How To Utilize Your Categories and Tags More Effectively

October 25, 2010 - Last Modified: November 5, 2010 by Nile Flores 2,203

I have been blogging for a LONG time, well over 8 years. Throughout the different sites I have maintained, I have learned a lot about organization. In fact, I still am. I have noticed with the influx of bloggers coming in that blog organization is a big downfall. I want to address on how to utilize your categories and tags more effectively on your website.

As a web designer who has designed hundreds of websites over the years, content placement is huge, but site organization is even more important. This is what allows your visitors to effectively use your website and not have problems navigating. Navigating also includes when your visitor hits your 404 page or uses your site’s search. Although there are a lot of people using Google to substitute their site’s built in search capabilities, it is still important to make sure you are categorizing and tagging appropriately.

Tags

Tags are where a blogger can get into the nitty gritty. Using the example above with WordPress 3.0, if you just categorize it as WordPress, it would not do. It fits in with News even more. So, when you categorize it in the news category, you can tag it: WordPress, WordPress 3.0, and any other tags you want.

People use the tagging and often mix it up with keywords. It is not so simple. The tags only make sure that if your visitor wants to read a specific thing, that tag will help them find what they need, especially if you use a tag cloud on your 404 page. Your keywords are naturally within your post’s title and content, so when you do write with SEO tactics in mind, that is where that comes into play.

Both tags and categories are merely a method to organize your website.

For some, this might not be all important, but strategically organizing your site will clean up your site and make it less confusing for your visitor. The key is to honestly tag and optimize your sites. While it is tempting to categorize and tag excessively, it is not necessary. While I know this may be a conflicting matter, I know this method works the best and have advised hundreds on how to utilize this solution.

What is your tagging and categorizing strategy for your website?

About Nile Flores

Follow @blondishnet

Sassy blonde mom from Southern Illinois who is a Professional Blogger, AND a WordPress web designer and developer. Nile loves to help others rock out their blogs and social media handles. If it was not already apparent, she is addicted to WordPress, Blogging, Social Media, and in general, anything about the Internet. It is not uncommon to see her speak at WordCamps (WordPress conferences) and blogging conferences across the United States. Her website is Blondish.net.

{ 75 Responses }

rakesh kumar says:

How much it is effective to attract Search Engine or to increase CTR if we publish our tag on the post. Waiting for your kind reply. ~rakesh kumar
Govind Choudhary says:

I was so doubtful on using the categories and Tags in my Posts.Then,i thought this to be researched online and got this awesome article on the same..Now,i got how to use them effectively.Thanks a lot for this :)
Drew says:

I use my categories a lot for organization and the tags as a way to group together posts spread over a number of categories. However one thing I've never been able to do is choose a menu for the top and stick to it so I decided just to give the topics with the most posts the main posts menu. I think for most having a top menu is as easy as thinking of a color but for me it's as hard as ever.
- Nile says:
  
  I put my most important pages at the top. Right now I am redesigning my categories navigation, but I only have 7 general categories. It is a learning experience as you will find out that even you may be re-organizing even down to tags to make sure you are trying to make sure your visitors can find what they need.
john says:

You are right about that. It is good advise to only use one category and i try to stick to 3-5 tags just to be safe.
- Nile says:
  
  That is a very good policy and just makes sense. While you might have a post that might be relevant to other topics, the main subject should be what it is categorized as, and the rest as tags. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Mani Viswanathan says:

These days I hardly see blogs using keywords linking to a category or a tag page. They tend to take away the juice which is provided by keywords linking to that particular article. (Better called as Interlinking posts using keywords).
- Nile says:
  
  Huge difference between tagging and keywords. While you might have a keyword that may coincide with a tag, Google does not care for it other than your site's own organization. They want what people will search for on their engines and if you just happened to optimize for that specific keyword... great. However, tagging is never to be confused with keywords.
John McNally says:

