Don’t Post Into 5 Different Categories
October 16th, 2007I read a lot of blogs and some of them have a habit that I find very annoying - they have placed each of their posts into four or five different categories. Besides from looking like they are trying to inflate their article count (by one article counting again for each category it is placed in), there is another reason why I think this is bad practice. I believe that if you are doing this than either your posts are too broad and need to be refined or that your categories overlap and need to be refined.
Remember the importance of choosing a niche? Well, writing articles inside of that niche is the same way. You want your articles to be focused and specific, not broad and attempting to cover everything. If you have been writing an article that is a thousand words long and fits into multiple categories of your site, then consider breaking it down into a couple of smaller, more targeted posts that each have their own, distinct category.
Why? It keeps the user focused and forces you to keep yourself focused instead of rambling off about all different subjects in your post. So next time that you’re tempted to place a post into multiple different categories, go back, break it up, and make it laser-specific.
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By Tibi Puiu on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
Agreed, it isn’t very good for a SEO point of view either, it ruins the benefits of categorizing and tagging in the first place.
By CatherineL on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
Hi Nick - I must confess that I often put my posts into two or three categories.
Sometimes I honestly can’t decide which they should go in. I probably have way too many categories to be honest. So, I’ll take your advice and try to break the habit.
By WarriorBlog on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
I agree with you and it is also annoying to have 15+ categories but some think thats important and ok.
By Nick on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
Catherine - sometimes it is appropriate to post an article into a couple of different categories imo, but usually it could be broken down into more specific articles.
By Alex R on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
I’m guilty :)
I do organize some articles into 2 categories. An article that I write may have relations with dual categories. So I feel no reason not to list it within. Since my blog is on multiple topics, I try to limit the categories ie blogging (with content, improvement, seo, traffic, etc) combined, sports, finance, sports, entertainment, etc. I’ve seen some blogs with 20+ categories, it’s annoying looking for a specific post niche.
By Thomas Sinfield on Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
I must say that I am guilty of this. I honestly just thought that was how it was done. I will have to watch myself, and try and limit it to one category per post.