How to Organize Your WordPress Blog Content
Pages and Posts
A good understanding of the difference between Pages and Posts is necessary when setting up any new WordPress blog.
Most WordPress sites will use a combination of Pages and Posts with a much higher emphasis on POSTS.
What are Pages? – Pages are mainly used for the “static” content on your blog, or content that does not change frequently. Pages are NOT included in your RSS feed.
Examples: Contact, About Us, Privacy Policy, Products, etc…
Should you use Pages? Yes, you should use at least 2-3 Pages on your blog. Static pages help to establish credibility in both the eyes of your readers and the search engines.
What are Posts? – Posts are where you will write the majority of your day-to-day content. They are the core reason for creating a blog. Posts are included in your RSS feed and are the main attraction for your readers and search engine spiders.
Categories, Tags and Basic Blog SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
When setting up a new WordPress blog it’s important to have a basic understanding of Categories and Tags and how to use them.
What are Categories? – Categories are the main keywords you use to structure/categorize your blog Posts. Having a well thought out category structure makes it easier for your readers to navigate your blog and find the content they are looking for.
What are Tags? – Tags are used when you actually write your blog Posts and most often appear at the end of your posts. Tags are to bookmarking sites, like Technorati and Delicious, what keywords are to search engines. In other words tags are a way to flag specific keywords in your post telling bookmarking sites, and your readers, what your blog is about.
Here’s where it can get a bit confusing. Tags can link out to bookmarking or tag directories, such as Technorati and Delicious, or they can link internally to your own blog posts grouping or “categorizing” posts that contain the same tagged keywords. (The later is actually the WordPress default) Therefore, Tags, as far as search engines are concerned, can be “seen” as categories.
Let me explain further…
There are three ways of organizing your Posts. They are Categories, Tags or a combination of the two. The best practice is to use a well thought out combination of categories and tags based on your target keywords. It is important though, to never use the exact same keyword as a Category and a Tag. This could be viewed by the search engines as duplicate content and cost you high search engine rankings.
Here’s an example of what a good category and tag structure would look like on a blog about Dogs:
Category = Dog Breeds
Tags used in posts under the “Dog Breed” category = Dachshund, Min-Pin, Poodle, etc…
NOTE: Don’t get too bogged down in all of this Category and Tag business. If you use the structure outlined above and the posting methods I’m going to show you later, you’ll be just fine. However, the better you understand and apply this the better your blog will do in the search engines.
TIP: Use no more than 3-4 tags per post.
Here’s a must read article on the differences between tags and categories and ways to use them: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/09/09/categories-versus-tags-whats-the-difference-and-which-one/
KEYWORDS: Proper placement of keywords in your post copy, post titles and descriptions is essential for good SEO. Go here for to learn more about proper keyword placement.
[...] you have successfully installed WordPress, installed and activated your theme and understand how to organize your content using Pages and Posts, Categories and Tags, you’re ready to configure your WordPress [...]
wow this article made me me realize a lot of things about content writting i wll definately implement them.. thank you for your usefull tips