Using category pages in Wordpress
-
In our niche we have one main keyword, which represents the entire category.
We are using wordpress. I am trying to understand the best URL structure and wonder if the below is a good approach:
- This category page will be written to contain an article on the subject.
- The posts that are put into that category will subsequently appear on this page, below that article.
- Each of those posts would be targeting a related keyword. e.g. I would write a post which has, as the main target keyword: "MainKeyword training" and another post, which would be targeting "MainKeyword techniques" ... (and so on).
Thanks for your advice.
Andrew
-
Thanks Richard! Glad it'e been helpful. I think I'll be doing a WP Mozinar beginning of June too as we've found the community just has tons of WP questions.
-
Dan, thank you for your post om WP SEO. It is the most informative piece of writing I have found on the subject. I'm going to dig into my sites this weekend to make sure I have set up my blogs per your instructions.
-
Yup! A page is a much better way to target a keyword than a category archive. That better fots the concept of a landing page.
Hope the video is helpful too
-
And thanks for these link, by the way... watching the video now
-
Great, thanks Dan.
You're right to suspect I can't really use the home page for this.
Would an example of what you mean by static page be this kind of thing:
http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/
It gives detail on the subject and links out to related posts...
-
Hi Andrew
Without knowing the niche it's a little tough to say, but I'll give a general answer.
First off, a category page is typically not also written as an article its self. It is an "archive" which is always to be used to list the posts within that archive. You can set up a custom category page, to display unique content at the top (see how Sugarrae does it: http://www.sugarrae.com/social-media/)
Next, a category page isn't the best type of thing to target your main keyword with. If it's the main keyword for your niche (thus your entire site I presume) the homepage would target that keyword.
Categories should traditionally be used to divide your blog into 5-8 topic "buckets" in which all your posts will fall into 1-2 of them. Users can navigate easily through your different blog posts etc.
If you are not keen to use the homepage to target the main keyword, I would suggest just a static page. Category archives generally do not rank as well as the homepage, pages or posts.
Some WP resources for you;
- my post on WP SEO
- my video on pages vs posts
- a recent WP Mozinar
-Dan
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
-
Very wierd pages. 2900 403 errors in page crawl for a site that only has 140 pages.
Hi there, I just made a crawl of the website of one of my clients with the crawl tool from moz. I have 2900 403 errors and there is only 140 pages on the website. I will give an exemple of what the crawl error gives me. | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | http://www.mysite.com/en/www.mysite.com/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/en/index.html#?lang=en | | | | | | | | | | There are 2900 pages like this. I have tried visiting the pages and they work, but they are only html pages without CSS. Can you guys help me to see what the problems is. We have experienced huge drops in traffic since Septembre.
Technical SEO | | H.M.N.0 -
Should you use google url remover if older indexed pages are still being kept?
Hello, A client recently did a redesign a few months ago, resulting in 700 pages being reduced to 60, mostly due to panda penalty and just low interest in products on those pages. Now google is still indexing a good number of them ( around 650 ) when we only have 70 on our sitemap. Thing is google indexes our site on average now for 115 urls when we only have 60 urls that need indexing and only 70 on our sitemap. I would of thought these urls would be crawled and not found, but is taking a very long period of time. Our rankings haven't recovered as much as we'd hope, and we believe that the indexed older pages are causes this. Would you agree and also would you think removing those old urls via the remover tool would be best option? It would mean using the url remover tool for 650 pages. Thank you in advance
Technical SEO | | Deacyde0 -
Are image pages considered 'thin' content pages?
I am currently doing a site audit. The total number of pages on the website are around 400... 187 of them are image pages and coming up as 'zero' word count in Screaming Frog report. I needed to know if they will be considered 'thin' content by search engines? Should I include them as an issue? An answer would be most appreciated.
Technical SEO | | MTalhaImtiaz0 -
How come only 2 pages of my 16 page infographic are being crawled by Moz?
Our Infographic titled "What Is Coaching" was officially launched 5 weeks ago. http://whatiscoaching.erickson.edu/ We set up campaigns in Moz & Google Analytics to track its performance. Moz is reporting No organic traffic and is only crawling 2 of the 16 pages we created. (see first and third attachments) Google Analytics is seeing hundreds of some very strange random pages (see second attachment) Both campaigns are tracking the url above. We have no idea where we've gone wrong. Please help!! 16_pages_seen_in_wordpress.png how_google_analytics_sees_pages.png what_moz_sees.png
Technical SEO | | EricksonCoaching0 -
Two of Pages Have Been SendBoxed
Hello, I was number 1-2 for my local keyword term, but now im nowhere, those two urls dont even show up in Google search results, my other pages DO, so that is obvious Google sendboxed them, i dont remember doing aggressive non quality link building, and its not a competitive term, since i was number 1 in Google for over 3 months or so i checked this tool and found that two of my urls are in sendbox http://www.searchenginegenie.com/sandbox-checker.htm I was never sendboxed before, can you help me how can i get out of this, since its my client's website, and i have to get those pages up as soon as possible Thank You
Technical SEO | | tonyklu0 -
Wordpress Archive pages
In the SEOMOZ site report a number of errors were found. One of which was no or duplicate meta desctions on certain blog pages. When I drilled down to find these i noticed thosepages are the wordpress autocreated archive pages. When I searched for these through the wordpress control panel through both pages and blogs they were nowhere to be found. Does anyone know how to find these pages or are they not something I need to worry about?
Technical SEO | | laserclinics0 -
Internal Wordpress blog ranked and not the main page
hello www.mysite.com/blog is ranked higher than www,mysite.com. i am trying to find the reason for the blog to rank higher which is not my goal. the blog reached the second page and the main domain is no where to be found. is there anything on Wordpress setup that may cause this? thanks
Technical SEO | | ciznerguy0 -
Directory Categories
Is it important to select the right category for directory listings from an SEO point of view? I have located 2 appropriate categories in Business.com for my website: Category 1 = PR 5, Page Authority 53 Category 2 = PR 4, Page Authority 44 I presume number of links on the page is also a factor.
Technical SEO | | martyc0