If I change Tags and Categories in Wordpress blog post, will it negatively affect SEO and cause 404s?

[johnyfiveisalive]

Hi,

I have belatedly come to the conclusion that I have been using tags and categories when blogging in wordpress incorrectly. The result is that Google seems to prefer to show my archives and tags in search results rather than the post itself. Not good UX.

As the site is only a few months old, am I best to learn my lesson and tag and categorize correctly moving forward

or

Should I go back in to these posts and clean them up & categorize and tag correctly. If I do this, will it cause 404s and hurt my SEO?

Thanks!

[Tymen]

Hi John,

You could clean them up and 301 redirect the old/wrong tags/ categories to the correct new page/post. This way the visitors will not notice anything and you let Google know where you want people to go to.

I would also take a look at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/no-indexing-wordpress-taxonomies-do-or-dont/49508/

In this article it is explained how to "noindex" Tags and Categories in WP. This way you will avoid a lot of duplicate content.

Good luck!

Regard, Tymen

[anthonydnelson]

The answer to this question will depend a bit on how you have your current blog post URL slug set up. If you are using domain.com/category/post-title-here and then change your categories, this will cause 404s (which you can fix by redirecting).

If you are using a domain.com/post-title-here or other option, you will be just fine to clean up, edit and alter your category and tags. I would suggest NoIndexing your tags. The decision of NoIndexing categories will depend on how you plan on using them.

If the site is only a few months old, I strongly suggest fixing this now and setting yourself up for better long term success.

[dohertyjf]

Came to say just this. Great answer, Anthony.

[johnyfiveisalive]

Thanks Tymen, Anthony - that helps a lot. It is indeed - domain.com/post-title (no category in url) so I am safe to clean up the site without repercussions. Better to learn this lesson now than down the line. Cheers!