It’s important to have a strategy for WordPress categories and tags so you are using them in a manner that makes sense for your readers. The technical aspect of adding categories and tags to a post in WordPress is straightforward. What’s much more complicated is understanding when and why to do it. So, I’m going to talk about strategy and how to decide which categories and tags to add to each article. Here’s a strategy for how to use categories and tags in WordPress.
Think of Categories and Tags as Collections
Both categories and tags should be thought of as collections. You’re creating collections of content. Once you think of them in that manner all of the other decisions are simpler and make more sense.
Don’t Duplicate Categories and Tags
Now that we’re thinking of both categories and tags as collections, there is no reason to duplicate them. A collection of cookies is a collection of cookies whether it’s a category or a tag. Having two identical collections isn’t a benefit for the reader. It makes no difference to the reader that you consider one to be a category and one to be a tag. It doesn’t add any value. So, there’s no need to have both.
Aim for One Category
Try to only add one category to each article. It should be the one category that best describes the article. This is sometimes easier when you leverage parent and child categories. If you can assign a post to a child category, it can be part of the larger parent category as well without needing to assign it to multiple categories.
Only Create Tags for Items Worthy of a Collection
When creating tags remember you are creating a collection. Don’t create a tag if it’s so specific that there will only ever be one article in it. What happens then is that the tag page will be competing with your article. Since it would make more sense for the reader to go directly to the article than viewing a collection of one article, just skip the tag so it’s more likely the article will be found instead.
Do What’s Best For Your Readers
The primary strategy to follow when creating categories and tags in WordPress is to always do what’s best for your readers. If multiple categories make sense for your site and help your readers, then do it. But, likewise, don’t add as many tags as possible because you think it’s helping SEO. Add them only if it makes sense for the people you want to attract.
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Creating consistent blog content is important. You know you need to create a content plan and write your content in batches. But, scheduling your blog post doesn’t mean it’s done. Once the article is published there are a few tasks you’ll want to do to further optimize your content. Here’s what to do after publishing a blog post.
I like to break up my post publishing blog routine into four different categories. They are grouped into: site improvements, internal linking, social outreach, and SEO.
Post-Publish Site Improvements
After you publish a blog article there are a few places on your website that can be modified to help optimize the new post.
Disable and Redirect Any Outdated Version
First, if the article is an update instead of an entirely new article, make sure to disable the old article and add a 301-redirect. Of course, this only applies if the updated version is a completely separate page from the original version.
Embed Media
If there are any additional media sources that can be embedded now that the article is live, such as a podcast or YouTube video, then add them.
Add to Category Pages
Add the article to any relevant category or resource pages. It’s possible your site is set up to do this automatically. If not, just take care of it manually.
Post-Publish Internal Linking
Add Internal Links FROM Related Articles
Review any existing articles on your site that can be related to the new post. If there’s an opportunity to add an internal link to the newest article, do it.
Add Internal Links TO Related Articles
The opposite is true as well. Look at the new blog article. Make sure you are linking out to any existing articles wherever you have relevant content.
Use a tool such as Canva to create a graphic to use for a social media post. Whether your primary network is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn; a nice graphic will increase the chance people will stop scrolling to read the post.
Schedule Social Media Shares
Schedule out as many social media shares as reasonable for the article. You don’t need to use as many social networks as possible, but schedule shares on the social networks that you have decided work for you and your audience.
The trick is to not share the identical post every time. Instead take a quote from the article, change the headline into a question, or share different subheadings. Find different pieces from the article to share. That way, you can share the same article multiple times, but it isn’t annoying for your biggest fans. And if someone wasn’t interested the first time, maybe they will resonate with a different part of the article and decide to click on a later post.
Space out the shares however you feel comfortable. I normally share about two weeks after the first post and then monthly after that.
Send to Email List
Make sure to send the new article to your email list. Either send it as a one-time blast or add it to a sequence. If you already have a sequence of content you use as your newsletter then add it where it makes sense in your sequence.
