Deciding what to call your categories isn’t an easy task. You need a name that makes sense for the visitor, but also fits with the overall structure of your blog/website. A good structure will help to improve the user experience and will allow easier navigation of your site. Both categories and tags should be utilized to ensure your content is properly organized.
You can find the management area for your categories under the “Posts” section in the WordPress dashboard. This area will allow you to change the names, delete or even add a description for your categories. You can quickly add or change a category name with the “quick edit” option or you can use the edit option. The only difference between the two is that the quick edit won’t allow you to add a description. That must be done in the edit screen.
Keep in mind, any time you change the category slug, it will change the URL of that category and all the posts you keep in that category (depending on your setup). This means, if any links on your site point to a specific category and you decide to change the slug, you will need to manually update those links, as well.
Four Tips for Naming Categories
1. Shorter is Better
In most cases one or two words is plenty for your category name. It doesn’t need to be so specific that it becomes three words or longer. For example, a website about golf might use the following categories:
- Golf Clubs
- Tips
- Apparel
- Golf Balls
- Books
- Videos
These are all very short category names, but they work perfectly. Longer category names will also create a longer URL, which doesn’t provide any benefits to your website.
2. Descriptive, but General
You want to make sure your category names are descriptive, but also general. Looking at the golf example, again, this type of site needs the category name “golf balls” because if it was just “balls” it’s not descriptive enough. Unless they also sell tennis balls, basketballs, bowling balls and other types of balls, they need the descriptive second word.
3. Use Keywords When they Fit
The last thing you want to do is name all your categories with keyword phrases fitting with your site, unless they all make sense. However, when you can, using a keyword phrase as a category will provide some search engine optimization help. Just make sure the keyword you plan to use makes sense and you’re not just using it for search engine ranking.
4. Keep it Simple
It can be easy to overthink your category names. If you keep it simple, you will find it much easier to come up with a handful of good names for your categories. Keep in mind, these names are not set in stone and you can always change them or add more categories as you go along.
How Many Categories do You Need?
Another part of naming your categories is figuring out how many you need. This isn’t always easy and it varies from one website to another. Some will start with just a couple categories, but over time, will end up with dozens, while others will start with five and continue with the same five throughout the history of their blog or website.
It’s necessary to consider the main areas you plan to provide content under and create categories for each. Once you’ve covered the main areas, you may just want to allow your categories to evolve as you move forward with your content plan. When you post something that doesn’t fit in one of your current categories, just create a new one.
Categories provide a great way to organize your website and with WordPress, it’s very easy to manage your categories. Start with just a few and see where things go as you move forward with your project. You might find that you never need to add another category or you may need multiple new categories every month. There’s no set number, as long as the user can easily navigate your site and find what they’re looking for.
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