In the battle of Categories Vs Tags, who will win?
The winner will always be Categories! And to the victor go the spoils. And what spoils might Victor receive? Relevant SEO traffic and that makes you, the site owner (Victor?), the real winner!
Categories vs Tags
Many people are confused about what a category is and what a tag is, how to use a category vs tag in their WordPress blogs. To put it very simply: Categories are the main idea or subject and are more general, where tags are more specific. The purpose of Tags is to relate one post to another for your user to easily find similar information on your website. To keep your viewer on your site.
Example of Good Use of Categories and Tags
Lets say your blog is about Country Life because you just moved to the rural countryside from the city. You might have some main topics you know you want to write about:
Gardening, Animals, Trees, Recipes
So you write a post about the Fruit Trees you planted. This post clearly goes in the Trees category, but it can also go in the Gardening category.
The tags can be the sub-topics you’re writing about, like:
Apple Tree, Pear Tree and Apple Sauce
Because you wrote in your post about the great Apple Sauce you made from your harvested apples, you add that apple sauce tag. When a viewer has read your post, they see the tag for apple sauce and they click that to see if maybe you have more information about apple sauce, and what they’ll find is your earlier post you wrote about your grandmother’s recipe for the best apple sauce. And that Apple Sauce recipe is of course in the Recipes Category.
The SEO side of Categories vs Tags
Good SEO practice is to have about 5-7 categories, depending on the size of your website, that have a broad appeal. Categories SHOULD be indexed by search engines.
Points about Categories:
5-7 Categories
Index Categories
Must be unique and no tags by the same name
Can have hierarchy
Never use Uncategorized
Also, categories can be placed in your main navigation and/or sidebar.
Points about Tags:
Tags should NOT be indexed
Tags should NOT be placed in any navigation on the site
Tags do NOTHING for site indexing
And, do not bloat your tags list with repetitive versions of the same words, plurals and synonyms. See my post, Delete Unused WordPress Tags.
This is where the spoils come in play
By creating well-thought-out categories for your posts, concise tags that relate one post to another, you’ll create an easy to follow site structure that gently leads your viewer on a tour through your website. And if your viewers find your site navigation easy and relatable, so will the search engines which will bring you more visitors (The Spoils!).
Laura
