Most sites do well with a small set of about three to eight broad, distinct blog categories, although the right number depends on the site. The goal is to cover your main subject areas without creating unnecessary overlap.
And it’s worth getting them right. Choose the wrong number, and your blog can quickly become confusing, repetitive, and harder to grow.
In this post, we’ll explain why blog categories matter, how to decide how many you need, and how much content each one should contain.
Why Do Blog Categories Matter?
In short, they help prevent your posts from turning into one long, unorganized list. More specifically, blog categories provide:
- Easier navigation. Readers can quickly find more posts on the same subject without clicking through the entire blog.
- Clearer site structure. Grouping related posts together creates stronger topic clusters or content silos around the main topics you cover.
- More context for each post. Categories show readers and search engines how an individual article fits into the blog’s broader subject.
The question, then, isn’t whether you should use categories on your blog — you often should. It’s more about how many it can support without overcomplicating the structure.
How Do You Decide How Many Blog Categories You Need?
The easiest way to decide how many blog categories you need is to list the main subjects your blog will cover, then remove any that are too narrow, overlap too heavily, or cannot support enough content.
Here’s how to get to your ideal number.
Start with your main topics
Begin by choosing blog categories that cover broad subjects directly related to what your business offers and what your audience wants to learn about. Each one gives you a potential category to consider.
For example, a marketing agency might start with SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, and email marketing. Since each subject represents a distinct service area and can support many related posts, the agency may begin with four categories.
However, this is only a starting point. You still need to determine whether each topic is substantial and different enough to remain separate.
Combine topics that are too thin
A topic may not need its own category if it only supports a handful of closely related posts. Besides, creating a separate category for every small variation can leave you with several thin sections instead of a few useful ones.
For example, an agency may initially consider separate categories for blog writing, website content, and content strategy. If it doesn’t have enough posts to publish about each one, though, combining them under a broader category like “Content Marketing” may make more sense.
That reduces the total number of categories while still giving those posts a clear place on the blog.
Separate categories that cover too much
Although narrow categories can inflate the number, overly broad ones can create the opposite problem. If almost every article could fit into the same category, it won’t do much to organize the blog.
For instance, “Marketing” may be too broad for an agency that regularly publishes about SEO, backlinks, email, and content. So, dividing that subject into its own distinct categories would give readers a clearer path through the site.
Remove categories that overlap
Just as with keyword overlap, two categories should not cover so much of the same ground, especially if you’re constantly unsure where a post belongs. When that happens, the categories probably represent one larger subject rather than two distinct ones.
For example, “Blog Writing,” “Content Writing,” and “Website Content” may not sound like they’d cover the same material at first glance, but the boundaries can become unclear quickly. It may be better to combine them into one broader category and organize the narrower subjects with tags (learn about blog categories vs tags), subcategories, internal links, or hub pages.
Make sure each category has enough content
You should have at least five strong blog post ideas before creating a category, even if you add or subtract from them later. So, before adding a new one to your website, make sure you have enough relevant ideas to fill it out.
It can help to plan your content in topic clusters, or groups of connected articles around a broader subject. Now, there’s no fixed rule for how many posts should be in a topic cluster or when a topic cluster is complete, but you should have enough to cover the subject from several useful angles.
This often means that categories will have different numbers of posts. A broad subject may eventually support dozens, while a narrower one may really only need that five. What matters is that each category offers enough depth to feel useful and has room to grow over time.
Once the topic cluster planning is complete, you’re usually left with a small number of well-developed categories rather than a long list of thin ones.
Build Your Blog Around Clear Topic Clusters
Choosing categories gets much easier once you know which broader topics your business should build authority around. Instead of creating categories first and hoping you can fill them later, you can plan the larger subjects, the supporting articles, and how everything connects.
MarketingPal.io’s Topical Authority Content Cluster Plans give you that structure. Each plan includes keyword research, competitor analysis, search intent, article titles, and a publishing roadmap for connected content around your main topics.
With that foundation in place, you can choose the number of categories that reflect the topics that matter to your audience and business while ensuring each one has enough relevant content to support it.
Contact MarketingPal.io today to get a plan built around your business and audience.