Thanks for the tips Nile. I was starting to come to the same conclusion as you about Tags and Categories. I always think of them as ways to index a book. At first I was giving up to 2 or 3 categories to a post, but realised this was unsatisfactory for a reader. The post now goes into just one category as you recommend. Tags are a SEO way to attract readers, but I only want people who may be interested in my post, otherwise you get an enormous bounce rate. The Tags describe my post content as accurately as possible. Great advice Nile, I shall be back for more. 8) john
- Nile says:
  
  Thanks John. Just remember to use that All In One SEO for your keywords, or whatever SEO plugin you might use. That will help, and you would be surprised the difference between optimizing for Google versus optimizing for your website's organization. Keywords and tags do not always coincide.
Patricia says:

Hi Nile I am a fairly newbie blogger. Learning heaps from visiting other blogs. Will now go check that I have all this done correctly. I think I have but after reading your post probably could do better. Thanks for sharing. Found it really helpful. Patricia Perth Australia
Latief says:

Hi Nile, is the categories and tags effectively will help our blog performance? I always curious about this. Thanks.
- Nile says:
  
  Yes it will. While you may optimize for SEO, you also need to optimize your site's organization. It helps especially when you have a person who regularly visits the site without even searching... say Google, and they are searching within your website. Keep your organization simple. One category and a few tags. It will making finding specific articles easier and we all know even Google likes smart organization in websites.
Jasmine says:

Great tips on using categories and tags. I think I have done the right thing this time as I do not have a lot of categories on my website. :)
- Nile says:
  
  Thanks Jasmine! A few categories, or a dozen, just be sure if you want to optimize for SEO to install one of the plugins out there, like All In One SEO Pack - if you have not already. :)
Chadrack says:

Great help indeed. I stopped double categorization since moving my blog to its new domain. I think I will have to work on the tags. Thanks for this post.
- Nile says:
  
  I hope it has helped your site's organization. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Chadrack!
Jane says:

Oh, help! I'm a newbie blogger and have sprinkled tags around with gay abandon. I have 288 tags and I'm showing 45 in a cloud (still way too many). They are next to useless. Should I go back to every post and reduce the number of tags? I'm using Blogger and have no idea how to install categories. I really want to. Is there a gadget I need to install? Please help - in plain English, preferably! Many thanks - I'd be very grateful for any assistance. Jane
- Nile says:
  
  I am not as familiar with Blogger as I am with WordPress. I know in WordPress it is easy to create a category. I am not sure if Blogger is the same way. If it is tags, just have a look and see what ones really do not belong. If you do not have all of them listed, it is probably because Blogger only lists ones with a certain amount of tags so you do not have a page loaded will tags galore and your sidebar looking like a hot mess happened (lol.) If anyone is familiar with Blogger here at Famous Bloggers, can anyone help Jane?
Melinda says:

Great article. I find this is what my clients are most confused about..the difference between tags and categories. I also see them using categories like tags and linking about 7 of them to a post. You do a good job explaining the difference.
- Nile says:
  
  Thank you Melinda. I hope this helps all your clients. I keep explaining this verbally to my own web design clients, so having an article to refer to now cuts down talk time...lol
Designer's Digest says:

I messed up tags with keywords. LoL. I normally use to copy and paste keywords on tags fields. Now it will take ages to clean it up. Thanks for this post. Now I know how to handle it. PS: How many tags are good for each post? Search engines wont think it as keyword stocking?
- Nile says:
  
  The number of tags should be as low as 3 and no more than 10. Remember, tags are different than keywords, so if you have a SEO plugin (like the All In One SEO plugin if you have a WordPress powered site)... put those keywords in that. :)
  - Designer's Digest says:
    
    Hi Nile, Thanks for the reply. You mean 3 tags all together or per post? Thanks
Rick LaPoint says:

Hi Nile, Thanks for the Reality Check. Tags are something I'm really bad about. :-( We get so busy, many of those little "under the hood" things get swept under the rug. But they are important and need to be addressed. Rick
- Nile says:
  
