A Complete Guide to Using Categories and Subcategories for Organizing Your WordPress Site

As an experienced WordPress webmaster, I know that using categories and subcategories is one of the most important ways to organize your content.

Proper use of categories creates an intuitive structure, enhances user experience, and improves SEO. After 15 years building WordPress sites, I‘ve seen firsthand how crucial a well-planned category taxonomy is.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll explain everything you need to know about working with categories and subcategories in WordPress.

Understanding Categories vs Tags

New WordPress users often confuse categories and tags. While they sound similar, they are used for different purposes:

Categories group your content into broad topics and subtopics. They create a logical hierarchy for users to browse.

Tags are for labeling specific details related to a post using keywords. Tags have no hierarchy.

Think of it this way – categories provide the overall filing structure. Tags fill in the specifics within that structure.

For example, you may categorize a recipe under:

Food > Dinner > Italian

And add tags like:

vegetarian, pasta, tomato sauce

The categories give the recipe context within the broader site structure. The tags label the specific details.

According to HubSpot, websites should aim for 5-10 main categories on average. You can have a virtually unlimited number of tags.

Having too many categories can overwhelm users. Keep your categories broad with enough posts under each one to warrant having it.

When Should You Use Subcategories?

Subcategories (also called child categories) allow you to break down parent categories into more specific sections. The key is creating a multi-tier hierarchy from broad to narrow.

Here are some examples of effective uses for subcategories:

Product Categories

Electronics

• Laptops
• Tablets
• Headphones

Home Décor

• Furniture
• Lighting
• Kitchenware

Service Categories

Marketing Services

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• SEO Services

Web Design Services

• Ecommerce Design
• Custom Web Design
• WordPress Development

Location Categories

Europe

• France
• Germany
• Spain

Asia

• Japan
• China
• India

The goal is to start with high-level categories and drill down into more specific subcategories. Well-structured categories like this improve navigation and information architecture.

Users can easily browse down to find exactly the content they want. Search engines also understand the page topics better when clear category hierarchies are marked up.

Statistics on Using Categories for SEO

With 15 years experience in SEO and web development, I always advise clients to focus on properly organizing their websites using categories.

Here are some statistics that demonstrate their SEO value:

• Pages with categories gain +450% more organic traffic on average compared to pages without categories, according to Searchmetrics.

• Categorizing pages leads to 26% more indexed pages per Moz‘s research.

• HubSpot saw a 55% increase in traffic after optimizing categories, and Neil Patel boosted traffic by 34%.

It‘s clear that taking the time to create and optimize your categories results in significant SEO gains. Let‘s look at why categories are so beneficial for rankings.

SEO Benefits of a Well-Structured Category Taxonomy

Optimizing your use of categories provides many direct and indirect SEO benefits:

1. Shows Page Topics and Improves Relevance

Assigning a post to specific categories like Electronics > Laptops > Gaming Laptops gives search engines clear signals about the page topic and content. This improves relevance for that page‘s target keywords.

2. Provides Context Through Hierarchical Link Structure

Linking between categories creates an internal linking structure. For example, linking from Electronics to Laptops, and Laptops to Gaming Laptops.

This context helps search engines determine topical relevance between pages on your site.

3. Keywords in Category Slugs and URLs

Your category names appear in archive URLs as slugs. For example:

example.com/category/gaming-laptops/

Including target keywords in your category slugs helps pages rank for those terms.

4. More Internal Linking Opportunities

The more category and subcategory pages you have, the more internal link potential your site has. With good interlinking between categories, relevancy flows across your site.

5. Added Pages and Content From Pagination

Splitting category archives into multiple pages adds more indexed pages. For example, Gaming Laptops could have pagination like:

yourdomain.com/gaming-laptops/ 
yourdomain.com/gaming-laptops/page/2/
yourdomain.com/gaming-laptops/page/3/ 

This provides more opportunities for search engines to find and index your content.

As you can see, there are many direct and indirect ways that good use of categories benefits SEO. Now let‘s look at how to add and manage categories within your WordPress site.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Categories in WordPress

One of the great things about WordPress is that adding and editing categories is quick and easy:

Method 1: When Creating a Post

1. While editing a post, click "Categories" in the right sidebar.

2. Click "Add New Category."

3. Enter your category name and click "Add."

This instantly creates the category and assigns it to the post.

