Why your Blog needs Categories and Tags.

“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story”

Ursula K. Le Guin

What are Categories?
Categories are high-level topics that group similar post based on a theme. A movie blog might have Categories representing movie types (Action, Drama, Comedy, SciFi, Musical). A post should only one assigned to one Category.

What are Tags?
Tags are singular pieces of information that group dissimilar posts based on their content. For instance, a Tag of Tina Turner might return select movies from 3 different categories like Action, Musical, and SciFi. Don’t go crazy with Tags. Too many might cause a loss of continuity and they start to lose their value.

Why should they matter to your readers?
People are busy and impatient. When a first time visitor comes to your food blog looking for quick, vegan breakfast snack recipes for kids, she doesn’t have time to spend 10 minutes scrolling through dozens of unwanted and uninspiring holiday brisket recipes for families of twelve. 

Why should they matter to you?
That first time visitor, who’s valuable time you just wasted, she’s not coming back anytime soon. She will, however, share her unhappiness with other food blog readers by posting a really bad review of your site. So that’s a lose/lose for you. You lost a reader, and you lost a bit of your reputation.

Best Practice?

• A Blog should have no more Categories than is absolutely necessary. For most Blogs, 5-10 is a good rule.
• A Post should be listed under only one Category. When a post is listed under multiple Categories, it can cause a problem with duplication and SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
• A Post should have 2-5 Tags.
• A Tag is basically ad hoc, created by the Post author at the time of Post.
• If you don’t foresee using a new Tag for future Posts, don’t use it. Choose a different Tag.

As for me, I find it difficult to follow these rules. I tend to over analyze the pros and cons when creating, and assigning Categories and Tags. Analysis Paralysis is a real thing and it’s a real pain. I’m redoing my blog taxonomy today.