Using Categories and Tags in Squarespace: Best Practices for Therapists and Wellness Coaches
If you're a therapist, coach, or wellness professional, you probably started your blog to share helpful, meaningful content that supports the people you serve. But over time, as your posts grow, they can feel a little cluttered—like a bookshelf without labels. That's where categories and tags come in.
These two small tools make a big difference in organizing your blog. They help your readers find the content they need and help search engines understand what your site is about.
Let's review what they are, how to use them, and how to avoid common mistakes. Don't worry—this doesn't have to be complicated.
What Are Categories and Tags?
Think of your blog as a library. Not just any library, but one filled with your wisdom, voice, and stories—all meant to help, inspire, and connect with the people who need you most. But like any well-loved library, things can get messy fast without a system to organize everything. That’s where categories and tags come in.
Categories are like the shelves in that library. They organize your posts into big themes or subjects.
For example, if you're a therapist, you might have categories like:
Anxiety
Trauma
Parenting
Relationships
If you're a coach, maybe your categories look like:
Career Growth
Mindset
Burnout Recovery
Confidence Building
Tags are more like the little index cards that describe the details of each book. They're more specific and help break things down further.
A blog post under "Anxiety" might have tags like:
Social anxiety
Grounding techniques
Panic attacks
Breathing exercises
Tags give readers—and search engines—more clues about what a post covers. They also help connect related content that may not fall under the same category.
When you use categories and tags carefully, you’re not just organizing your blog—you’re making it easier for the right people to find the right words at the right time
Why Categories and Tags Matter
When you use categories and tags well, your blog becomes easier to navigate, more user-friendly, and more likely to appear in search results.
Here's what they help with:
Clarity for your audience. People can quickly find what's most relevant to them. Someone looking for support with postpartum anxiety can click right on those posts instead of getting overwhelmed.
Search engine optimization (SEO). Organized content helps Google understand your site, which can boost your visibility over time.
Content planning. You'll see at a glance what you've written about and where you might want to fill in the gaps.
Filtered pages. On Squarespace, you can create blog pages that show only posts from a specific category. That means someone could visit your site and go straight to a section on mindfulness, trauma healing, or goal setting, without needing to sift through everything else.
A Few Pros and Cons
The Benefits:
Keeps your blog organized as it grows
Supports a better experience for your visitors
Gives structure to your content strategy
Boosts search engine visibility over time
Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
Too many tags can make things confusing rather than helpful
Creating new categories for every blog post defeats the purpose
Labels that are too similar (like "Self-Care" and "Wellness") can be unclear
Using both a tag and a category with the same name creates unnecessary overlap
Best Practices: What to Do and What to Avoid
Once you understand how categories and tags work, the next step is using them wisely. A little strategy goes a long way when it comes to keeping your blog helpful, straightforward, and easy to explore.
What to Do:
Choose around 3 to 6 broad categories and stick with them
Keep categories to 25 characters or less.
Categories and tags are case-sensitive, so Apples, apples, and APPLES will count as three separate entries
Use tags to highlight specific tools, topics, or themes within a post
Tags should be 80 characters or less.
Keep the language simple and client-friendly
Use terms your audience is likely to search for or recognize
Revisit and clean up your tags every few months
You can assign an item to as many categories or tags as you desire
What to Avoid:
Avoid using commas or special characters like +, &, or %, as these can break category and tag links.
Don't tag every possible word or idea in your post—it dilutes their value
Don't create new categories unless the topic truly stands on its own
Avoid vague or abstract terms like "Miscellaneous" or "Random Thoughts"
Don't use both a category and a tag for the same thing
By keeping things simple, intentional, and consistent, you’ll stay organized and create a better experience for your readers (and search engines, too).
Blog Category and Tag Examples
Sometimes the best way to understand how to organize your blog is to see it in action, so let’s look at a few real-world examples tailored to a therapist and a coach.
Mental Health Blog Example
Imagine you’re a therapist specializing in maternal mental health. Here’s how you could structure your blog:
Categories:
Pregnancy & Postpartum
Trauma Recovery
Anxiety & Mood
Parenting Support
Tags:
Birth trauma
Postpartum depression
Breastfeeding struggles
Sleep deprivation
Therapy tools
Coaching Blog Example
If you’re a life coach supporting busy professionals, your blog could look something like this:
Categories:
Productivity
Work-Life Balance
Stress Management
Career Growth
Tags:
Imposter syndrome
Boundary setting
Time blocking
Burnout recovery
Morning routines
These examples aren’t rules. They’re starting points to help you think through what makes the most sense for your voice, services, and the exact individuals you’re writing for.