  Hi Rick!... not a problem. Gave myself one a couple years ago about this, so we all get there some time. :D
Sujith says:

A well organized category tree is very much helpful in blog navigation. It is for the blog readers not for search engines. Recently one of my blog visitors asked about the importance of "Tags". I can refer this article.
- Nile says:
  
  Awesome, Sujith! Yeah, I am now referring people to this to explain, rather than just keep saying the same thing I have been telling clients for the past couple years. This post was definitely needed.
Andreas says:

Great guest post on Famous Bloggers, Nile, and an important one, because a well constructed category tree plays an important role in keeping your blog clean and organised.
- Nile says:
  
  Thanks Andreas! Always cleaning up websites all the time and explaining this. About time I wrote about it somewhere. :D
ZK says:

These are the most important pattern of your website and for this you should think about it at the beginning stage. Make a list of your categories and use them.
- Nile says:
  
  It is funny, even when you start a website out and plan it, it does not always following 90% of the plan. However, it is great that when time allows to go back and re-structure. I have re-structures blogs as old as 10 years and over 1000 points. That was quite a bit of time, but in the end... it helped.
Jitesh says:

Thanks for this useful post Nile .
- Nile says:
  
  You are welcome, Jitesh! Hope it helps a lot. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Jan Husdal says:

Two rules come to my mind here: "Keep It Simple Stupid" and "Less Is More". In my early days of blogging I like so many others succumbed to the habit of excessive tagging and categorizing (even worse, very similar categories and tags), because obviously, many posts could in fact fit very well into many categories and be supplied with a bunch of the same tags. The result: Clicking the tags or categories brought up the same list of posts whichever tag or category you click on. Bad reader experience. So some time ago I straightened up my categories and left only a few standing, and only allowed one category per post and cut seriously down on the number of tags. A couple of times per year I go over all my tags and weed out all the one-and-only-tags, i.e. if a tag has only one post associated with it, I need a very good reason to keep that tag, otherwise I delete it. The reason for the "single" tags is that sometimes I write a post intending to do more posts with the same topic (i.e. tag), but in the end I never do it. In that case I can delete the tag and rather add it back in when I actually do write that later post. With close to 400 posts now that is a hell of a job, but someone has to do it, or my readers won't come back, if all they see is a messy site. When it comes to blog organization, also I believe that it is important to have 1) an archive page listing all posts, much easier than scrolling up and down previous post pages and 2) an index page, listing all tags, like in a book. Anyway, thanks for a great post, and for reminding me to do some tag maintenance that is long overdue.
- Nile says:
  
  We all need reminders, even me...lol I know the feeling of re-organizing after having a blog for several years. It can be a pain, but worthwhile in the end. Thanks Jan!
bryan says:

Hey Nile, Like your opinion on tags. I think I need to have a look again at consolidating my tags like what you've said. I tend to create a few new ones everytime i publish a post. thx for posting this up
- ZK says:
  
  If your new post demand new tags than simply use them. But yes those tags should define your posts perfectly.
- Nile says:
  
  I agree with ZK on the new tags. If your post needs them for organizational purpose, put them in. However, be smart about it and label it exactly. No need to get fancy. Keep in mind what your visitors might search for on your website.
Salman says:

Indeed they are very important. This is why i hate auto blog posters because they tend to create irrelevant and junk tags + categories and as we all know its your readers who will make your site popular not just Page one ranking
- Nile says:
  
  Autoblogger software users are only putting in what keywords they want to their software to search for and publish automatically on the site. The keywords are usually dragged in according to what the original article had. So, if someone put a lot of tags and categories, this might be frustrating. I do not encourage or support autoblog software.
Gloson says:

Nice post Nile! I try to keep categories and tags simple on my blog. Usually, I only put one category for each post, though you can put more. Tags are like sub-categories for me. I've never really considered using them as keywords though. I've got some work to do now! :) Cheers! Gloson
- Nile says:
  
