We are going to use big juicy images on these hub pages to quickly communicate the topic and make them look colorful and fun.
The order of the items on these pages will be determined by what is getting clicked. So, stuff that is hot with the visitors will move to the top. These hub pages will also link to a few product sales pages that have generous amounts of informative content.
-
Thanks EGOL. Yes, I've realized that I need to have a strategy and to make a conscious decision to index or noindex. My category pages do pull in some SE traffic but I also have pages that compete directly with those category pages. In terms of content those specific pages (articles) are superior to the category pages too.
One other solution is what you did which is delete the category all together and use "hub" pages that link to all my other content.
I'm definitely going to do some reading and learning about this in the next couple weeks.
-
Heydarian, great to see you here.
This is a complex question. The answer of what to index and what to not index varies from situation to situation.
Let me give you examples and a little history for two sites...
**BLOG A ** (an industry news filter, kinda like Metafilter for an industry)
The site that I spend most of my time on has a blog that receives very skimpy posts. "You gotta see this widget". "This widget is really cool". "Acme invents a new green widget". Three years ago, I had post pages, category pages and a home page that all received lots of traffic. Then, after Panda, those skimpy post pages did not perform well and actually damaged the rankings for the entire site - because I had thousands of them. So, I noindexed all of the post pages and even deleted thousands of them a couple times per year because they were mostly "newsy" content. The category pages and homepage still received lots of traffic and the rankings for the rest of the site recovered nicely.
Then, I think google started looking at category pages that link to skimpy content pages and they started performing poorly. So, I changed the blog format to eliminate the post pages and the category pages. Now there is only a big homepage and pagination pages. This blog still is very successful because lots of people continue to visit it directly and subscribe to the feed - but I intentionally abandoned the post pages and category pages because Google has changed.
BLOG B (a product blog for a retail website)
On this blog the posts are detailed product reviews, detailed descriptions of how to do something, detailed quashes of misconceptions, etc. Each post has several photos and 500 to 2000 words. At first I was using about ten category pages, but after a couple years they still were not getting much traffic. Other pages of my site (not on the blog) competed with them and performed more strongly. So, I deleted the category pages from the blog, HOWEVER, I began to generously link to the topic pages on other parts of the website. The results have been positive.
So, the bottom line. I think that you have to look at many things:
-
Are your category pages pulling in traffic? If not, delete them, don't just noindex them unless lots of people are reading them. They are power sinks if you still have them on your site IMO.
-
Do you have superior pages on your site for the same topic? If you do, then give them your attention and promote them on your blog posts.
-
How does google treat pages like yours?
Then you gotta place your bets on a strategy. Hope that it works. Keep watching the analytics.
Good luck.
-
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
-
Can I replace categories with a static page
Hello there. I want to replace all of WordPress categories with static pages so that users see a well designed and constructed presentation of all the articles within each topic instead of just a long list of excerpts. I've already done this with 2 categories and although it is hard work I can't help feeling it is a much better thing for my users. However, I'm concerned that I am embarking on this project without being totally sure that it makes sense from an Seo point of view, or whether there are any downsides I haven't thought of? My idea is that the WordPress categories are set to noindex and nofollow. Search engines should find all of my static category pages and all of the content within each category will be spidered from there instead. Just to be sure you know what I mean here is a link to a normal category - https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/category/consumer/ and here is my static page replacement for it - https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/consumer-rights-appliances/ Both pages contain links to all articles within the category except the one generated by WordPress is just a long paginated list, and my replacement is a proper category page, which is hopefully far more useful . Can someone please confirm that there are no downsides to this strategy? 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | Snowdune1 -
Schema Markup for eCommerce Category Pages?
My research indicates that applying an ItemList schema markup to our category pages is likely the best way to go. However, I've also ready that Google discourages schema markup on category pages. I'm just wondering if any of you have applied schema markup to your category pages and, if so, how did you do it? John,
On-Page Optimization | | JohnBrown75
Essay Writer1 -
Smae Category Descriptions but in Different Cities
Hi, I was curious, if I have a guide with 20 categories, and that guide is in 10 different cities, can I have a category description for each city that simply swaps out the city name? Seattle Big Widgets
On-Page Optimization | | EBKMarketing
We offer the largest selection of widgets in the Seattle area. We have small widgets, medium widgets, large widgets. We have so many widgets, most people in Seattle are blown away by our selection. Portland Big Widgets We offer the largest selection of widgets in the Portland area. We have small widgets, medium widgets, large widgets. We have so many widgets, most people in Portland are blown away by our selection. Would this be considered duplicate content, if it's followed by distinct city listings? Writing 20 decriptions would be nicer than writing 200. Just trying to think about SEO, resources, best use of time, etc. Thanks0 -
Product Description Blurb on Category Page
Hey Everyone, Working with a client who currently has category pages that contain its respective product's description (or about 30 words from it) in each of their product blocks on that category page. We are currently playing with the idea of switching it down to just being the product title and image. We think this will be much more aesthetically pleasing, but aren't sure if it will effect our SEO either negatively or positively. A couple of things to note: The category pages have a description (many of them still need work, but they are unique). The product's description inside the product block is duplicate content of the first 30 or so words on the product page. If you have 30 products on the page, you end up with a page that contains about 900 words + the unique description at the top of the page. Will dropping those 900 words hurt our SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | frankandmaven0 -
Canonical URL Category and Tags
Hello, I would like to know that I want to use both category and tags in my blog StylishMahi. If I index both category and tags, should I use canonical URL tag to pass referring to main category. As I want more my categories in SERP results ranking higher? I have also attached a picture. Can someone please confirm? Photo by Moz ZigdWMx
On-Page Optimization | | PratapSingh0 -
Creative ways to dramatically increase content on ecommerce category pages?
I need to signficantly boost the content on the category pages on my ecommerce website. Currently, they're pretty thin, with some only having approx 50 words of unique content. In the past, I've intentionally kept the content on these pages quite light, to keep the aesthetic a certain way. It's a fashion-based site, so it's very much about the visual. However, with the introduction of Panda, I need to change this mindset. But, there must be slightly more creative ways to boost the content to stop the pages looking too text heavy. I'm not talking hidden text or anything, but ways to break it up in different blocks on the page to make it look natural/relevant, while keeping it looking great. Anyone have any good ideas? Or, any links to ecommerce sites that have employed brilliant methods?
On-Page Optimization | | Coraltoes770 -
How To Change Wordpress Category Title
My categories are indexed and I want to change the category page title. At present it just defaults to the category name but I want to set a different page title. For example I want the category to be 'Motor Cars' but I want the category page title to be 'Buy Motor Cars - New And Used'. How can I do this?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Doubt about correct no. of categories on my blog
I have site wide 25 categories on my blog but I dont know whether I should keep few categories only like 6-8 or having 25 categories is ok? Plz help
On-Page Optimization | | ksbnok0