WordPress Categories Versus WordPress Tags

Categories within blog posts and pages are broad definitions of the content, such as profiles, special offers, photo gallery, etc. These category designations sort your posts according to topics, often assigning it to a page based on the category. It also helps identify the content for search engines, as well as visitors searching by keyword phrases.

Tags are a micro-definition, far more specific than their category counterparts. A WordPress tag designation digs deeper into the content and describes specifically what’s inside a particular blog post.

A tag can be a specific list of colors or styles, the name of regular contributors, hot button words, or any further designation of the content within your post.

Adding Tags to Your WordPress Site

When you add a new post to your blog, you’ll see a box with the heading “Tags” on the right side.

You add keywords and keyword phrases by typing them into the tag section, separated by commas. Or, if your blog is established and you’ve been using tags for awhile, click Choose from the most used tags and select from your common tags within the tag cloud. To delete a tag from your post, click on the “X” before that tag.

Tags can be managed, in bulk, from the main dashboard as well-allowing you to edit your tags without going into each individual post. Go to Posts > Tags. From there you can add tags, edit them, or delete them.

Tip: WordPress recommends assigning anywhere from 5 to 15 tags for each blog post. Not assigning any tags negates any search engine optimization. An overabundance of tags can make the navigation more difficult for your visitors.

Effective Use of Tags

Several effective strategies for utilizing tags include:

• Think of keyword phrases, rather than a single keyword
• Reuse tags frequently, rather than only once
• Reorganize occasionally, consolidating tag designations and editing for word choice
• Consider adding a tag cloud, tag list, or “find others like this…” option to your site for visitors to utilize

The findability of your site and the effectiveness of your navigation is centered on your tags and categories. Use tags and categories wisely to give your blog the best SEO results possible.
For more help with customizing your tags and category designation and content creation, contact us about our design and content services.

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YOUR WEBSITE PHOTOS AND IMAGES: It is also very important to have the images and photos within your website optimized for fast viewing AND SEO. While technology has basically “caught up” to higher resolution images, there are still people surfing the web on dial up connections who may not want to wait for a high res image to load. Even people who are viewing your website on a fast connection will want your site to load rapidly. Site load time is now a factor in the major Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Nola Cooper optimizes the images and photos within your website for the best of all scenarios. Never sacrificing the beauty and integrity, yet allowing them to load as quickly as possible. I always make sure that all of your images have an “alt” tag (or attribute) as is required by compatibility standards. Alt tags are used in many ways: by the search engines, when a browser has images “turned off”, and in Internet Explorer when your mouse hovers over an image the “alt” tag will show on the screen. Also, it’s important to remember that screen readers used by the vision impaired use your site’s alt tags to determine the type of content on a web page.

Download Google’s SEO Starter Guide

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You won’t need your webmaster to make changes to your site’s content! For some people this can be a very big deal; either because of cost, or because of waiting lists/time constraints. And you don’t need any knowledge of HTML or coding to update your content!

While utilizing a WordPress website platform you may enjoy some of the following benefits:

Your dynamic content reaches search engines faster by using layout, tags, and plugins. You no longer have to pay a high price for search engine optimization.

WordPress provides a powerful search function. It is ready to use, without expensive scripts to purchase or install.

You can assign an unlimited number of users or writers. You maintain control of their editing abilities within your website.

Your visitors no longer have to check your website for updates; they receive updates automatically with RSS feeds.

Write your content when you have time and then schedule the publication to post on a date in the future.

 
AN EXCELLENT PLATFORM FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT

WordPress is essentially the best Content Management System (CMS) on the web, and it’s FREE. The Wikipedia Definition of CMS: “A Web CMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions. Most (if not all) Web CMSs use a database to store content, meta data, and/or artifacts that might be needed by the system.

Basically, a CMS is a tool that allows the user to easily maintain the content of their site, without programming knowledge…eliminating the heavy need for use of a “webmaster”.

For content driven websites such as magazines, news sites, or membership sites, nothing beats the management capabilities of WordPress. It is the ultimate way to organize and control your content. If you want to limit access to a certain page or area, you can easily assign a password for access.

