When you setup a new blog, an “uncategorized” category is automatically created by WordPress. That category is set as the default for your all blog posts. In a WordPress blog every post you write must be associated with at least one category. It helps organize your blog articles by grouping them by theme or topic.
So the first thing to do after setting your blog platform before you start blogging is to create categories. Those categories are the main topics your articles or posts will be about.
In any case, you should already have the categories list by the time you decide to create a blog, even before you contact your graphic designer or web developer.
The blog categories define the niche or areas you would like to share your expertise about. They announce the general theme of your blog.
You can create as many categories as needed. There is no limitations from the WordPress blogging platform. However the narrower the number of categories is the more focus an targeted your blog will be. I suggest no more then 10 categories for a personal blog. Some bloggers even have just one category: you can’t be more focus than that!
For instance this blog is about Custom Blog Design and sharing our expertise in WordPress. So we currently have only 6 categories and even thinking about narrowing it down more. Those categories are displayed in the top navigation menu: Admin Panel, Blog Design, Plugins, Quick Tips, Themes, WordPress Blog.
So how do you go about creating new categories in WordPress?
To add a new category to your blog, from the left side bar of your blog admin panel, open the “Posts” panel – shown by the screen capture above – then click “Categories“. That opens up a ”New category” form where you can just define the category name, slug, parent and description in proper text box.
- All that is required is to type in is the new category’s name. That the text will be displayed in your blog navigation bar or in the categories section of your blog sidebar. So make it short, specific and keywords rich.
- The category’ slug is optional. Leave it blank and let WordPress automatically create it from the category name you just entered.
- The parent category can be left to “none” in most blogs unless you want to create a parent -> child hierarchy for your categories.
- The category’s description is also optional. It can be just a short note of 1 or 2 lines that summarize the topic of the category.
Categories help you define your blog’s niche, they are your main target keywords and also help your site visitors quickly pick the topic they are interested from the navigation menu.