If it is timely content related to a current event or if you don’t have an email service provider that allows sequencing, then just send it as a one-time email.
Post-Publish SEO
Confirm Keyword Placement
Confirm the primary keyword appears in the Title, H1 tag, and first paragraph.
Write Meta Description
Confirm there is a meta description with the keyword included.
Track Rank
If you use a tool such as Ubersuggest to track rank, add your new keyword so it is easy to monitor.
That’s it, that’s the routine! Writing content can be time consuming. So, you want to make sure you’re getting as much value out of the content as possible. Following this post-publish task routine will help ensure your content starts ranking and bringing in traffic.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
One of the most challenging parts about blogging is being consistent. And consistency happens to be an important piece. One of the best ways to tackle this is to create a blog content calendar. We’ll go over everything you need to know to create a content calendar for your blog.
What is a Content Calendar?
Before we can discuss creating a content calendar, we need to understand what it is. A content calendar organizes your content ideas and assigns them to publish dates. The specific medium used to create the calendar can vary. It can be a spreadsheet, post-it notes, or even an actual calendar. It is a system that allows you to organize your content ideas based on when they will be published.
Why have a Content Calendar?
The content calendar helps you create a plan. It makes it easy to understand what to work on to stay on track. It helps hold you accountable.
Instead of a list of random ideas, the content calendar has a specific timeline. You have committed the content ideas to publish dates. Of course, it’s easy enough to make edits and change the schedule. But, it is easier to be consistent when you already have a plan. Content calendars allow you to commit to deadlines and plan ahead.
How to Create a Content Calendar
Step 1: Determine Posting Frequency
You’ll need to determine a posting frequency. Ideally, you’ll want to post weekly content. The most important part about your posting frequency is to be consistent while focusing on quality over quantity. So, if your schedule doesn’t accommodate weekly high-quality content updates, then aim for a schedule that gives you more time. You can post every other week or monthly instead. The more posts you’re able to create, the faster you’ll see your search engine traffic grow.
Step 2: Create a Spreadsheet
My go-to tool to create a content calendar is Google Sheets. Creating a spreadsheet is simple and gives lots of flexibility.
To get started with a content calendar, you can download the free Google Sheets template below.
To create your content calendar list out your post schedule dates based on your posting frequency. If you plan to post weekly, you’ll add a date for each weekday you plan to publish a new post. Then, in another column, document the article topic that will be posted that day.
You can also add any columns you’d like to carry over metrics you found during the keyword research stage. If you use the template above the metrics will automatically appear on the calendar tab when you select the topic using the dropdown list.
Step 3: Plan out Next Quarter
Assign topic ideas to every day you want to publish a post for the next quarter. So, roughly three months. If you have more ideas, do the full year. Keeping blogs current takes time. Get the keyword research out of the way so you have a full calendar ahead of you. That way, when you have blog time you can focus on writing and batching your posts instead of figuring out what to write next.
In Summary
A content calendar helps you stay organized. If you commit your content ideas to dates, it will be easier to blog consistently. Having a plan will help keep you moving in the right direction and make it that much easier to push forward.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Blogging takes time, which is limited for an entrepreneur. So, when you’re starting and building your blog, you’ll likely be wondering, How often should I blog for my business? The answers to this range anywhere from daily to monthly. Let’s go over how to determine the frequency that makes the most sense for you and your site.
Blog as Often as You Can
You should blog for your business as often as possible, but don’t worry about recommended time schedules if you know you can’t commit to them.
The more you publish, the quicker you’ll see results. However, if you start with an overly ambitious schedule and decide to blog every day, it might be challenging to stick to. You might perfectly carry out your blog schedule for two weeks but then get burned out and take a break for three months. Well, those 14 blogs could have been scheduled out weekly for three months instead. Even though the articles would have taken longer to be published, search engines and readers would have seen that you have a regularly updated blog, which would likely provide more long-term value.
