Best Practices: Page Categories

Note:

This article highlights best practices regarding page categories on sites. For instructions on how to create page categories, click here

 

Site managers can create page categories to organize site pages. This is done on a per-site level, meaning page categories created on one site will not be reflected on another site.

Unlike topics, which act much like hashtags on social media posts, aligning similar content and making things easier to find in search results, page categories help you find content more easily when filtering content on a site. Site managers can use them to their advantage to help group content for End users, creating a more streamlined experience. 

Simpplr recommends adding page categories that help separate types of information throughout your site. For example, if you manage your company's HR site, you might want to have the following page categories to help keep content from running together and getting too crowded:

  • New Hires
  • US Policies
  • Global Policies
  • Company News
  • Processes
  • Benefits
  • Performance Reviews

Every time someone publishes a new piece of content on the site, they'll be given the option to choose one of the page categories created by the Site manager. 

Below is an image example of an HR site and the page categories used.
page_category_list.png

One practice is to have your page categories broad enough to where more topics could fit in each one, then include the more specific topic in your content title. For example, for the page category "Benefits" you may have many more topics under that, such as:

  • Mobile Phone Reimbursement
  • Broadband Reimbursement
  • Meal Reimbursement
  • Health Insurance
  • Gym Facility
  • Worker’s Compensation
  • Accidental Insurance & Term Insurance
  • Shift Allowance
  • Parking Policy
  • Certification Reimbursement
  • Reimbursement of Professional Membership
  • Leave Travel Allowance
  • Medical Reimbursement
  • Relocation Assistance

You may want to create a page for each of these topics, naming them as such. If so, use the page category "Benefits" and title your content "Mobile Phone Reimbursement".

Or maybe you have an employee handbook that covers all of these topics in one PDF. In that case, it may be better to create a page category called "Employee Handbook" and in the page containing the PDF, assign topics to the content.

 

Rearrange categories

Rearranging your page categories may be useful to help highlight the most important content at the top of the list, while moving less important items further down the page.

To reorder your page categories:

  1. Go to the site, then click the Content tab.
  2. Scroll down to the list of content ordered by category and click and drag any category list to rearrange it. The order in which you rearrange categories here will reflect the same on a Page categories tile
    reorder_page_categories.gif
  3. You're also able to change page categories in bulk with Site manager permissions. Head to Manage site > Content and click Select all.
  4. From the bulk actions option at the bottom, choose Move. You'll be asked to type the name of the site you want to move the content to. If you want to keep the content in the same site, just type the name of the site it's already in.
  5. After this, you'll assign the page category to the content based on the chosen site.
    Move content and change categories.gif
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2 comments
  • Is it possible to change the order in which the page categories are listed on a site?

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  • Hi, Emily!

    A site manager can reorder how the page categories are displayed for everyone.

    Go to the Content tab on the site, place your mouse cursor over a page category heading, and then click and drag that page category up/down to where you want it in the list of page categories. How you order the page categories there will be reflected in the Filter's Page categories list and in the Page categories tile added to that site's dashboard. Note: If you create a new page category after reordering your page categories, the new one will be displayed first. If you don't want it there, drag it to where you want it, of course. 

    Two best practices I have regarding page categories that works for most sites:

    1. Page categories ordered by what is most important/what you want users to see first (e.g., News and Announcements) and then either alphabetically or in an order that makes sense for that site's content.
    2. Page category names should be in Title Case, use full words instead of abbreviations or acronyms (unless confident that everyone knows what the acronym means), and pluralized, where applicable (e.g., Forms instead of Form, etc.) as it is expected there will be more than one page assigned to a page category.

     

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