This is a first post in a series explaining how to use WordPress Categories to better organize and monetize your site.
This post describes how to create the WordPress category and put a post a category; in WordPress this also “tags” the post. There are many, many reasons a blogger should use Categories and Tags, but I’ll talk more about those advantages later. In this post, I’ll explain how to:
- Put a Post in a Category that Already Exists
- Create a Category.
Place a Post in a WordPress Category
To put a post in a category that already exists, begin writing a post. While you are writing, your browser screen will look sort of like this:
Look to the right hand side of the page; I’ve outlined the list of categories I’ve already created with a red box. Find an appropriate category for the post and check the box to the left of the category title. The post I am currently writing is about “how to use WordPress Categories.” So, I want to put that in the “Wordpress” category which I created some time ago.
If you have good eyesight, you can see I checked “Wordpress”. When I “save” my post, it will be placed in the WordPress Category! Done!
But, how can you tell this worked? If you scroll up and read just under my post title, you will find the words “filed under WordPress” and the word WordPress is a link. (Actually, you’ll see more than WordPress. All will be revealed in time! )
By the way, you may not see the categories appear under your post title. The location of this information depends on your template layout. If the information appears nowhere, you should edit your template so it appears because WordPress “Categories” act as “Technorati Tags” only when that information appears in the post. And tagging is a good thing– but I’ll explain that later.
In any case, if you (or any other reader) clicks that “Wordpress” link, you will see short introductions describing my most recent posts placed in the “Wordpress” category. (It’s this feature that makes categories good for SEO. I am creating a page that tends to be rich in words associated with “Wordpress”.)
I bet you are also wondering how you can add categories to older posts? You can view all previously published post and their categories by clicking “manage=> posts” in the dashboard. Obviously, I haven’t published the post I’m writing just now, so I’ll show you what the two previous posts look like. I’ve outlined the categories in a green box. See?
If you wanted to change those, you could click “edit”. After the editing panel opened, you could check additional boxes or un-check boxes. The post will be in a new category.
Pretty easy, once you see pictures, huh?
Create a Category in WordPress
Now, suppose you are writing an article on a particular topic, you plan to write a bunch in that topic, and you want to place all those articles category that doesn’t exist. Then you have to create that cagetory. How?
Well, it’s easy. While you are writing your post, look to the right of the post editing box. I’ve repeated the screen shot below. I’ve outlined the Categories entry box in green. On your browser, you’ll see a blank box just above a button that says “Add”.
Now, you want to add a descriptive category name to that box. Think of a good category name for the group of posts. Hmmmm…
Well, the post I’m writing right now is about “Wordpress Categories”. I plan to write several on this topic. So, I will call this “Categories”. I type that in the box.
I click “Add”. Once I do this, two things will happens: 1) The category “Categories” will be created and 2) The box next to that category will be checked. Now, when I save the post, it will be in two categories “Wordpress” and “Categories”.
I have created that category and placed the post I’m writing in that category! Yes, a post can be in two categories at the same time. Heck, it can be in 10 categories at the same time. (Though, generally speaking, it’s silly to put it in 10, or even 100 categories. I sometimes put posts in up to 4, but 10 is going category wild!)
Ok, now you’ve learned how to 1) Put a post in a category and 2) Create a category. That’s enough to use my Kontera Control and NoFollowSpam plugins, so I’ll stop for now. But later on, I’ll explain how to better organize your categories, and describe display options for categories. At some point, I may even tell you why doing this improves SEO and helps attract visitors. But meanwhile….
Remember: Categories help you organize and communicate your site content to people, search engines and blog services. This attracts readers, improves your SEO and, in the long run, helps you make money blogging!
