Stand On Your Tippy Toes

They serve a very similar purpose as tags, but tags are a little bit more specific than categories. Categories is a broader way to file away your posts, and make it easier for your readers to navigate through your blog’s universe. When a subscriber clicks a tag it should return only a handful of posts, but when they click a category it should return several posts. This week’s tip is to help guide you when picking out your categories.

Categorizing Your Categories

Chances are you already have some categories in place, the first thing to do is look at your current list of categories and determine which ones (if any) you rarely use and potentially could cut loose. Starting from scratch isn’t necessary by any means, just ensuring that the categories you chose in the past are still relevant to your store blog today.

Tags and categories both exist for a reason, so use both wisely. When choosing a category you should really plan around what you think you will be writing about primarily. If along the way you realize you’re writing about a topic more frequently than you ever imagined then create a category for it, or on the flip side if you decide that you rarely use a category you expected to use a lot; go ahead and get rid of it.

Try your best to make sure that each of your categories has the same measure of scope, don’t have one category that is very narrow and then another one that is extremely broad. Attempt to have all your categories living on the same plane.

When naming a category make sure it is a self-explanatory name, something that any reader could understand the contents of the category without having to explore it thoroughly.

At the same time keep it simple, try to keep your blog clean and precise. In doing so you probably want to limit the number of categories to a low number. Four to eight categories should be sufficient enough to harness all of your blog posts. Remember when choosing categories to plan, stay on an even plane, and have an easy-to-understand name; also keep the overall number low. If you have any input or questions feel free to leave a comment.