WordPress is an extraordinarily powerful content management system, allowing companies to manage content, view important metrics, assign tasks, and control user privileges within a single platform. And plugins give you even more control and flexibility. However, you might be overlooking the value of a built in feature that is ubiquitous across company blogs, but often underutilized. Take a look at these three ways to transform your tag and category systems into tools that can benefit your behind-the-scenes processes.
Tags as Navigation
Once your bloggers get on a roll with specific tags, you might find that it’s easier to use these tags as internal navigation systems within style guides and other company documentation. For example, if you hire someone to compose music reviews, then you might want to use the tag URL for “album reviews” to direct new writers to the type of content you’d like them to write. Tags can be an excellent way to refer employees to batches of content without having to paste individual blog links into internal communications.
Sorting Inventory
Did you know that you can switch off categories from public view with plugins like Ultimate Category Excluder? This allows you to keep category hierarchies invisible so that only your employees can view these handy labels. Once you implement this system, start labeling and sorting your blog posts with the appropriate categories. This can be particularly useful if you need to build an internal product catalog, with entries dedicated to specific products. Since categories can be nested, you can get extremely organized with parent and subordinate category labels. For example, you might have an apparel parent category of “Accessories” with the subcategory of “Hats.”
Metrics Analysis
Sometimes, you’ll want to be able to identify the topics that are most frequently addressed on your company’s blog and see if these match up with your web analytics. You can easily get a post count by using dropdown filters to display the number of posts labeled with a certain category. Post counts can also be collected anytime you click on a tag name from the administrative panel. These internal tools can help you keep track of how many posts you actually publish on particular topics.
A solid content management strategy can help you gain better control over internal organization, much like billing software can help you organize customer relationships and gain clear views of business trends. It’s vital to use digital tools to streamline your company’s workflow, rather than complicating processes.