Here’s a quick tutorial on how to effectively set up categories on your Blogsite. If you want to read more on why this is important, be sure to take a look at Your Blog Categories Matter. For now, let’s go through the process of setting them up, step-by-step.

1. From your admin area, click on the “Manage” link at the top of the page. Then click on the “Categories” sub-link.

2. When adding categories, you need to consider all of the components; Category Name, Category Slug, Category Parent, and Category Description. Let’s go into a bit more detail for each of these.

• Category Name - This is what will lead your visitors to find the posts they’re looking for. All category names must be unique, even if they have different parent categories (this means you cannot have two categories with the same name). When deciding on a category name, consider the way search engines will see it, but do not let this outweigh your consideration for how your visitors will see it. Make sure your categories are appropriately titled for the posts that are assigned to it.

• Category Slug - This is optional, and may be left blank. If you customize your permalinks to display categories, then the category slug is what will display in that portion of the URL.

• Category Parent - This helps establish hierarchy among your categories and keeps things organized. It will look something like this: Tutorials > Blogging > SEO. It is optional to assign category parents, but it is a helpful tool for keeping your posts organized and easy for your visitors to find.

• Category Description - Here you have the option to enter a description for your category. Depending on your Blogsite theme, your category descriptions may or may not appear on your site. You may however, find this useful for your own reference.

3. Click on the “Add Category” button at the bottom, and you’ve done it!

Now, whenever you create a post for your Blogsite, you’ll be able to easily assign it to as many categories as you wish. This will help organize your Blogsite and allow visitors to easily navigate around your pages and posts (which they’ll surely be thankful for!).

For more detailed WordPress category help, visit http://codex.wordpress.org/Manage_Categories_SubPanel.

Your new Blogsite has amazing potential; it dreams of attracting hoards of visitors and maintaining repeat traffic. The ultimate success that your new blog website will achieve depends greatly on how well you set it up from the beginning; how strong you build its foundation. That said, let’s discuss the life-and-death importance (referring to the life of your Blogsite) of developing effective categories for your site.

Before we begin, make sure you’ve read the post on How to Set Up Blog Categories. Okay, now let’s begin.

A simplistic category structure just will not do. Think simple, but not simplistic; detailed, but not complicated. You want visitors to be able to find what they need quickly and easily, otherwise they will get frustrated and move on to the next site. If your categories are too generic and few, visitors will have to search through post after post after post to find what they’re looking for (not good). If your categories are not organized, visitors will attempt to visit many different areas of your site, get lost, get frustrated, and then leave (also, not good). The moral? Build your categories up strong from the start and make sure they make sense to the visitor; think, plan, organize.

Think about your Blogsite from the visitor’s perspective. Name your categories the way a visitor would search for things, not the way search engines would search for things. Search engine optimization definitely has it’s place, but foregoing the usability of your site for a little SEO juice is not going to encourage visitors to return or refer others. If you find a clever way to name your categories in such a way that they will be search engine friendly and visitor friendly, then you’ve found the jackpot. BUT, remember that you can always use tags and titles for an SEO boost, without compromising the user experience one bit.

One last note on categories. Remember that you can place each and every post in as many categories as you want. This actually gives your visitors easy access to many different topics and allows them to find what they need from several different paths. Also note that your categories stay invisible to visitors until you’ve posted to them, so there should be no hesitation to build them up strong from the start.

Best of luck, and feel free to post any questions here!

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make your Blogsite its best, and getting to know the ins and outs of the admin area can be overwhelming. This helpful page is a great place to start; a resource to bookmark and refer back to whenever you need help navigating through your admin area. Before you know it, you’ll be a pro at managing your Blogsite.

Here’s a quick break-down:

1. Write, Manage, Design, and Comments - When you log in to your admin area, you are directed to your Dashboard, which is the control center of your Blogsite. Note the first four panels on the left in the screen shot below.

• Write - Create a new page, post, or link.
• Manage - Change or edit existing elements of your blogsite.
• Design - Manage the way your site looks. (Note: Market One Stop does not support custom changes to your blogsite. See our policy on design changes.)
• Comments - Moderate blog comment preferences.

2. Settings, Plugins, Users - The next (and final) three panels on your Dashboard allow you to manage more technical settings for your Blogsite. Note the three panels on the right in the screenshot below.

• Settings - These settings apply to your Blogsite as a whole, and determine how it “behaves”.
• Plugins - Additional elements that you may wish to add to your blog. Take a look at the plugins that Market One Stop has installed for you already.
• Users - Setup and manage users for your site.

We know, that’s quite a bit of information to digest, so take it slow! Use this post as a reference and come back often to get more details and information.