What if an article I write can go in more than one category?

SupremeSauce

SupremeSauce

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So sometimes when I write an article, it can go into two different categories that I have set up in wordpress.

For example, if I write an article comparing two cars, but I have categories an AUDI to a BMW which are both categories on my site, which one would I add it to? Is it ok to add it to both?
 
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@SupremeSauce It depends, what does your link structure look like? is it site.com/category/postname <-- if this is it, then i believe it could cause a duplicate content issue across your site since you'll now have the same post as site.com/category1/post & site.com/category2/post - you should do some more research but that is what I think will happen. If you absolutely need to do this, then I would recommend looking into canonical tags to mark one of the posts as the main one and the other one as the duplicate.

How many users go and browse the category of your site? Probably none right, so just post it in either AUDI or BMW and move on. That is how I would approach it

However, if you have your permalink structure to not display category name, then you won't have a duplicate content issue in theory (again check this one to be sure).

The best way is to use 1 category, if you were using tags you could have multiple tags per post.
 
You can add to both, it's not a problem but you'll need to select one for canonical to avoid duplicate content.
 
And just watch out for keyword canibalization
 
DeadJoe said:
@SupremeSauce It depends, what does your link structure look like? is it site.com/category/postname <-- if this is it, then i believe it could cause a duplicate content issue across your site since you'll now have the same post as site.com/category1/post & site.com/category2/post - you should do some more research but that is what I think will happen. If you absolutely need to do this, then I would recommend looking into canonical tags to mark one of the posts as the main one and the other one as the duplicate.

How many users go and browse the category of your site? Probably none right, so just post it in either AUDI or BMW and move on. That is how I would approach it

However, if you have your permalink structure to not display category name, then you won't have a duplicate content issue in theory (again check this one to be sure).

The best way is to use 1 category, if you were using tags you could have multiple tags per post.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the detailed reply.

I don't have my category name in my permalink structure. It's just mywebsite.com/post. However, I think I will just set it to one category and leave it at that just to be on the safe side.

Kind of unrelated, what are your thoughts on interal linking to posts outside of the category? I try to only use internal links within a SILO category, but obviously sometimes it makes sense to link elsewhere.
 
SupremeSauce said:
Thanks for the detailed reply.

I don't have my category name in my permalink structure. It's just mywebsite.com/post. However, I think I will just set it to one category and leave it at that just to be on the safe side.

Kind of unrelated, what are your thoughts on interal linking to posts outside of the category? I try to only use internal links within a SILO category, but obviously sometimes it makes sense to link elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I link to anything and everything, regardless of categories. Whatever fits in gets linked. I also add more links in between paragraph with prompts like "Also Read: Article Title"
 
You should add it to all categories that are relevant but keep canonical tag to main category. In your example, none of them are main categories, so you should create a category for reviews or comparison.
 
SupremeSauce said:
So sometimes when I write an article, it can go into two different categories that I have set up in wordpress.

For example, if I write an article comparing two cars, but I have categories an AUDI to a BMW which are both categories on my site, which one would I add it to? Is it ok to add it to both?
Click to expand...
You should need to manage your categories again and make them short. You just need to add it to cars. Yeah, it will possible to add subcategories to the main category.
 
It depends how you’ve structured your permalinks on WordPress.

If you have chosen to include the category in your URL this is going to be a problem.

But if the URL of your posts just goes straight to the name of the post this shouldn’t be an issue.

You can use more than one category.

Here’s one word of warning though, you have to understand that you need your content to be as easy to understand as possible.

By confusing the reader with a lot of categories it will be very easy for them to either overlook your content or get confused by it.

I would suggest that you try to minimize the use of more than one category for each piece of content you produce.

I know that this is not always possible, but you need to read your content thoroughly and understand what kind of core problem it gets at.

Once you have a good idea of what that problem is it’s probably easier for you to pick a category that best fits that issue.
 
praetserge said:
You can add to both, it's not a problem but you'll need to select one for canonical to avoid duplicate content.
Click to expand...
Yes, you are right adding canonical tag will avoid duplicate content and major search engine will see main URL.
 
DeadJoe said:
However, if you have your permalink structure to not display category name, then you won't have a duplicate content issue in theory (again check this one to be sure).
Click to expand...
I agree with this.

Since the poster has said that he has the permalinks set to - mywebsite dot com/post so he can add the article to multiple categories without any problem. No need to worry about any canonical url since we are anyways not having any duplicate posts.

I also add one article to multiple categories and have been following this practice for years without facing any problem.

Also the article can be linked from any page from any category in a website. It makes your site more crawlable for spiders and will eventually help in your overall SEO efforts.
 
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