In Wordpress Web Design for Dummies Parts I & II, we discussed the primary functions of the Wordpress website platform. This included everything from the dashboard to themes and plugins to widgets, menus and pages. In this third installment of the series we will discuss the final three main elements that make up a highly functioning Wordpress web design: posts, tags and categories.
Posts
Posts are the lifeblood of a Wordpress website. As a true blog platform, posts allow webmasters and bloggers to continually update their audience with media-rich content using a management system that is unparalleled in the industry.
Posts provide valuable SEO benefits that would be difficult to obtain with static pages. This includes the ability to add meta data, keyword rich titles and subtitles, interior links, outbound links, references and contact information that are all vital to proper on-page optimization; a critical factor in achieving top organic search rankings.
The publishing area of Wordpress websites also permits users to schedule posts to publish on certain dates and times. This allows webmasters to schedule posts for months in advance and let the site run on autopilot when appropriate.
Tags
Tags are used exclusively in posts as a means of keeping track of and allowing access to posts that are about similar topics. For instance, this post will be tagged "web design." If a user comes to a WP site and reads the post, they can quickly jump to related posts and topics simply by clicking on the tag itself, whereupon Wordpress will display all posts that have been tagged using the same word or phrase.
Tags are also useful for SEO purposes because in many cases a tag URL can rank for certain search phrases, which will then lead traffic to your posts related to that tag.
Most Wordpress sites only support around 30 tags, which means that you should develop a tightly focused group of tags in order to better serve your readers and the search engines.
Tags can also be used throughout a site either on a page or in a sidebar widget in the form of "Tag Clouds," which is a spattering of all of the tags used on your site, with the most commonly used tags showing in larger text than the others.
In most cases no more than 2 or 3 tags should be used per post.
Categories
Categories are similar to tags but serve a more traditional, journalistic type of purpose. For instance, this post will likely be filed under categories like Web Design, Wordpress Web Design, Webmasters, or something similar. Categories are a broad grouping of post topics that generate a URL. Users that read a post and want to see other articles in the same category can simply click on the category URL and Wordpress will display all posts that have been filed in that category.
Because categories have URLs, they can rank for search terms in the same way that any other URL can and therefore provide significant SEO value when used properly. In most cases a post should only be filed under one category.
Wordpress is the most powerful and effective content management system and website platform out there, and it's fairly easy to use once you get a site up and running. So if you need a professional to build a spectacular Wordpress site and show you how to use it, call the number at the top of your screen now for a free consultation and quote. You've got nothing to lose and a potentially amazing new website to gain, so there's no reason not to call to discuss it right now.
