The Importance of Defining Right Categories

A part of writing and publishing posts also contain the part when you have to decide the categories for your post. Many people do not realize that it is also an important aspect and you have to give due attention when you are defining categories.

Categories are basically the differentiation of your posts based on their content. For a blog like you are reading right now, these can vary from Blogging, SEO, Social Media, Traffic, Advertising and topics related to that.

Many bloggers do not pay much attention when it comes to defining categories. They take it as a formality and do it because every blogger is doing it. But, in my opinion, thinking before defining categories can do a lot god for your readers, if not for you. And your readers are those for whom you are writing.

1. It makes their search easy- I have reached a blog looking for something that I read a year ago. Obviously, now it does not figure in the homepage. Nor I remember the month so that I could look out for it in the archive. I tried Search box but it is not functioning. In this scenario, right categories will come very handy. I can say this because I have experienced it. I went to a blog to read an article that I read in July 2009 and tried searching it but could not get the article. Unfortunately, the categories were also mixed up. So, it’s better to get things right in the starting.
2. Make them easily accessible- Try to put up the categories in that section of the blog that your readers can see easily. You need to put up so that it is easy for everyone to access or it is better you do not put them.

Some tips to keep in mind before you categorize your posts.

1. Use one category for one post- For me, this has been the most important rule since I have learned the basics of blogging. Use as many tags as you want but make sure that one post is defined under one category. This will help you to remove ambiguity and will reduce your effort in future if you decide to search by categories.
2. Make things relevant- In this niche, if we consider the big picture, almost every blog can be kept in one niche- blogging. But that does not serve our purpose. You need to categorize them in the most relevant way. Break the category “blogging” into further parts like “blog content”, “blog design”, ”blog promotion”, “blog comments” and etc. It is up to you how you break them but getting them closer to the point as much as you can will be very effective.

I will love to hear from you on this. Meanwhile, I am wondering in which category I should put this post.