Method 2: From the Categories Menu

You can also add new categories without creating a post:

1. Go to Posts > Categories

2. Click "+ Add New Category"

3. Enter details:

   • Name – The category name

   • Slug – Category slug for URLs

   • Parent – Select parent category if adding a subcategory

4. Click "Add New Category"

This allows you to add all your planned categories before writing posts. You can also edit category names, slugs, and descriptions here.

Whichever method you use, adding a category only takes a moment. Now let‘s look at how to create a proper subcategory structure.

Adding Subcategories (Child Categories) in WordPress

Adding a subcategory works the same as adding a regular category. The only difference is specifying a parent category:

1. When adding a new category, choose an existing parent from the "Parent Category" dropdown.

For example, to add "Gaming Laptops" as a subcategory of "Laptops":

1. Select "Laptops" as the Parent Category.

2. Enter "Gaming Laptops" as the Child Category name.

3. Click "Add New Category."

You can nest subcategories multiple levels deep to create the ideal information architecture for your site.

It‘s also easy to reorganize and change parent-child relationships later as your site grows. We‘ll cover managing your existing categories more next.

Managing Existing Categories and Subcategories

As your WordPress site matures, you may need to reorganize categories or change existing names and slugs. Here are some key tips:

Rename Categories

To rename a category:

1. Go to Posts > Categories

2. Hover over the category to show the "Quick Edit" link

3. Click Quick Edit, change the name, and hit "Update."

Move Child Category to New Parent

When changing a subcategory‘s parent:

1. Quick edit the child category

2. Choose a new parent category from the dropdown

3. Update to save.

Merge Categories

If you want to merge two categories:

1. Delete one of the categories – this reassigns its posts to the default "Uncategorized" category.

2. Move the posts from "Uncategorized" to the surviving category.

3. Delete the now empty "Uncategorized" category if desired.

Reorganizing categories does take some planning, but can really pay off in cleaning up your site‘s architecture.

Tips for Optimizing Category Slugs and URLs

Category pages use this URL structure by default:

example.com/category/category-slug/

Here are some tips for optimizing your category URLs:

• Use keyword-rich slugs – Change slugs to contain relevant keywords, like gaming-laptops

• Make slugs SEO-friendly – Short, hyphen-separated slugs are best.

• Remove category base (optional) – Use a plugin to remove /category/ for cleaner URLs.

For example:

Before:
example.com/category/gaming-laptops/

After:  
example.com/gaming-laptops/

If modifying permalinks on an existing site, set up 301 redirects to avoid any broken links.

Structuring Categories on Ecommerce Sites

On online stores, properly organizing products under intuitive category trees is crucial for site navigation and SEO.

Follow these best practices for ecommerce categories:

• Start with 3-5 broad product categories like Electronics, Apparel, Home.

• Add layers of subcategories to go from general to specific.

• Use buyer keywords liberally in category names. "Gifts for Mom" rather than just "Gifts."

• Include keywords naturally in category slugs.

• Maximize internal linking between related categories.

• Keep product category pages updated and useful, not just endless lists.

• Make it easy to filter and sort within categories.

With over 200 million ecommerce sites competing, good use of categories gives your site an SEO advantage. Be sure to structure your product categories intelligently.

Displaying a Category List in Your WordPress Sidebar

Allowing visitors to browse content by category is crucial for site navigation and usability. Here‘s how to add a category widget:

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets

2. Find the "Categories" widget and drag it into a sidebar area.

3. By default, it will show all categories in alphabetical order.

4. Check "Show hierarchy" to make child categories indent beneath their parent category.

5. Click Save.

Now you‘ll have a category menu module in your sidebar. Having a persistent category list allows visitors to easily browse related content.

Conclusion and Next Steps

I hope this guide provided you with a complete look at using categories and subcategories within WordPress. Here‘s a quick recap of the benefits:

• Organizes content into logical hierarchical structures

• Vastly improves site navigation and usability

• Provides SEO-friendly category archive pages

• Boosts rankings by signaling page topics

• Optimizes internal linking structures

• Adds keyword-rich URLs from category slugs

Dedicate the time needed to plan out and optimize your categories. The payoff in user experience and search engine optimization will be immense.

To further improve your WordPress SEO, I recommend these next steps:

• Install the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize page-level SEO

• Read my complete guide to WordPress SEO best practices

• Learn how to create content that ranks using my proven framework

• Get in touch if you need help improving your site‘s search rankings

I hope you found this guide helpful! Let me know if you have any other WordPress topics you would like me to cover. After 15 years as a WordPress expert, I‘m happy to answer any questions you may have.