Let me ask you this question; who are categories for?
Those tags and blog category links, in your post and in your sidebar. Are they for you, the blogger, or are they for your visitors and readers?
If you think for a minute they are for your own content organisation then wash your brain out with soap right now!
The 10 Minute Blog Tip for today is create user-centric categories.
Think about what people look at when they arrive at your blog. Consider how a blog is navigated and used.
Your readers will navigate using category or tag links from your post, perhaps looking for similar posts they might like to read, or they will look around your blog for something interesting to catch their eye.
As you ponder on this and realise your “misc” category isn’t really pulling its weight, start to imagine what topics your readers would like to find.
Rather than have categories that record the subjects you have written about, like a dusty filing cabinet full of alphabetised manilla folders, brainstorm categories that will draw readers further into your content.
What does your audience need to know, enjoy reading about, collect and bookmark? Can your categories be benefit-led? Do you have the space for longer, more descriptive category names or does your template restrict you to single words? Is there a potential to get some search engine keyword fairy dust sprinkled over your category list? After all your sidebar links appear on every page of your blog …
Another way to think of categories is as sub-niches of your audience. For example here at The Blog Herald we have people who are interested in news, blog tips, relationship blogging. Your categories are like hyper-focused mini blogs just for those people.
Take ten minutes to think about your categorisation. Kill your “miscellaneous”, “other”, generic categories and make them specific and interesting. You might find by trimming and tweaking your visitors dive deeper into your content.
How did you choose your categories? Do you navigate blogs using categories and tags? Let us know in the comments …
Chris Garrett encourages you to criticise his blog categories. Subscribe to get more blogging, copywriting and marketing tips, plus a free ebook on creating flagship content that will boost your traffic and subscribers
