What categories should I use in my blog?
I have been wracking my brain over this question for the past two days. I haven’t felt satisfied with my blog categories. I’ve felt there were too many categories, that I’ve been categorizing my blog posts improperly, and that the distinction between tags and categories on my blog is blurry. To get help with my dilemma, I searched the Internet for advice. Yesterday, I read Darren Rowse’s How to Choose Categories for Your Blog and today I read Lorelle VanFossen’s Putting Some Thought Into Blog Categories and Tags. They both share sound advice, but I’m still struggling.
I’m going to brainstorm here for my own benefit and yours. What do I write about? I write about ASL, ASL interpreting, the deaf community / world, interpreters, interpreter training, interpreting in general, accessibility, web authoring, web design, HTML, CSS, social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube, photography, technology, typography, the Web, and other topics. I review things like gadgets, restaurants, businesses, entertainment, etc. I write opinion pieces about business practices, ethics, society, speaking and writing (grammar, you might say). I post videos of myself singing and signing (and occasionally singing and signing at the same time). I post a lot of photos, some for the sake of art and some for the sake of reportage or lifestyle sharing. I write tutorials and how-to’s. You might think I’m a dilettante, but I prefer to think of myself as a Renaissance Man.
I know I could maintain different blogs for different foci — and believe me, I’ve thought about it — but I already have two blogs (this “professional” one and my more personal family blog) and that’s enough blogs for me for now. I don’t want to splinter myself off into too many pieces. What I want to do is categorize posts on this blog effectively.
Category lists I’ve thought of
Casual, Chatty Categories
- Singin’
- Signin’
- Thinkin’
- Writin’
- Just Sayin’…
The idea for this came from my current blog title “Just Singin’ & Signin’ in the Sun” which stems from the fact that I sing, sign, and live in Phoenix, and it’s a takeoff on the line “Just singin’ and dancin’ in the rain” from Singin’ in the Rain. The problem with these categories is they seem too hokey for me, and don’t reflect the seriousness and professionalism I express here when I’m not being more casual. So I don’t think I’ll use that list.
Categories from the NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct
- Confidentiality
- Professionalism
- Conduct
- Respect for Consumers
- Respect for Colleagues
- Business Practices
- Professional Development
The idea for these categories came from the fact that I’m currently studying the CPC so it’s on the brain, and I do already write about business practices (not always related to interpreting for the deaf) and professional development (my own and my job as an interpreter trainer). The problem with these categories is that I don’t write about all of them often enough to make them categories, and not that many people are familiar with the CPC. It’s an idea, but not a good one for me.
Discourse Genre Categories
- Informative
- Normative
- Demonstrative
- Entertaining
- Persuasive
Not bad, maybe, but are people coming to my site looking for “Daniel Greene’s informative blog posts”? No. I’ve thought about similar categories like Opinion, Reviews, Entertainment, News, etc., but there are problems with those too. If I categorize my videos of singing in Entertainment, will people overlook them because they think a category called Entertainment would include blog posts about entertainment.
It’s past 10:00 PM now so I must draw this to a close. I will go to bed for a second night in a row without resolution to this problem. I will “sleep on it” and think on it until I sort it out. This shows what a complex task categorizing your blog posts can be. Wish me luck! Have any suggestions? How do you categorize your blog posts?
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Posted on July 21, 2010, in Writing for the Web and tagged blog, blogging, SEO, Web authoring, Web design, writing. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Well, you’re waaaay ahead of me in this department. I really hate this kind of stuff so I just never really get around to it. Pretty dumb, given how beneficial it can be if done right. Also, I’m still on Blogger and not WordPress, which I think gives me less control.
Maybe I’ll just leech off what you learn!
Update: It’s been days and I’m still agonizing. I got it down to four categories, but I’ve been reorganizing individual posts into multiple categories. I try to integrate the facets of myself, not splinter them. That’s probably why I put posts into two, three, or even all four categories. Yet I’ve read that you should only put posts into one category, like a file can only be put into one file cabinet. I wish I weren’t the kind of person to get so worked up over such a thing, but I am. I feel like I have a big electronic mess here that I want to clean up.
I’m currently asking myself, “What do I blog about, really? Who are my audiences? How do I make it easy for my readers to find what they’re looking for?” Still soul-searching for the answers.
P.S. I’ve also noticed that I have hundreds of tags I’ve only used once. Next project is consolidating my tags or maybe just tagging more posts with tags I’ve only used once but are applicable.
As you can imagine, I’ve written a lot more about tags and categories than that. Here are some more helpful articles that might help you.
Blog Struggles: The Blog Focus
Are Tags Working For You?
Blog Struggles: When Is Your Blog Focus Too Narrow?
You are well on your way in the process and on the right track. In the end, I recommend that you choose immediately recognizable, SEO friendly (as in words people will search for and topics they need to know about). Cute, colorful, attention-getting categories don’t work unless they spell out what people need to know. They will only spend a second or two checking out your page, so make sure they see what they need FAST when they scan.
Good luck with it!
Thank you for your help, Lorelle! You give so much of yourself through your blog. I appreciate the information and insight.
I always tell bloggers to use less categories and more tags. Tagging your posts effectively is more beneficial to your blog than categories. Blogs should have no more than 3 to 5 categories.
You could do something like:
ASL – Encompasses everything regarding the Deaf community, interpreting, etc.
Media – Includes Singing, videos, entertainment, the web, photography, tutorials (where applicable), etc.
Business – Deals with all topics regarding business ethics, grammar, reviews, opinions, tutorials (where applicable), etc.
Personal or Misc. – Covers your opinions on social issues, etc.
For instance, you write a post regarding interpreter training, you put the post in the ASL category, and tag it with terms related to the specifics of the post like “American Sign Language, interpreter training, Deaf community”
Or another: You write a post on the ethics of telephone sales representatives. Categorize under “Business” and tagged with “telephone sales reps, business ethics, no means no”
Categories are great for general sorting, tags give each post a unique pizazz!
As I said on Twitter, Cody (@codyogden), you really are a helpful guy!
I’m taking your advice and mingling it with my own. My categories will be — I’m pretty sure — ASL & Interpreting, Business Practices, Communications & Media, Microblogging, and Professional Development. I’ll probably do a blog post about it and a Sitemap Page. Yay!