Aim for Weekly Blog Updates
I like to aim for weekly blog updates. Once a month, I create a batch of four to five blogs, or however many I need to post an update each week for the upcoming month. When I first started, I only blogged monthly. Each month, I’d create a blog and schedule it out. As I got faster, I switched to blogging bi-weekly. I was producing two blogs each month, but it wasn’t taking any more time because I was writing faster and had better routines in place. Eventually, I could post an article every week and still use my same once-a-month placeholder time for content creation.
Start slow. Although monthly blog updates won’t grow your website as quickly as weekly or daily updates, it’s a good start and helps you ease into the process. That said, I do recommend aiming for weekly updates. If you start with monthly updates, make sure you’re aware of what’s using your time and brainstorm how you can create new blog articles more efficiently to increase the number you’re able to publish.
Keep Your Updates Consistent
Consistency is more important than frequency. You want search engines and readers to know how often you post. That helps search engines understand how often to crawl your website and helps readers understand when to return; it also helps show that your site is well-maintained and provides fresh content and information. So, instead of choosing an ambitious posting frequency, choose one you can commit to long-term.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
You always want to focus on quality over quantity. This is another reason a less-frequent posting schedule could be optimal. Don’t post so often that it’s all-consuming and prevents you from moving your business forward. You need to have time to make sure your content is top-quality so it can outrank competitors; this includes creating graphics, adding images, and formatting it in an easy-to-read manner. You also need time to update old articles so that the content stays current.
Do What Makes Sense for Your Audience
Although more content offers you more opportunities to rank in search engines, always keep your audience in mind, as well. Don’t publish content purely with SEO in mind. Publish content with topics and consistency that make sense for your readers.
My audience is busy. They don’t have time to read an article every single day, so I would never switch to daily blog updates because it wouldn’t make sense for them. My time is better spent either by improving the ClearPath Online marketing tool or answering questions and helping with one-on-one issues.
In Summary
Choose a blog posting schedule that makes sense for you and your audience. If you can post weekly, start there. Commit to a regular schedule and stick to it.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Choosing a name for your blog can be difficult. Should you think of a clever brand name? Or should your blog name be your personal name? As for most digital marketing questions, the answer is “it depends.” There are pros and cons to consider for each choice. Let’s go over these pros and cons and then discuss when to use a personal name and when to use a brand name for your blog.
The PROS of Using a Personal Name for Your Blog
Helps People Connect with You as a Person
When you use your own name for your blog name, it helps people connect with you as a person. Instead of looking at your content as information coming from a business entity, your personal name makes it easier for readers to see the articles as advice coming from a friend.
Allows You to Switch Topics
With a personal blog, you are not committed to a particular topic or area of focus. You are free to write content about any aspects that make you unique. I would still recommend covering only a handful of topics, so it is less confusing for the reader, but it would not be unreasonable to adjust those topics over time as your interests shift.
Brands You as an Expert
Creating a blog using your name allows you to brand yourself as an expert. This makes it easy for a future employer to see your area of expertise and better understand how knowledgeable you are in the subject matter.
The CONS of Using a Personal Name for Your Blog
More Difficult to Remember and Spell
Depending on your name, it may be more difficult to remember your name than a brand name. It can also be more difficult to spell a personal name than a brand name, since personal names can have several different spellings.
Topic Not Clear
The ability to switch topics, which we discussed above as a pro, can also be a con. Since you are not committed to a particular topic, the focus of your site may be unclear to your readers and to search engines. This lack of clarity can make it harder to get your site ranked on search engines, and it may be more challenging to attract the right audience for your site.
Could Be Harder to Sell
The final con for using your personal name as your blog name is that it can make your blog harder to sell. While selling your blog may not be something that you plan to do now, it is hard to tell what the future will bring, and you will have more options to sell your blog if it is not branded with your name.
