I’ve been trying to do research lately on categories and tags, and whilst there is a lot of information about tagging and SEO, it was really quite difficult to find information on categories. I did find one post at http://www.lindsayhumes.com/organizing-blog-categories which was awesome in discussing how best to develop themes and categories for your blog. For those out there who are in the blog marketing and promotion world officially, they have that innate knowledge and ability to understand marketing strategies that best drive traffic to the blog and enhance blog promotion.
For the rest of us however who are learning on the fly, what often happens, as what happened to me, was that we write stuff down because we have something to say. We think we’re going to talk a hell of a lot about one thing, but end up talking about it minimally. We develop far too many categories because we’re “lifestyle bloggers” and we like a variety of things and so we put many categories out there to describe a post type. And this is great, this is what makes us human and individuals and makes us wonderful. But for the purposes of promoting our blogs, it doesn’t really do much other than create confusion. For example, if someone is blogging about travel or fashion, I may not have as much of an interest because I am not really into those things to the point that I have a piqued interest. Yes I like to travel, but travel doesn’t have a huge value for me. I don’t read about travel and don’t really talk about travel, so it’s unlikely I am going to find a travel blog specifically interesting unless I’m researching a particular place and want honest feedback and reviews about it.
What happens is that we end up lost in an online world of blogs where everyone is talking about something. But not a lot of tailored traffic, where people with the same interests can share the digital space and come together, is directed toward those blogs. And part of that I believe, is how well your categories are described and what they reference. As I mentioned before, when I see a blog marketed as lifestyle and have a better look and its travel and fashion, the use of categories or better site descriptors would help me initially assess whether or not that is something I have interest in. It doesn’t hurt me to click on this page still and have a look but essentially, it is the bloggers whose sites and themes resonate with me more who I will make a greater effort in engaging with.
That being said, I recently sat down and looked at my own categories and how they were structured. I looked at what themes had the greatest grouping of posts and what had little to none. It really is important because one of the categories is one I am thinking of turning into a second blog, so potentially my site is going to be restructured. I also need to make sure I don’t get distracted from what I want thatfitologylife to be and to represent.
I’m no master in blogging. I am learning as I go along, and I attempt to share my knowledge with all of you. So I am going to give you 5 tips to help you master your category selection when reviewing your blog. (I say reviewing because I think that like me, you’ve come to this post because you’re probably seeking guidance now on better blog promotion and marketing. You’ve been blogging for a few months and you like what you’re doing, but you want to increase engagement and drive traffic to your blog, so you’re reviewing it to see how you can make it better).
- Look at the admin section of your site (if using WordPress, this is easily done in WP Admin) and write down your existing categories. Look at how many posts you’ve written on those topics and whether there is any crossover. For example I had Food, LCHF and recipes. I really don’t post that many recipes that it needs to be its own category, but LCHF likely will be, so I’m going to add the category “Nourishment” to cover food, recipes, LCHF and other wellness. (One post I read said not to use strange collaborations of words only known to you as a category as it will get lost in communication because your readers won’t understand where you’re going with it. I chose nourishment because it epitomises the notion of nourishing your body and your life, which fits with the theme of thatfitologylife.)
- Look at the layout of a blog similar to yours and see whether the way they structure their posts and categories and tags is something you can implement. Also, if they have a large readership or engagement, then maybe making contact with them to discuss how they laid out their blog would be not only a good way to network, but to get some more experienced advice.
- Learn about the basics of niche work, branding and promotion. There are many blogs and books and resources that cover this information that is easy to digest. It’s important to know strategies used in this type of marketing so that you can tailor your blog within its genre. I will compile a list of posts and sites I’ve used in the coming weeks and link back to it here.
- Reduce your categories. If you have anything over 10 categories, look at condensing them. Lindsay Humes (in her post linked at the beginning of the post) uses the analogy of categories on the blog being like book chapters. She cites that bloggers often have too many categories and not many posts within those categories. It is far more effective to have fewer categories (say 8-10) and 10-100+ posts within these categories. It’s a great way to organise your content, direct attention to specific themes and be really professional in your blog.
- Understand the analytics of your blog. At this point, you’ve been blogging for a few months and trying to do your best in promoting your blog posts. You put a lot of love and time into writing great content for your blog. You love your blog! But you also need to understand which of your existing posts are getting more attention and why. So in this regard, use Google analytics or WP analytics to look at the search terms used to bring readers to your site, or where your traffic has mostly come from. Essentially, these key terms are topics that people are interested in, and will determine if there is a higher demand for one topic over another. Use these key terms to develop your blog categories, reduce overlap and give better definition to the skeleton of your blog.
Some useful links for understanding blog categories I hope you enjoy:
http://coschedule.com/blog/blog-categories/
http://problogger.com/how-to-choose-categories-for-your-blog/
http://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/stratetig-blog-categories/
What have you done to redefine your blog categories? Has this increased traffic to your blog?
That Fitology Life 