- Image via Wikipedia
This afternoon my wife and I cleaned out the miscellaneous drawer in our kitchen. We found $75 in cash, 2 batteries, 4 Pez dispensers, a dozen paper clips, a bazillion grocery receipts, and a ring of mystery keys (to locks we don’t think we own anymore). Everyone has a drawer like that in their house. In goes all the stuff that doesn’t have an immediate purpose… never to see the light of day again.
Your blog has something similar: The “uncategorized” category and/or tag. The most useless label EVER. It’s perfectly understandable why you have one — because you write stuff and you don’t know where it should go. So it ends up in that miscellaneous drawer.
Why this matters
You’re not doing anyone any favors: Who among your readers will click the “uncategorized” tag in your tag list? Worse yet, if you use a tag cloud, the big-ass UNCATEGORIZED link is a prominent reminder that you are basically indecisive about what you write. Moreover…
- Content gets lost
- Your content strategy and sales funnel are disrupted because people don’t know where to click
- Depending on its prominence in your cloud, the uncateorized label can eclipse other tags
- Time-on-site rates decrease because “uncategorized” isn’t a compelling link to click on, so people leave
- If your tags are indexed, your “uncategorized” tag doesn’t support your brand but still shows up in search results
Fixing the problem
Do yourself and your readers a favor:
- Open up an icy lager
- Turn on your favorite song
- Click your “uncategorized” tag or category
- Scan through your blogs and find two or three subjects that they share (either new ones or existing ones)
- Relabel appropriately
- When the song is done, stop reading
- Finish beer
- Feel better about making your blog more reader-friendly
- Repeat as necessary
And, go one step further and completely delete that uncategorized tag or category altogether!