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What is a Blog Category?

2 min to read

A blog category is how posts that relate to a subject are organized together for readers to easily explore interesting content. Apart from assisting visitors with navigation, categories help search engines scan the content, hence, enhancing your website’s visibility.

Example: On a business blog, consider “Marketing” to be a category, while underneath that, “Digital Marketing,” “Marketing Strategies,” and “Marketing Analytics” could be tagged within the categories.

Pro Tip:
Categories vs. Tags: Categories cover general topics, whereas tags are particular keywords under these topics. You can employ them in the structure of your blog.
Key Takeaways:
  • Use categories for an organized blog
    • Make it user-friendly.
  • Determine categories prudently
    • Align niche and audience.
  • Use tags for specifics
    • Keep categories broad.
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What is a Blog Category?

How do I choose the right categories for my blog?

To select the categories, consider the following:

  • Is it aligned with the niche of your blog? 

  • Does it resonate with your target audience? 

  • Does it offer enough room for future content?

By applying appropriate categories you can influence reader engagement and affect your content strategy.

Pro Tip:
Brainstorming: Start with generating the topic list for the blog itself. Then, find more focused subjects to see which would combine in potential categories.

Research: Study how other successful blogs within your area use the categories.

What are the rules of thumb when it comes to using blog categories and tags?

Here are rules of thumb that you need to have in mind: 

  • Categories: Avoid categories that are too specific by keeping them broad. Stay within 5-10 categories.

  • Tags: Employ tags to specify the information you put in your posts.

  • Consistency: Ensure that categories and tags are used uniformly throughout the blog.

  • Hierarchy: If your blog features multiple topics, you may want to subcategorize your posts to further organize your categories.

Blog’s user experience and SEO benefit from a consistent and thoughtful use of categories and tags.

Can I change or update my blog categories later on?

Of course, feel free to change or improve your blog categories as your blog develops. Flexibility is the key here! If there is a change in the focus of your blog over time, your categories should also be able to reflect that.

Pro Tip:
It is wise to inform your audience of the changes you have made or redirect old category links. This way, you do not confuse the reader.

Conclusion

Blog categories act as instructive road signs on the long journey; too many blog posts can overwhelm a reader in search of what they need. When you carefully craft blog categories, the result is a user-friendly website optimized for search engines, which captivates the audience and makes them want more of what you offer.

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