Putting Categories to their Best

I believe I still haven’t understood how Categories and Tags differ, and how they can be best put to use. Though I have understood one thing. It is better to keep the number of Categories minimal and group your posts into various categories. Then what about Tags? It’s easier to have new tags. But what’s the use of having so many of them, with a tag having a single post? So it’s better to reuse tags, but in wordpress, tag choosing isn’t like category choosing. Ok, there is a “Choose from the most popular tags”, but that shows me as for now all of my tags because all of them have equal popularity.

So after reading about categories and tags on some of the popular blogs I have decided to re-construct my categories structure. I believe that by following this way you too can reach that minimal set of blog categories that can be user specific and useful for readers. I will talk about tags in a later post.

Categories for whom?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who are categories for? It is not for the author, it is for the visitors. So if you think to have categories that best categorises your posts so that it helps you group them, then sorry, please change that mind set. Categories are for your visitors and readers who can use the categories to find more posts that are interesting to them.

So at first I had categories like

• RePosts – I visit so many websites and blogs online. And I find several interesting posts. I (don’t copy paste them) right about the same topic in my own style. I trackback the original post.
• Responses – When I find posts in blogs that are thought provoking, ask a question etc, then I blog about the question, the thoughts that it provoked. By this I link to the blog with the thought provoking post and invites them to read my response. A popular way to make friends with fellow bloggers.
• Niche or Interest – Posts about everything else that interests me. The new computer program I wrote, the hack I found interesting, the applet or software that made something easier for me (and also for many others), the new gadget I am finding handy, my discoveries in linux etc.
• Life or Personal – Posts about what happens in my life. The new friends I met, the places I went, the things and people, who left me pondering about the life I have been gifted with. The philosophies that sprout in my mind during sleep. The small jokes and anectodes in life. A travelogue, stories I hear, etc.
• Thoughts – Posts with some element that leaves the reader pondering. That encourages them to comment and/or blog about it in their blogs.

But such categories proved to be useful to me and not to my readers. Why? Because my readers could not judge which category will contain posts that shall interest them. Say the reader is interested in Linux and visits my blog. I might have blogged about Linux topics not just in “Interests” but also in “Reposts” and “Responses”. So not all my posts are getting the exposure they need to be getting, and not all my readers are finding what they wanted.

So avoid such categories.

So how to decide categories?

Look at all your posts. Then list down all the topics about which you have blogged. The following is my example,

Things I blog about:

1. Hacks
2. Linux
3. Networking
4. Social Networking
5. Blog tips
6. Interesting blogs and websites
7. Softwares used
8. Online facilities used
9. Online tips and tricks
10. Things that happen in my life (that which can be publicly shared.)
11. Thoughts that leave me pondering about life and the world.
12. News articles that leave me pondering.
13. Books I read.
14. How-To’s and Tutorials I write.

Now that should be a good list. Since I more often write about tech news and the internet, I can have a category called “Networks” which can have sub categories like, “Blogs“, which have posts about blogging tips, new blogs I visit. Other sub categories are “Social” with posts related to social networking sites and “Web” for posts about other websites that I find interesting and useful.

Then comes the posts with elements of my personal life. For that I create a category name “Life“, with sub categories named “Thoughts“, “News” and “Diary“. This is about my outlook on life, things that I have realised and learned and my everyday diary entries.I can also have stories I hear and news that amuse me in the “News” category.

To group topics related to hacking, linux and coding, I will have a category called “Hacks” with sub categories “Online”, “Inlife”, “Linux”, “Code”. That should be self explanatory. “InLife” is the category with posts to tips and tricks for life! Hope you get it!

Well that’s three parent categories, that will group my posts. I can’t claim this as the best way to decide your categories. Decide it based on your posts, and decide the category names based on the theme you use.

Tell us about how you decided your categories!

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