Are you struggling to decide how many categories to have on your website? Here’s a little insider tip: less is more! Having a few well-thought-out categories that are easy to navigate and understand will keep your visitors engaged.

In this blog, we’ll guide you through the best steps to achieving the perfect balance between having too many and too few website categories.

Before deciding on your website categories, do this first!

When it comes to developing effective website categories, it’s important to put yourself in your visitor’s shoes.

Imagine that you are visiting your site for the first time. Now try to anticipate what information or products you would be looking for. This will help you identify the most important categories to include.

What to name your categories

To ensure that your website categories are clear and easy to understand, give them names that are immediately recognizable to your target audience.

So when they click on them, they know what they’re getting.

Such as:

• Home
• Portfolio or Featured Work
• About
• Shop
• Testimonials or Reviews
• Blog
• Contact

Using technical or industry-specific jargon can be confusing and turn off potential customers.

Don’t worry that the headings may sound too simple or boring. It’s better to have clear and simple headings rather than ones that are trying to be too clever.

We’ve seen websites use words such as “Experience” for About and “Love Letters” for Testimonials. These terms are too ambiguous, which means your audience may move on.

Limit the number of categories on your website

The organisation of your categories has a huge impact on how easy it is for your visitors to navigate your site. Having fewer, well-defined categories provides a better user experience and creates a more polished, streamlined website design.

Not only does this make your visitors happy, but it also has a positive impact on your SEO.

Having a limited number of clear and easy-to-understand categories creates a more enjoyable user experience.

For our client’s Countdown To Kindy website, we created these categories for their website.

Visitors can find what they need quickly and easily, which keeps them engaged and on your site for longer periods.

This enhances the likelihood that they will become loyal visitors, share your content and potentially make purchases.

Too many website categories

When you have too many categories, it can quickly turn your website into a cluttered, disorganised mess.

Visitors may feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to click on. Which ultimately results in them leaving the site with a negative impression.

This can also lead to a higher bounce rate, which can decrease your search engine rankings.

Limit the number of Sub-categories within each main category

Instead of having numerous levels of subcategories, try to keep it to just one or two. These should be the top or most popular things your audience seeks.

This will make it easier for visitors to navigate your site and find what they’re looking for.

Search engines like Google use site structure as a factor when ranking web pages. By having a clear hierarchy of categories and subcategories, you can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.

Insider Tip

If you still have sub-categories left over, place them in the footer. Also lovingly known as the “bottom kitchen drawer”. (You know, it’s the one full of random things that don’t have a home).
Here’s the footer of our Template Emporium website.

Still, struggling? – we’re here to help

If you need guidance on streamlining and optimizing your website categories, we have what you need.

All our Template Emporium website designs come with the optimum amount of categories resulting in a user-friendly, streamlined website design.

You Did it!

That’s a wrap on How many categories should you have on your website? Will you be adding or limiting the number of website categories on your site? Let us know. In the meantime, Follow us on Pinterest for more blog posts like this.

Where to now?

Want more website tips? Check out the below.

1. Why do I need a Website if I have an Instagram account?
2. Which Template Emporium Website is Right for You?
3. What is a One-Pager Website? (& why do I need one?)

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