Use Your Name for Your Blog if:
Personal branding is your goal. You are working on getting a better job and trying to grow your social network. You are using your blog as an extension of your resume.
Use a Brand Name for Your Blog if:
You want to grow a business. You are selling a product or have an intention of selling a product in the future. You want to use your blog as a business, and you are not concerned about branding yourself.
Include Your Personal Name Either Way
Whether you use your personal name or a brand name for your blog, make sure to include your name as the author on the articles. You want to include your name on your website to help build trust and increase credibility.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Let’s start at the beginning. What is a blog? Aren’t blogs those websites people use to talk about themselves and rant? Why would I want one for my business?
A blog contains regularly updated informational content which is displayed on a website. The blog article topics are generally related to the overall focus of the website. Of course, you can choose to rant about your day, but that isn’t commonly found on business blogs.
Why Should I Have a Blog?
A blog provides you an opportunity to add content to your website that isn’t directly related to your core product. This allows you to optimize the pages of your website for keywords and phrases that wouldn’t naturally appear on your main landing pages. This content can help you target an audience higher up the funnel process. You can bring some new people to your site before they have realized your product could help them solve a problem.
How to Configure Your Blog
Where Should the Blog Live on Your Site?
There are two common places where you would put a blog on your website. The first place is as a subdomain, such as blog.yoursite.com. The second place is as a directory, such as yoursite.com/blog. The other place you might see a blog is right at the root of the homepage, such as yourblogsite.com. Since it should be clear to you if your blog belongs on the homepage, we will focus on the subdomain and directory placement options.
The Difference Between a Subdomain and a Directory
The number one most significant difference between a subdomain and a directory is that a subdomain (blog.yoursite.com) is considered a separate site, whereas a directory lives on the root domain.
What that means is a subdomain keeps your blog completely separated from your main website. This can be beneficial for a couple of reasons. You can link to relevant pages on your main site from your blog site, and they will count as external links. This setup also gives you a little protection if you receive a ranking penalty. Since it is considered a separate site, the penalty won’t necessarily apply to your main website.
One of the main downsides of setting up your blog as a subdomain—and the primary upside for setting it up as a directory—is that any backlinks your blog site acquires won’t directly benefit your main site. This is one of the principal reasons to set your site up as a directory. Typically, your blog’s primary goal is to reach a larger audience through social shares and backlinks. If your blog is a directory on your root domain, those backlinks help increase your root domain’s backlink profile.
To decide if your blog should be a subdomain or a directory, you have to think about your blog’s goal and what’s best for your readers. For small businesses, having a blog as a directory is typically the smarter option.
Do All Blogs Have Comments?
Traditionally yes, blogs have comments. These days, however, more and more companies are removing commenting systems from their blogs. About fifty-percent of blogs have a commenting system in place. Some companies find they spend a considerable amount of time maintaining the comment system and the vast majority of comments are low-quality or spam.
With that being said, a company would want to have comments on a blog to build a sense of community. It provides a way for your readers to reach out and ask questions. This not only gives you a channel to communicate directly with people and publicly offer exceptional service, but you can also take these comments and feedback to get ideas for new content and new questions to answer on future blog articles.
Another benefit of having comments on your blog—and arguably the most practical reason—is that they keep your blog article fresh with keyword-rich content. New comments make the piece appear current and updated. When people add comments to blogs, they naturally use keyword-rich phrases more often than you can insert them organically to the main content piece.
Like any other online marketing tactic, you need to decide if comments make sense for your demographic and your blog’s goals. If you decide a commenting system is right for your blog, make sure you maintain it. When appropriate, reply to people and make sure to remove spam to keep a high-quality blog.
Do Blogs Need Social Share Icons?
Almost every blog makes it easy to share on popular social networks. The most common purpose for a business to maintain a blog is to increase traffic to their website. One of the main tactics to do this is for people to share the content on social media. Why not make this easy to do?
