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
-
Wordpress: Why do the URLs of my posts keep changing to match the posts titles?
I'll try to keep this brief. The URLs of my posts keep snapping back to exactly match their post titles, no matter how often I try to change them. e.g. title: How to Tie Your Shoelaces desired URL: tie-shoelaces BUT actual URL: how-to-tie-your-shoelaces Anyone come across/ resolved this issue before?
On-Page Optimization | | GerardAdlum0 -
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 -
Wordpress / Full URL In Menu Box
I came across an article online (not Moz) that says adding the full url in a menu is a Google standard. So when you make a menu link you put "www.example.com/page" instead of "/page". What are your thoughts on this? Any real reason to? Y840pbN lrwZPDj
On-Page Optimization | | InfinityTechnologySolutions0 -
Tags vs. Categories? What should I use?
I'm starting with a blog (self-hosted wordpress) and I'm thinking of the following content structure so that the readers are easily able to locate relevant content: Background: It's a blog which gives people relevant info about government jobs. To start with we will just be publishing information about these jobs but over a period of time also intend to post content that helps readers prepare for these jobs. In other words, right now it's just about detailed job notifications but in the coming months, we shall also post about preparation-related information. Typically, each of the job notifications can be bifurcated like: Jobs basis industry Banking Railways Clinical, etc. Jobs basis company ABC co. DEF co. XYZ co. etc. Jobs basis State / City City 1 City 2, etc. Jobs basis educational qualification Graduation Post-Graduation, etc. Now, I'm seriously confused how should I structure this data from the perspective of Categories & Tags such that it's reader as well as SEO-friendly. Do note that each of the government jobs post ideally falls in a couple of above mentioned categories. Thanks..
On-Page Optimization | | Shalin.TJ0 -
WordPress - duplicate content
I'm using WordPress for my website. However, whenever I use the post section for news, I get a report back from SEOmoz saying that there's duplicate content. What it does is it posts them in the Category and Archive section. Does anyone know if Google sees this as duplicate content and if so how to stop it? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | AAttias0 -
Problem with Plugin: Wordpress SEO by Yoast
Hi Hi, I'm using the Plugin "Wordpress SEO by Yoast". Unfortunatelly, this plugin generates a sourcecode looking like this: name='description' content='XXXXXX.'/> Seomoz can't read this and tells me, that my pages have no description. Google doesn't matter and reads it correct. Is there anything I can do about this? Many greetings André
On-Page Optimization | | waynestock0 -
Can duplicate content issues be solved with a noindex robot metatag?
Hi all I have a number of duplicate content issues arising from a recent crawl diagnostics report. Would using a robots meta tag (like below) on the pages I don't necessarily mind not being indexed be an effective way to solve the problem? Thanks for any / all replies
On-Page Optimization | | joeprice0 -
Title tag for category page
I'd like to know your views on the best approach for title tags for category pages for ecommerce sites. 3 examples A) Category name | Free delivery on $50 purchase | Brand name B) Discover best "category name" on brand name C) Category Name | 1st Keyword, 2nd keyword | Brand name Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | walidalsaqqaf0