How to Add Categories and Tags in Squarespace
Whether you're just starting with blogging or already have many posts, knowing where to find these settings can save you time and keep your blog friendly and organized. Here's a quick and straightforward guide to help you navigate creating or editing a blog post like a pro:
Open the Pages panel and click on the blog page with the post you want to categorize or tag.
Hover over the post in the side panel and click ....
Select Settings, then click Options.
To add a new tag to the post, click Tags, type in your tag, press Enter, or add more tags by separating them with commas. To use an existing tag, start typing it and pick it from the list.
To add a new category to the post, click Categories, type in a category, and press Enter. Categories already added to your post will show at the top of the page.
Once you've added your tags or categories, don't forget to click Save!
And that's it—you're all set!
Add new categories to an individual blog's settings. These will be available for future articles without recreating them.
Add new tags to an individual blog's settings. These will be available for future articles without recreating them.
Note: Once you've added your categories and tags, you don't need to hit "Save" again separately when adding them to new articles; only when first creating the category or tag as an option do you publish or update your post as usual.
How To Delete Categories and Tags
If you ever need to delete a category or tag, you can do so from within the same blog post settings.
To delete a tag or category, go to your Blog Page Settings. Under 'Categories' or 'Tags,' hover over the item you want to delete and click the trash icon to remove it.
You'll see a list of all the ones you've created. Hover over any item you want to remove and see a small trash icon. Click that to delete it. Just remember that deleting a category or tag will remove it from all posts that use it, so double-check before you clean the house.
Advanced Settings for Categories and Tags
Once you’re comfortable using categories and tags, you might want a little more control behind the scenes—that’s where the Advanced Settings come in. Whether you're fixing a typo or tidying up unused labels, you can easily manage this through the Blog Settings section in Squarespace. Go to your main blog page in the editor, click the gear icon (⚙️) to open Blog Page Settings, select Advanced, then choose Manage Categories or Manage Tags.
In the Blog Page Settings, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab to access the tools for managing your categories and tags. This is where you can edit names, fix typos, or delete unused labels.
Why You Might Want to Hide Category and Tag Pages from Search Results
If you want to keep your blog feeling clean and focused, one option is to hide your category and tag pages from search engines. This doesn't mean categories and tags stop working—they'll still organize your content and help your readers find related posts. However, it prevents auto-generated tag and category archive pages (which often have very little content) from appearing in search results.
Why does this matter? For many therapists, coaches, and wellness professionals, the most helpful content is in your actual blog posts—not on a plain list of links. Hiding those low-content pages can improve your site's overall search engine performance by focusing attention on where it matters most. It's a small move, but it can help your site feel more polished and professional.
How to Hide Category and Tag Pages from Search Results in Squarespace
Here's a simple way to do this using built-in settings:
Go to your Blog Page in Squarespace.
Click on your blog page in the left-hand panel in the main editor.
Click the gear icon (⚙️) next to your Blog Page name.
This opens the Page Settings.
Scroll down to the "SEO" tab in the Page Settings panel.
In the SEO tab, find the option that says "Hide from Search Results."
Toggle this ON for "All category pages" and "All tag pages." This tells Google not to index the page.
Click "Save."
You're all set! This will not delete anything—it just keeps those auto-generated pages out of Google's index.
Final Thoughts
The most important thing to remember is that categories and tags are here to serve your audience. When used thoughtfully, they make your site feel more welcoming and easier to explore. They also help you stay organized and intentional with your content.
Start simple. Pick a few categories that reflect the core areas in which you support your clients. Then, use tags to capture the finer details. As your blog grows, be sure to refine things continually. The goal isn't perfection, it's clarity.
Your blog doesn't need to be a maze. A few thoughtful labels can make all the difference.
About Dreamtime Marketing
Dreamtime Marketing specializes in Squarespace website design and branding for health and wellness professionals, counselors, and coaches. Founded by Hope Himel-Benson, a certified digital marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience and a background in clinical social work, mental health, senior care, and healthcare communications, Dreamtime Marketing helps solo and small group practices to create a professional online presence that attracts the right clients.
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