WordPress is highly customizable and only limited by your imagination; if you can imagine it, there is a probably a plugin for it.

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If you’ve decided to take your business online, then you understand that in today’s business climate it’s important to have a web presence. Along with that you should also understand that just “having a website” is not the end of the journey. The first step to owning and running a successful website is understanding that you don’t just buy a domain and put something on it. The website you offer your customers and potential customers should be informative, dynamic (a blog is a great way to offer ever changing content), and should be optimized to draw in the traffic that will grow your business.

The following questions should be asked of any designer you are considering for your project.

• Will you use a pre-designed template or site builder for my website, or will it be an original design?

Designers who use pre-designed templates are not all bad. Some folks have spent their time learning the ins and outs of specific site builder, or specific types of website templates. If they know what they’re doing, their work should show this…in the look of the site. Keep in mind, that many sites done with pre-designed templates or site builders will have what’s referred to as a “cookie cutter” look to them, especially if the “designer” doesn’t know how to make many changes.

COST: You should expect to pay MUCH LESS for a site that uses a pre-designed template or site builder, than you would for an original design. Especially, if there aren’t many changes made to the basic template design. Basic changes you should expect would be use of your logo and color scheme, and insertion of your graphics and photos.

Original website designs typically begin from a blank page, and are hand coded by the designer. Finding a designer who does this means that you have someone who at least knows html very well, and in today’s online climate, a PHP programmer/developer would be ideal (PHP allows for so much more functionality).

Custom designed templates are typically the same as an original design…hand coded and designed just for you, but using a template to affect better load time and smooth transitions from page to page.

• Will my website look the same in all browsers?

Most web surfers are still using either Internet Explorer or Safari. But Firefox is very quickly gaining ground as the browser of choice. Because of this, it is VERY important that your designer (whether they use a template or they design an original design) guarantee what’s called “Cross-Browser Compatibility”, and that compatibility should be checked for every page of your site. Many designers design for only one browser, and this can be problematic…your site can look COMPLETELY different in 2 different browsers.

• When my site is complete, will I have access to the “backend”?

If you don’t have the time or inclination to do your own website updates, this probably isn’t important. However, if you want to be able to change things like phone numbers, email addresses, or simple wording on your site (to test SEO), you’ll want to make sure that you not only have access to the backend, but that you are provided with instructions for that access.

Hosting control panels can vary widely from one hosting company to the next. If your designer is also providing your hosting, they should be able to train you on how to add things like email addresses, email forwarding, and auto-responders…PLUS how to access your website stats and invoicing.

It’s probably a good idea to discuss this up front with your designer, to make sure at least SOME training will be provided, if necessary.

WordPress websites are built on an excellent platform for Content Management, and provide the owner with the easy ability to update content, optimize for the search engines, and more. If your designer does not offer training for your WordPress site, there are many places to go online with video tutorials and more.

• If there are any issues after the site is complete and has “gone live” (is online)-do you charge to troubleshoot them?

A good designer will test your site design BEFORE going live to be sure that everything works properly, and thus shouldn’t need to troubleshoot. Occasionally, there will be issues, however, and you should find out up front what this type of “website maintenance” will cost you.

If you were provided with a “design mockup” of your site at the beginning of the process, your site layout SHOULD LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THAT MOCKUP (minus any graphic or photo changes, of course). Good website designers know how to program their sites to look like the design they created. You should insist that your site look exactly the way you expected it to. Your designer should work diligently until it does, without charging you extra.

• Will you do anything to my website that will help it to start being recognized by the search engines?

Most designers do not include keyword research as a part of your design. However, if you or your marketing team have done some research, it’s important to know how much your designer will charge you to add basic Search Engine Optimization to your site. I typically will include basic keywords and meta tags (as provided to me by my client) in my final design, to help my clients at least get a start with the search engines.

Knowing what you’re paying for up front, will not only help you to compare rates more accurately, but will also insure that you are getting the best your money can buy when it comes to your website.

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