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
-
Purchased domain with links - redirect page by page or entire domain?
Hi, I purchased an old domain with a lot of links that I'm redirecting to my site. I want all of their links to redirect to the same page on my site so I can approach this two different ways: Entire site
Technical SEO | | ninel_P
1.) RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.xyz.com or Page by page
2). Redirect 301 /retiredpage.html http://www.xyz.com/newpage.html Is there a better option I should go with in regards to SEO effectiveness? Thanks in advance!0 -
Organizing A Backlink Authority Category Page
I work for a company that has many promotions throughout the year, some big, some HUGE. Typically they have created a landing page for this content. The issue is, when this promotion ends, we will kill the landing page, thus 404ing the backlinks and putting the page authority in purgatory. (1) What would be the best way the keep these pages organized? I was thinking about creating a main "Promotions" page with the current promotion on it (the previous ones linked on the bottom of the page). Then when the promotion ends I would copy those contents and add them to a new page and link to it from the original "promotions" page. An issue I see with this is that the promotions page would always have the same Title Tag and vanity URL. (2) This could provide many links to the "promotions" page over time to build it's authority, but would constantly changing content hurt ranking factors?
Technical SEO | | nat88han0 -
Product Pages Outranking Category Pages
Hi, We are noticing an issue where some product pages are outranking our relevant category pages for certain keywords. For a made up example, a "heavy duty widgets" product page might rank for the keyword phrase Heavy Duty Widgets, instead of our Heavy Duty Widgets category page appearing in the SERPs. We've noticed this happening primarily in cases where the name of the product page contains an at least partial match for the desired keyword phrase we want the category page to rank for. However, we've also found isolated cases where the specified keyword points to a completely irrelevent pages instead of the relevant category page. Has anyone encountered a similar issue before, or have any ideas as to what may cause this to happen? Let me know if more clarification of the question is needed. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | ShawnHerrick0 -
Changing Wordpress theme page
I hear that when moving your posts from one website to another, if it is done incorrectly it can hurt your ranking on search engines. With this mind. Does changing from on theme to another affect a websites ranking?
Technical SEO | | johnmoon61 -
I know I'm missing pages with my page level 301 re-directs. What can I do?
I am implementing page level re-directs for a large site but I know that I will inevitably miss some pages. Is there an additional safety net root level re-direct that I can use to catch these pages and send them to the homepage?
Technical SEO | | VMLYRDiscoverability0 -
Can you mark up a page using Schema.org and Facebook Open Graph?
Is it possible to use both Schema.org and Facebook Open Graph for structured data markup? On the Google Webmaster Central blog, they say, "you should avoid mixing the formats together on the same web page, as this can confuse our parsers." Source - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-schemaorg-search-engines.html
Technical SEO | | SAMarketing1 -
301 category page to Homepage to increase authority
Hello all, Hope everyone is well and are enjoying the summer. I am currently working with a site: www.corporatehealth.co.uk and have been trying to rank on the first page for the keyword occupational health. currently we are ranking on the second page: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=occupational+health&pws=0&gl=uk#q=occupational+health&hl=en&pws=0&gl=uk&prmd=ivnsb&ei=38dUTuHCDdGKhQetqZn5BQ&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=80a9548917d021a&biw=1920&bih=878 I understand I need to get more links pointing to the site and page itself. My idea was to do a 301 redirect from the occupational health page to the homepage and add occupational health content to the homepage as ultimately they are an occupational health service supplier. Was hoping to get anyones thoughts on the issue. Thanks in advance Shehzad
Technical SEO | | Gareth_Cartman0 -
Too many on page links for WP blog page
Hello, I have set my WP blog to a page so new posts go to that page making it the blog. On a SEOmoz campaign crawl, it says there are too many links on one page, so does this mean that as I am posting my blog posts to this page, the search engines are seeing the page as one page with links instead of the blog posts? I worry that if I continue to add more posts (which obviously I want to) the links will increase more and more, meaning that they will be discounted due to too many links. What can I do to rectify this? Many thanks in advance
Technical SEO | | mozUser14692366292850