Better to optimize page, post or category in WordPress
-
Hello,
This question is for the WordPress experts out there. I've always wondered if it is better for SEO to focus on a particular keyword by writing a page or a post dedicated to it. For example, if I want to rank high for the keyword "Seattle rocks", do you think I'd be better off writing a page titled "Seattle rocks" or a post titled "Seattle rocks".
The ideal for me would be to create a category with the URL that includes that keyword for my WordPress blog, but I do not know if I can do a good job in terms of SEO optimizing the keyword. For instance, if we consider the keyword in the example above, I'd create a category which will have the following URL:
http://www.seomozthebest.com/category/seattle-rocks
Do you think I can still focus on that keyword having such URL? As you know, WordPress would allow me to write some text in the description tag, which will be visible on the site. I guess that I could use the description box to create some optimized content using the keyword "Seattle rocks" and then launch a link building campaign using the anchor text "Seattle rocks" directing to the URL: http://www.seomozthebest.com/category/seattle-rocks
Do you think that I can optimize the keyword by creating a category?
Thank you for reading such long question. I tried to be as clear as possible.
- Sal
-
I was about to make a mistake. Luckily, I read your answer and I have changed my mind.
Thank you very much.
- Sal
P.S.: I've never been to Seattle and the post "Seattle rocks" was just an example. Although, I feel that Seattle must be a great place. I'll visit it one day
-
Thank you for taking the time to support your claim with an example. I really appreciate it. I now understand what would work best for me.
All best,
- Sal
-
What a wonderful answer! Thank you.
-
In my experience posts often rank faster and higher,
Last week I posted an article on a blog of a client of mine, the domain is only a half year old, and it hasn't got many backlinks. The posts that I write for the blog are indexing within a couple of minutes and they tend to rank very high, even for search queries with high volume and high competition.
In this case are building a website about sustainable and durable renovation of houses, and one of the terms he wants to rank for is "bio ecological housing" (I don't know if this is the correct translation), and what we did is make a dedicated page www.website.com/bio-ecological-housing and then wrote some posts like "what is bio ecological housing", "5 benefits of bio ecological housing", "top materials for bio ecological housing"... and we include a strong CTA on those blog posts with a link to the dedicated page. That way we benefit from fast and high indexing of posts.
-
Pages or posts?
It depends upon your target.
If you are making arrows you can grab any stick, make the arrow quickly and shoot it without aiming carefully.
Or, you can be really picky to get a really straight stick, spend time to make it balanced and attach and trim your fletchings with a great amount of care. These arrows are used sparingly, aimed carefully and fly straight and fast.
The arrow made with any stick is a post on a blog... the finely crafted arrow is a page on a website.
But in the end it depends upon what you are shooting... if your arrows are tipped with a suction cup then any stick is all they are worth... but if they are tipped with a razor sharp broadhead then it is a waste not to be making the finely crafted arrow.
-
There are no SEO benefits to having a page over a post, or a post over a page. They are essentially the same thing. The only difference is that posts can be categorized.
Creating a category would do you little to no good because you would then have to fill that category with content from a post. It would make no sense in having a blank category filled with category description content when you could create a page/post easier.
So as far as you choosing to publish a post or a page thats up to you. If its a blog entry that has personality and you want users to engage in the content with comments then I would publish it as a post. If the content you are publishing is "static" info then you could make it a page. It sounds as if "Seattle Rocks" would be best suited as a blog post though.
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
-
AMP for WordPress: To Do Or Not To Do
Hello SEO's, Recently some of my VIPs (Very Important Pages) have slipped, and all the pages above them are AMP. I've been waiting to switch to AMP for as long as possible bc I've heard it's a very mixed bag. As of Oct 2018, what do people think? Is it worth doing? Is there a preferred plugin for wordpress? Are things more likely to go right than wrong? The page that has gotten hit the hardest is https://humanfoodbar.com/plant-paradox-diet/plant-paradox-diet-full-shopping-list-for-lectin-free-diet/. It used to bring in ~70% of organic traffic. It was #1 and is now often near the bottom of the page. 😞 Thanks all! Remy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | remytennant1 -
After blog URL structure change, should you wait to optimize old posts?
