How Many Categories Should A Blog Have
I believe that a blog should have a very limited number of categories. Depending on your topic and how broad you go in depth with your primary topic will determine how many categories you need, if you even need any. After two years of blogging, I have learned a lot about categorizing and organizing your blog content.
The trick is in making your blog very user friendly. Many people believe that there are tricks in making your blog more search engine friendly; however, the best trick is to understand that search engines want exactly what readers want. Your blog needs to be very friendly for users. When you are considering the number of categories to use, also consider what would make the reader’s experience better.
Using Categories On A Blog
To me, I feel like a blog should have around 5 to 7 categories. You can have a little less and a little more depending on your topic. But typically the sweet spot is in having around 5 to 7 primary categories. Choosing your categories is very important. I would suggest looking at http://dir.yahoo.com and http://dmoz.org to see how they did their categories for the same topic you blog about. Also, I would suggest that you assign only one category per post.
What About Tagging
Tagging is a very important system. You should use around 3 to 5 tags per post. This enables users to search and find your content using two systems. Users have the option of searching by primary category as well as a second option of searching content based of primary keywords you have assigned it. If you assign each post around 3 to 5 keyword phrases, TAGS, then this will really help users find the information that they are looking for.
Where Do I Display My Categories and Tags
The sidebar is a perfect place to display your categories and tags. Typically I display them very high up on the sidebar above the top fold. Usually I am pretty standardized and display my Page Menu first - home, about, contact, etc.. - and then I display my category links next and then below categories I will then display my tag section. If you’re using WordPress, setting this up is very simple. WordPress includes a system called Sidebar Widgets which includes the ability to drag and drop these sections into place.
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Date/Time: 6-10-2008 18:31:13 Comment #15348
Hi Garry!
Sound advice. Too many blogs have no obvious central theme, and come across as a mish-mash of unplanned topics.
I liked the advice of using DMOZ as a model for organizing.
Date/Time: 6-10-2008 18:51:04 Comment #15350
Thanks man… the way I see it, why try to re-invent the wheel. Now one should change the wording slightly but by using DMOZ and Dir.Yahoo.com it will give a publisher a great tool towards organizing the content in their blog. Many years ago I used to be a DMOZ editor. That was a fun time.
Date/Time: 6-11-2008 08:30:24 Comment #15394
Hmmmm, I never really thought about this until recently, when I noticed that many of the blogs I read don’t have tons of categories, and I’m pretty sure that I can consolidate some of mine into more broad topics and use tagging to get granular.
How would that effect the links to my articles? If I change the amount of categories I have? It’s something I have been considering….
Date/Time: 6-12-2008 02:06:02 Comment #15477
Well… you’ll end up creating dead pages. Check to see how well established these category pages are in Google. If they have their foot in the door pretty deep, I’d just leave it. There are ways to do 301 redirects and stuff like that, but I don’t know how to do all that jazz… perhaps a programmer who is trolling around on this post can help with that.
It is always easier to build but its always harder to take away with a blog.
Date/Time: 6-11-2008 09:49:21 Comment #15397
Great post Garry. I like to use Categories as my primary method of navigation among HIGH LEVEL topics. Then with each post, I will include 4 or 5 tags about SPECIFIC topics. I don’t even display my tag collection in my sidebar or anything. The idea is that tags can be like an additional “search option” (in addition to the actual search option :)). For example, you can click on a Category from my side panel called “How To” to see all the how-to articles. If you are reading a specific post about building traffic though, one of the Tags might be “SEO”, which the reader can then click on after reading the post if they want to learn more about that specific topic.
I wrote about this in more detail a few weeks ago.
Thanks!
Date/Time: 6-12-2008 02:07:38 Comment #15478
Hi Jeff, thanks for the comment and thanks even more for connecting us to your article that expands on this. I look forward to reading what you wrote. Sounds to me like you put quite a bit of time and pride into how your present your content on your blog. Nice work man.
Date/Time: 6-11-2008 11:21:10 Comment #15409
I use tags to specify posts within a category, so my category list won’t get too long. I currently have 10 categories. And it’s important to have a category that fits to all things off topic to your blog instead of making a new category that will destroy your blog’s theme. What do you think of my categorization?
Date/Time: 6-12-2008 02:09:25 Comment #15479
Hi Louis,
I had trouble loading your page. It was timing out on me. I’ll try again later and hopefully be able to view it. Sounds like you’re doing the right thing for your readers.
Date/Time: 6-12-2008 15:17:03 Comment #15499
Great post Garry. This makes me rethink how my categories are. My categories are very messy and I really should lower everything.
-Mike
Date/Time: 6-12-2008 15:20:36 Comment #15502
Hi Mike,
Yes, you have quite a few categories that only have one or two posts inside them. Dropping a few categories and moving a few posts into other more established categories might not be a bad option for you. You do have a bunch.
Date/Time: 6-22-2008 06:26:01 Comment #15836
I’ve always tried to keep my categories down to the 5-7 level as it just makes things simpler in terms of my navigation system.
Whereas tags I try to add as many as may be relevant, I seem to remember you had a lot of tags in use at one point - have you consciously reduced the number you use and just stick to top search phrases found on MNF?
Date/Time: 7-13-2008 10:36:26 Comment #16932
I tend to agree. I have built a mish-mash of categories over the years, to where it out of control. Now, I can see that I need to consolidate my categories.
I just hope it’s not too late, as I have 1,000’s of indexed pages, if I change the category on them it could mess up my internal links. I’ll just have to work on it and see.
Steve