If you’ve decided it makes sense to have a blog for your business, you might as well make it easy for people to share the content. If you don’t, you’re missing an ample opportunity.
What makes this an even more straightforward decision is that there are so many free tools these days to make this a super simple experience, both in regards to technical implementation and the user experience. Some of the most popular social share tools today are AddThis, ShareThis, and AddToAny.
How Often Should I Update My Blog?
The easy answer is: as often as possible. It’s recommended that you post a blog article a minimum of once a week. Large companies will post much more often than that, anywhere from three times a week, to every single day, to multiple times a day.
I would recommend setting up a blogging schedule that makes sense for you and your business. Do you have time to blog every day? Great! Then do that. Do you only have time to do one blog a month? Well, one blog per month is better than no blogs. Start with that. The most important thing is to keep a consistent blog schedule.
If you have the time and resources necessary, commit to a weekly blog article. Otherwise, create a schedule that works for you and stick to it.
So, Do I Need a Blog?
About eighty-percent of the top business websites have a blog. If maintained, a blog can be a great traffic resource and expand your audience and bring new people that may not have been directly searching for your product.
Content is a vital piece for search engine optimization. The content on your site is the valuable asset you want search engines to provide to users. So, how do you know what content is the right content for you to direct your focus? Let’s go over three different scenarios.
Scenario 1: Your website already has excellent content on all of your product pages. You already have a thorough FAQ section, and your website answers every question people have about your core product. But you want to keep expanding content and get more traffic. Then yes, build a blog!
Scenario 2: Your website doesn’t have great existing content. But you aren’t worried about that. You have enough time or resources that you’ll be able to continue to build out landing page content for your core product while creating and maintaining a blog. Then yes, build a blog!
Scenario 3: You’re just getting started. Your website doesn’t yet clearly describe your core offering. You have limited time and no budget. In this situation, where you feel forced to choose between starting a blog and creating product-specific landing pages on your main website, start by optimizing and maximizing your landing page product copy. But as soon as you’ve taken care of that, start focusing on your blog articles.
A blog is essential, and it’s beneficial for business websites to maintain one. Find a blog schedule that works for you and stick with it.
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Does a business website need a blog? What about an ecommerce site? Is a blog only for personal websites or is there a benefit to having a blog on your business website? Setting up a blog is simple and well worth the time. Here are five reasons why the answer to the question “Should I start a blog for my business?” is a definite yes!
Blog Content Attracts People in the Research Stage
Having a blog on your business website allows you to create content to attract people in the research stage. This allows you to bring people to your website higher up in the funnel. Content such as product descriptions and information about the services you provide will attract people with intent to buy. While, that is also helpful, that won’t help people find you who don’t know you exist.
Blog content allows you to write content to demonstrate to people how your product or service could be helpful even when they have never heard of you and didn’t realize a solution such as yours exists.
Blogs Can Build Trust and Authority
Creating consistent blog content helps build your brand. It adds a voice to your business. It allows you to build trust and become an authority in your niche. Blog content can help both people and search engines understand what you’re known for.
Blogs Help You Better Understand Your Audience
Reviewing blog data and understanding what content is the most popular can help you better understand your audience. By understanding what content people are reading on your website you can get a better idea about what pains they are trying to solve and what topics they are interested in.
Blogs Can Grow Your Email List
When you have a business blog, ideally you also want some kind of download or freebie that site visitors can opt into. If you do, a blog can grow your email list. When people visit your blog, they can provide an email to get your freebie. The trick with this is to align your freebie with your product. You want to make sure your offer attracts people who would be your ideal customer, then you want that item to help those people overcome a hurdle that would be stopping them from purchasing your product.
Blogs Make it Easier to Get Social Exposure
Lastly, blogs make it easier to get social shares and exposure on social networks. The type of content that naturally appears in blogs is more educational, conversational, and insightful. So, it naturally attracts much more social shares and attention than your standard website pages.
