Lumping vs. Splitting: Finding the Right Balance
🔍 Why Category Hygiene Matters
- Helps users navigate your site efficiently
- Improves SEO and internal linking
- Keeps your site structure maintainable
- Enables smarter automation (feeds, filtering, clever layouts)
🧠 Think Like a Librarian
Categories are like sections in a library — broad themes.
Tags are like index terms — they connect topics across sections.
⚖️ Lumping vs. Splitting
- Lumping and splitting are essential tools for organizing information — used judiciously, they help strike a balance between clarity and nuance, avoiding both oversimplification and needless complexity.
| Trait | Lumpers | Splitters |
|---|---|---|
| Tendency | Use 1–2 broad categories for everything | Create a new category for every minor difference |
| Problem | Users can’t filter by topic | Users get overwhelmed; categories become tags |
| Fix | Add 5–10 meaningful core categories | Merge, delete, or convert narrow categories to tags |
✅ Rules of Thumb
- One category per post (in most cases)
- 5–10 main categories is plenty for most sites
- Use tags for cross-cutting themes
- Don’t let categories become a list of tags
- No “Uncategorized” — rename it or assign a default
🧰 Quick Maintenance Tips
- Periodically review your categories: merge low-usage ones
- Keep permalinks consistent: avoid renaming slugs unless absolutely necessary