Hi all, I'm changing the URL structure on my site's blog (getting rid of dates) soon, but I'm also working on updating/optimizing a bunch of old posts. Some of these old posts have a good amount of traffic, which I don't want to lose when I redirect the old URLs to the new URLs after restructure. I know that you are more likely to maintain your rank and traffic after a redirect if you keep the page content the exact same. So my question is -- should I leave the old posts alone (not making any changes) for a couple of weeks after the URL restructure/redirects for Google to index the new URLs and see that the content is the exact same so the pages don't lose any traffic, OR does it not really matter because I am optimizing these posts, meaning that the content will be better and hopefully get ranked higher? I haven't been able to find a consensus on this, so I'd really appreciate the advice! Many thanks, Rebecca
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rwhite10 -
Links on page
Hi I have a web page which lists about 50-60 products which links out to either a pdf on the product or the main manufacturers website page containing product detail. The site in non e-commerce is this the site/page likely to get hit by Penguin? Would it be best to create a separate page for the product/manufacturer group i.e 5 or 6 pages but linking out to the PDFs etc...?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Extra indexed pages from my blog in wordpress
I have a blog on my site which is in WordPress. When you publish an article it creates a couple of urls such as tags, author, category, month, ... . So when you look for indexed pages you see tons of pages for the blog. Does it hurt the SEO. If yes how I can sort it out,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlirezaHamidian0 -
Product with two common names: A separate page for each name, or both on one page?
This is a real-life problem on my ecommerce store for the drying rack we manufacture: Some people call it a Clothes Drying Rack, while others call it a Laundry Drying Rack, but it's really the same thing. Search volume is higher for the clothes version, so give it the most attention. I currently have 2 separate pages with the On-Page optimization focused on each name (URL, Title, h1, img alts, etc) Here the two drying rack pages: clothes focused page and laundry focused page But the ranking of both pages is terrible. The fairly generic homepage shows up instead of the individual pages in Google searches for the clothes drying rack and for laundry drying rack. But I can get the individual page to appear in a long-tail search like this: round wooden clothes drying rack So my thought is maybe I should just combine both of these pages into one page that will hopefully be more powerful. We would have to set up the On-Page optimization to cover both "clothes & laundry drying rack" but that seems possible. Please share your thoughts. Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Is there another solution? Thanks for your help! Greg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GregB1230 -
Why are new pages not being indexed, and old pages (now in robots.txt) remain in the index?
I currently have a site that was recently restructured, causing much of its content to be reposted, creating new URL's for each page. To avoid duplicates, all of the existing pages were added to the robots file. That said, it has now been over a week - I know Google has recrawled the site - and when I search for term X, it is stil the old page that is ranking, with the new one nowhere to be seen. I'm assuming it's a cached version, but why are so many of the old pages still appearing in the index? Furthermore, all "tags" pages (it's a Q&A site, like this one) were also added to the robots a few months ago, yet I think they are all still appearing in the index. Anyone got any ideas about why this is happening, and how I can get my new pages indexed?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | corp08030 -
Should I use the main keyword in the title tag for the site on all category pages?
I am pretty excited about changing all my title tags (for the most important 7 pages) since I have seen my rankings jump up in the SERP just by adding the main keyword for my website in the title tag. To make it easier I will explain my business. Simply, I run an online jewelry shop, so basically the keywords I want to use is "Jewelry online" and for the main categories "Necklace", "Rings" and "Bracelets". What I am unsure about is whether to use all the keywords in the main pages title tag or should I just use the main keyword "Jewelry online". I don’t want to create competition between my own pages of course. Jewelry Online - Trendy Fashion Jewelry | Homepage Or Jewelry Online - Necklace, Rings, Bracelets | Homepage And the same goes for the main categories, should I include "jewelry online" or not, like: Bracelets - Fashion Jewelry Online | Homepage Or Bracelets - Trendy_ Bangles_ and Arm Cuffs | Homepage Any suggestions what is the best practice for the title tag on main page and the main categories? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ikomorin0 -
Google swapped our website's long standing ranking home page for a less authoritative product page?
Our website has ranked for two variations of a keyword, one singular & the other plural in Google at #1 & #2 (for over a year). Keep in mind both links in serps were pointed to our home page. This year we targeted both variations of the keyword in PPC to a products landing page(still relevant to the keywords) within our website. After about 6 weeks, Google swapped out the long standing ranked home page links (p.a. 55) rank #1,2 with the ppc directed product page links (p.a. 01) and dropped us to #2 & #8 respectively in search results for the singular and plural version of the keyword. Would you consider this swapping of pages temporary, if the volume of traffic slowed on our product page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JingShack0