  It is a good thing you never considered them as keywords as they are not. Use your SEO plugin for that. :)
Leo says:

Good summary of what categories and tags are, Nile. One tool I use to get even more out of cats and tags is a plugin called SEO Title Tags. It allows you to add your own title tag to the main cats and tags pages for better ranking in the search engines, that way you can target long tail with articles and more competitive keywords with tags/cats.
- Nile says:
  
  The problem is that tags and categories are different from keywords. SEO Title tags, I really do not use. I use All in One SEO and make sure to put my keywords there. I use the natural WordPress SEO for the tags and categories for inner site organization and optimization. The other is for the search engine because that is where you put your article summary, title, and keywords.
Lennart Heleander says:

Hi Nile, I always put my articles in 5-6 categories and with around 20-25 tags and also links to 5-8 other blog articles. Google love it, and you get more pages index at Google who “think” you have a big blog. I do this only for the SEO and the SERP.
- Nile says:
  
  Your tags and categories have nothing to do with Google. This is for your site's organization. And that is way too many tags. Some of them may not even be necessary or even something that someone would search for in that article. If you are using an SEO plugin like All In One SEO or something similar, you will do yourself a huge favor. Keep it simple.
Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:

Thanks for the information. Indeed categories and tags are very important. I do take special care to ensure both are properly done.
- Nile says:
  
  That is great, Isabel! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. :D
Mike says:

There are more to say when it comes to categories Nile, because you really can define your articles in many angles. For instance, at Income Diary Blog, Michael divide his content into specific topics as well as level of readers, so surely there are many ways to optimize categorization of your blog. I also found that tags can aid to the categorization of content as well. Truly helpful content, Nile :)
- Nile says:
  
  You can divide it through tagging, rather than add as a main category, especially when gearing content for specific user levels. You can go further even with WordPress and your design to create custom post types specifically for user levels since WP 3.0. :)
Karan Labra says:

Nice write up Nile. I take care of my categories and tags in every post of mine. We should try to stick to just one category per post and about 4-5 relevant tags would do.
- Nile says:
  
  Awesome Karan! Thank you for coming by and commenting. I am glad to hear you are well organized with your website. :D
Tinh says:

Great post, I have optimized my categories but it seems tags does not work now with Google then I lowered my priority to tags recently, nice ideas to look back :-)
- Nile Flores says:
  
  Tags are different from keywords. They are useful for your site search, like those tag clouds, especially if you have a custom 404 page within your website (and not using Google's search.) To edit your tags, you might like the Simple Tags plugin. I am using that at Blondish.net and removed unnecessary tags and merged some tags to others.... -> it does that too. :) As for keywords, use your SEO plugin. In All in One SEO Pack, you can list your keywords, and set your custom description there. Other SEO related plugins do the same, so this is where it counts when you want to optimize for search engines.
Kimi says:

Hey Nile, Some small stuff like that are almost forgotten. I have worked on a client's site, and in this blog my client set a post has a few categories on it. Unfortunately, people tend to do "Link Building" first, before optimizing their sites with these small but important stuff. Thanks for sharing this with your readers.
- Nile Flores says:
  
  Thank you for coming by and reading my post. People DO try to link build first, and that is okay. When time permits, organize a bit here and there. Eventually it will all come together. Not all websites are going to be perfectly planned from the getgo. :)
TJ McDowell says:

I always categorize, and tag very infrequently. Is there research to show improved SEO with tagging? If I had concrete evidence that it worked, it would probably start tagging more aggressively. As far as categories, I usually just do one category, but if something clearly fits into 2 categories, I'm going to put it in both. For example, my most recent blog post is on best cameras for wedding photography, so I put the post in my categories for camera equipment and wedding photography because the post applies to both. In my opinion, if someone was looking at either category, they wouldn't be surprised to see the blog post there, so it's a good fit for both categories. What are your thoughts on a scenario like this?
- Nile Flores says:
  
