Tags vs. Categories? What should I use?
-
I'm starting with a blog (self-hosted wordpress) and I'm thinking of the following content structure so that the readers are easily able to locate relevant content:
Background:
It's a blog which gives people relevant info about government jobs. To start with we will just be publishing information about these jobs but over a period of time also intend to post content that helps readers prepare for these jobs. In other words, right now it's just about detailed job notifications but in the coming months, we shall also post about preparation-related information.
Typically, each of the job notifications can be bifurcated like:
-
Jobs basis industry
-
Banking
-
Railways
-
Clinical, etc.
-
Jobs basis company
-
ABC co.
-
DEF co.
-
XYZ co. etc.
-
Jobs basis State / City
-
City 1
-
City 2, etc.
-
Jobs basis educational qualification
-
Graduation
-
Post-Graduation, etc.
Now, I'm seriously confused how should I structure this data from the perspective of Categories & Tags such that it's reader as well as SEO-friendly. Do note that each of the government jobs post ideally falls in a couple of above mentioned categories.
Thanks..
-
-
Hi Shalin,
Good news: you can do both! Assuming that it would allow you to segment content in a meaningful way for users. If tags won't make things better for users, I'd just go with categories for the sake of simplicity. But if it is useful for users, I'd do the following:
Use categories as the primary method of organizing content, then leverage tags to provide further definition. But, here's the catch: as others have correctly noted, tag pages have the potential to produce thin content, so I'd recommend applying a noindex meta tag to all tag pages, as well as excluding it in the robots.txt file. If you're using one of the popular CMS platforms, like Wordpress, this should be fairly easy to do.
This method provides the best of both worlds. You provide more ways for users to filter down to content they'd like to see and it's SEO-friendly because the tag pages--which may produce thin, duplicative content--are excluded from the index and crawl, and, therefore, should not present any SEO issues.
-
Hi there, you've received some solid advice. I'd also check out this class post by Dan Shure, which explains the difference between different types of WordPress pages, and spells out best-practices for WordPress SEO - http://moz.com/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success.
Christy
-
While the tagging system is nice, it can be a killer for seo. Tag pages generally have thin content, and a lot of links i.e. bad for Googel guidelines. If you want to help your users, and still use the tagging system, set the tagging pages to "no-index"
As to the categories URL's I would add them. Think of your site like a book, and your categories like the chapters. Setting your site up with categories also allows you to potentially have another focus keyword in your URL, and helps users navigate your site easier
-
Thanks for the reply..
I get it what you are trying to put across. In fact, prior to posting the question above, I did read a lot about categories and tags as taxonomies and how they ought to be used. But the question is still the same? In the scenario I mentioned above, what's the ideal way to categorise content?
-
I would refrain from using tag pages. Google does not like thin content pages and tag pages are typically just a set of links to other posts. Also, I have seen too many sites with too many unintended tags. Category pages give you a lot more flexibility in terms of adding unique content and making them into pages worthy of ranking. Plus, category pages are in a controlled environment and there will not be any categories being accidentally formed.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
No-return tag error
Am receiving a no-return tag error on Search Console for pages in our site that are unrelated. Originating Page: https://www.eginnovations.com/in-the-news/performance-assurance-a-key-to-virtual-desktop-success Alternate URL: https://www.eginnovations.com/fr/ There is a link to the /fr/ page in the language version at the top of the page but I can't figure out why this would be throwing an error from the originating page. Any help would be appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | eGInnovations0 -
Should I Use WooCommerce Tags & Attributes?
I'm helping an online furniture store search engine optimize a WooCommerce store and I'm trying to make sure our taxonomies make sense. I'd love any help you guys can give, but I'm particularly interested in determining whether we should use tags. Product attributes make sense to me, but I'm concerned to use tags because of the propensity for creating duplicate content. Thanks in advance for any help you guys are willing to give.
On-Page Optimization | | cbizzle0 -
Using a subdomain to improve rankings
I have a pretty simple landing page that at present targets several keywords. Is a good strategy to add a blog to the site on a subdomain with pages targeting individual keywords? Will this help the main domain rank? Also is the best strategy to focus on building links to the home page or individual pages on the subdomain? As long as each page on the subdomain links back to the home page it should pass link juice back to the home page shouldn't it? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Using Subdomains to Avoid Sitewide Penalties?
If I'm using a subdomain on my website, for instance news.mywebsite.com, and it gets penalized by Panda (or whatever animal update), would that affect the main domain and/or other subdomains?
On-Page Optimization | | sbrault740 -
Using Robots Meta Tag on Review Form Pages
I have gone over this so many times and I just can't seem to get it straight and hope someone can help me out with a couple of questions: Right now, on my dynamically created pages created by filters (located on the category pages) I am using rel""canonical" to point them to their respective category page. Should I also use the robots meta tag as well? Similarly, each product I have on my site has a review form on it and thus is getting indexed by Google. I have placed the same canonical tag on them as well pointing them to the page with the review form on it. In the past I used robots.txt to block google from the review pages but this didn't really do much. Should I be using the robots meta tag on these pages as well? If I used the robots meta tag should I noindex,nofollow? Thanks in advance, Jake
On-Page Optimization | | jake3720 -
Tag-URLs in Magento
Hello, I have got a problem concerning Tag-URLs in Magento (the URLs mentioned are just fictitious 😞 At the moment, they look something like this: (1) http://store.com/tag/product/list/tagId/1/ ... so these URLs are not search engine friendly at all. Using a Magento extension you could transform them in speaking URLs: (2) http://store.com/tag/digital-cameras What would you do if you sold, say, digital cameras and your online shop ranked high for the keyword "digital camera" with URL No. 1 (not search engine friendly). Would you transform (1) in (2) and 301 all non speaking URLs? But would you keep the high ranking for "digital camera" when 301 to URL No. (2). But, what I'm most concerned of is : There is actually a landing page (category page) for the keyword "digital camera" : http://store.com/digital-cameras. Shouldn't the last URL rank high for "digital camera"? (instead of the tag URLs). But given the situation above, does it make sense now to 301 the tag URL to the category page? I would perhaps lose my good ranking, wouldn't I? Thanks a lot for your help! Martin
On-Page Optimization | | SmartyMarty810 -
Main navigation with pictures & Alt Tags vs Text/ Link based Navigation
Hi, do I loose an opportunity to rank better if I use a navigation with Alt-tagged Pictures in comparison to a Text/ Link based main navigation? Thanks, Sebastian
On-Page Optimization | | Naturalmente0 -
Top Level Category Pages
On certain sections e.g. Top Level Brand Pages i would like to include history, images of products in use, videos, and possibly even a timeline of the manufacturers history. Being that its a store this would push the products quite a bit lower on the page. Can i still have a great positive effect if its below the product listings?
On-Page Optimization | | Anest0