In Summary
Blogs are useful for all business websites. They allow you to connect with your community in a way you can’t with the rest of your site content.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Building your blog, or your entire website, on WordPress is a great option. It offers flexibility, documentation, and a ton of community support. There are thousands of themes and plugins that you can use to create just about any functionality you can think of.
But, sometimes the vast number of options available can be overwhelming. To cut through some of the clutter we’ve put together five WordPress blogging tips you can follow to start strong.
Tip #1: Use a Responsive Theme
You want your website to be mobile friendly. You don’t want to get stuck duplicating content and wasting valuable time. When you’re looking for a WordPress theme, make sure it’s responsive. Start with a responsive theme from the very beginning.
When a theme is responsive, that means the width of the website can readjust to fit on mobile, tablet, or desktop. Depending on the device size, the elements on your website will be displayed differently.
On a desktop, you might have a four column layout. On mobile, those columns would be stacked on top of each other vertically instead. On a tablet, they might be displayed as a two column layout with two rows.
This allows for a great user experience regardless of what device people use to access the website.
Tip #2: Use Only the Plugins You Need
Plugins are great. They make it easy to add complex functionality to a WordPress site without knowing how to code. For the most part, they are plug and play. You download one, activate it, configure a few settings to specify your needs, and it’s good!
There’s nothing wrong with using plugins, but you only want to use the plugins you need. The more you use, the more potential issues you’ll run into. Normally, plugins are fine. But, sometimes, they can conflict with each other.
Since adding plugins is so easy, it’s also easy to have way more than you need. Sometimes when I’m looking for a new plugin I end up downloading about five plugins. I try them all and then decide one is the best and go with it.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But when you’re done, remove what you aren’t using. Don’t just deactivate it. Completely delete it so it doesn’t appear in your list of plugins anymore. If you don’t delete it you will still need to update it and you still have those files on your server.
So, if you need a plugin, use it. If you install it, don’t like it or don’t need it, get rid of it. Don’t let it be a possible vulnerability.
The same thing goes with themes. There’s no need to keep the default themes if you aren’t using them.
Tip #3: Be Cautious with Customizations
If you want to change the way a plugin or theme works, try to change it in the available settings first. Don’t play with the code unless you have to. If you don’t understand code, stay out of it.
If you make the customization directly in the plugin or theme code it will get overwritten when there’s a new update. That means your change will be gone and there’s a chance you will break something unexpected.
Always look through the available settings first. Most themes will have a dedicated area for you to add custom CSS and javascript.
Plugins normally offer quite a few customization settings as well. Chances are you’ll be able to find a settings interface to control the element you want to manipulate. And if you don’t, try a different plugin. Editing the plugin code should be a last resort.
Tip #4: Download Yoast SEO
You want to start off by adding SEO elements such as meta descriptions to your pages from the very beginning. It will be easiest to optimize your posts for search engines as you create them instead of going back and editing several existing pages when you decide to focus on it.
There are a few different SEO plugins worth using. I like to use Yoast SEO. They allow you to specify the target keyword for the page and then they have a checklist to quickly identify what remaining optimizations need to be added to the post.
Tip #5: Have a Plan for Backup and Security
Your blog will be a place you end up putting a lot of time and hard work into. You want to make sure you have a backup plan.
WordPress normally runs great. I can count on one hand the number of failed updates I’ve had in the last decade and none of them ended up needing to be restored from a backup. But still, things happen, and you want to be prepared.
I like to use UpdraftPlus for backups. It’s a plugin. You can run a backup before you run updates so you have a fresh copy in case there is an issue. You can also schedule it to run backups on a regular basis and save them somewhere else such as Dropbox or Amazon S3.
And just as important as a backup, you also want to make sure your site is secure. I like using Wordfence for this. It’s another plugin. It’s a great safeguard to have in place so you’re getting notified of any suspicious activity on your website.
Just follow these five tips and you’ll be off to a great start!
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