  I recommend tagging to detail what your general categories do not cover. For example, if I have a Social Media and another as MMO (for Make Money Online) as a main category and I am writing about Sponsored Tweets, I would put it under MMO category and tag it twitter, social media, sponsored tweets, get paid to tweet. And yes, definitely it is okay to have a tag and a category the same because you never know in another category if there may be some relation in another post. As I have mentioned in other comments and somewhat in my article, tagging and keywords are totally different. It is important that if you want to optimize your article, you use your SEO plugin (whatever one you choose to use. I personally use All In One SEO Pack) to do your optimization. The tagging is for your site's organization and search purposes (if you use your own search instead of a 3rd party like Google.) You may want to look into customizing your search.php and 404.php template pages to even include a tag cloud to further help your visitors who might be have the term on the tip of their tongue, but need a nudge in the right direction.
Thu Nguyen says:

Hi Niles, From the start, I knew that the categories were going to be a challenge as they needed to have to structure to everything that will be falling into place. Thus, I came up with 6 and since then, only made sure that the topics I had pertain to at least 1. So far, it has worked out great. Not only that, the tags have gone on a diet as well. That eliminates so many choices to choose from. Just pull down from the list, select and publish. Thanks so much for sharing with us your observations and further your take on what is the best way to go about matters on our blog. Appreciate the share! :) Thu
- Nile says:
  
  That is awesome news, Thu! I am really happy that this type of organization has worked for your website. It does indeed make it loads easier! :)
Dave Doolin says:

It amazes me so few people seem to understand how to use categories and tags effectively! Yet both are important for search results. I've SERPs based on tags, and SERPs delivering breadcrumbs from categories (and that's really cool).
- Nile Flores says:
  
  A lot of people get tags and keywords mixed up. Tags are for your site organization and are great, but using your SEO plugin is where you set your keywords, description and such that will help. Of course, making sure you are using the right words for your tags are also nice for SEO because it also gives organization. Search engines love a well organized website. :)
Steve says:

Some real nuggets here. Better us of Categories and tags is something that I will definitely be addressing in the future of my blog. You clarified ideas I was having. Thanks, Have a wonderful week!
- Nile Flores says:
  
  No problem. Site organization is extremely important and it does take time to learn and master. I still am mastering it myself and learn all the time despite being an old school blogger.
Ileane says:

Hi Nile, these points are very important. My daughter recently launched a fashion blog to send traffic to her clothing website. I found that her tags seem to be more broad than her categories so we need to work on switching them around. This post will serve as a great guide. Thanks.
- Nile Flores says:
  
  Thanks Ileane. If you need any further help on that, it is not a problem. I do this a lot for clients on organizing a site. I almost feel like my father when he takes his patients' lists of meds and reduces them...lol
Murlu says:

I'm actually in the process of minimalizing my overall categories - trying to take them from about 12 or so down to just 5 - then use tags more effectively. All of the categories now are just too much and really redundant - having 'hosting' and then have it again when you have it in 'blogging' as well - ya know? Got some work to do :) - thanks for the post.
- Nile Flores says:
  
  Thank you for dropping by and reading. You know, it is something that is overlooked a lot with websites, especially ones that have a lot of categories. Really, you can probably break a site down to less than 10 major categories if you think about it. For example, Social Networking could still fall under the general category of Social Media. Anything Blogging, goes under... of course, blogging. The tags can be the details that set it apart.
Jamie Northrup says:

Nice post, I have to admit my categories and tags used to be a bit of a mess (still are on some of my older websites), but on my new personal one I made it a point to try and make the categories more global as you describe and only put the specifics in the tags. It's specially important for a website that covers many different topics.
- Nile Flores says:
  
  For a long time I was the same way and even though after a huge site re-focus, revamping my tags and categories for over 450 posts has been a chore. A few I am still tweaking today, but it is worth it. I agree... it is important for sites that cover a lot of topics to utilize a good organizational method with their categories and tags.

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