I’ve been working with WordPress for years and it’s amazing how much you can do with just a little bit of knowledge about the platform’s inner workings.
One thing that’s always fascinated me is how categories and tags work together to help organize and categorize your content.
It might seem like a small thing but believe me getting it right can make a huge difference in how your website performs both for users and search engines.
Understanding the Power of Categories
Think of categories as the big broad buckets you use to sort your content.
You want to keep these categories relatively small – maybe 10 or less.
That way you can make sure each category holds a distinct and meaningful set of content.
For example let’s say you run a website about baking.
Your main categories might be:
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Bread
- Pastries
These categories are broad enough to encompass a wide range of content but they also provide a clear structure for your site visitors to navigate.
It’s like a library where each section represents a different category.
The Importance of Category Capitalization
When it comes to capitalization it’s important to treat categories like the structural elements they are.
Capitalize them consistently! Think of them as headings for your website’s content.
Capitalizing your categories ensures that they match the way your website is structured making it easier for search engines to understand the relationship between your content and the categories it belongs to.
Imagine if you used all lowercase categories on a site about cats like “cats” or “kittens.” It wouldn’t look right when a search engine displayed the category name next to a post title.
Creating and Managing Categories
You can create new categories right from the WordPress post editor.
Just click that little “+ Add New Category” button pop in a category name and bam! It’s created.
You can also go to the “Posts > Categories” section in your WordPress dashboard to manage your existing categories.
This is where you can add descriptions for each category which can be really helpful for search engines.
Remember creating a new category is a great way to group similar content together.
And if you ever need to clean up you can delete categories from that same “Posts > Categories” section.
But before you go deleting be aware that any posts assigned to that category will be moved to your default category (you can find this in “Settings > Writing”). Make sure your default category is where you want those posts to end up!
Getting Granular with Tags
Now tags are like those smaller more specific labels you might use to describe something in more detail.
Think of them as keywords or descriptors that help your readers understand the specific nuances of your content.
Back to that baking website a tag might be something like “chocolate chips” “vegan” or “gluten-free.” You can apply multiple tags to a single post making it easier for your readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
The Importance of Lowercase Tags
When it comes to tags you want to keep them lowercase.
Think of them as those descriptive terms that help search engines better understand the content of your website.
They’re there to provide context and detail not to create hierarchical structures like categories.
Managing Tags in Yoast SEO
You’ll often want to prevent search engines from indexing tag pages.
A good plugin to use for that is Yoast SEO.
Go to the “Titles & Metas > Taxonomies” section and set tags to “noindex nofollow.” This stops search engines from creating separate index pages for each tag.
Categories and Tags: An SEO Power Couple
Here’s the thing about categories and tags – they’re both crucial for good SEO but in different ways.
Categories provide that essential website structure that search engines use to understand the overall layout and organization of your content.
Tags on the other hand act like those subtle breadcrumbs that help readers understand the specifics of each piece of content.
Here are a few key takeaways for SEO when using categories and tags:
- Categories Are Indexed Tags Are Not: By default categories are indexed by search engines while tags are not. This means that search engines will create separate pages for each of your categories helping them better understand the different sections of your site. Tags on the other hand are not indexed so they don’t create additional pages.
- Categories Are Broad Tags Are Specific: Categories are those big buckets you use to organize your content into broad topics. Tags on the other hand are more specific descriptors that provide more detailed information about each individual post.
- Categories Help with Navigation Tags Help with Discovery: Categories help your readers navigate your website by providing a clear structure. Tags on the other hand help them discover new content based on their specific interests.
Putting It All Together
So the next time you’re creating a new post on your WordPress site take a moment to think about how categories and tags can work together to organize your content and help search engines understand what your website is all about.
It’s one of those small but powerful things that can make a big difference in the long run.
And remember WP Engine is there to help you with all your WordPress hosting needs.
They’re experts at providing fast and secure hosting for your website so you can focus on creating great content.