When your Blogger blog has fifty posts, readers cannot scroll through everything. A visitor who enjoyed one of your phone reviews will want more posts like it, and if they cannot find them, they leave.
Blogger solves this with labels. Labels work like categories: you tag each post with a topic, and Blogger automatically builds a page that lists every post with that tag. In this beginner's guide you will learn how to plan your labels, add them to posts, show them in your sidebar, and turn your most important labels into a simple navigation menu at the top of your blog.
What Are Labels in Blogger?
Blogger Help describes labels as a way to organize your posts, and notes that readers can use your labels to filter the content they see. In practice, a label is a topic name you attach to a post, such as "Recipes", "Football" or "Blogging Tips".
Every label gets its own address that looks like this:
https://yourblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Recipes
When someone opens that link, Blogger shows all the posts that carry the label "Recipes". You do not have to build anything; the page is created for you as soon as one post uses the label.
Step 1: Plan a Short List of Labels
The most common beginner mistake is creating a new label for almost every post. After a few months the blog has 80 labels, most with only one post, and the sidebar looks like a long, messy list. Plan first.
A good rule for a new blog is to choose about 5 to 10 main labels that match the big topics you write about. For example, a Nigerian tech blog might use:
- Phones
- Laptops
- How To
- Apps
- Make Money Online
Keep these tips in mind when naming labels:
- Use simple words readers understand. "Phones" is clearer than "Mobile Device Analysis".
- Pick one spelling and stick to it. "Blogging Tips", "blogging tips" and "Blog Tips" can end up as separate labels, which splits your posts.
- Avoid very long names. Short labels look better in menus, especially on small phone screens.
- Give each post one to three labels. Adding ten labels to one post does not help anyone.
Step 2: Add Labels to a Post
You can add labels when you write a new post or when you edit an old one. These steps follow Blogger Help:
- Sign in to Blogger.
- Click New post, or click an existing post to open it in the editor.
- In the Post settings panel on the right, click Labels.
- Type a label, or click one of your existing labels that Blogger suggests.
- To add more than one label, separate them with commas, for example:
Phones, How To. - Click Publish for a new post, or Update for a post that is already live.
Tip: in your list of posts on the dashboard, you can see each post's labels next to its title. Blogger Help also explains that you can click Labels at the top of the posts list, select one or more labels and click Apply to filter your posts. This is very useful when you want to add labels to many old posts quickly.
On a phone, open blogger.com in your browser. If the right-hand settings panel is hidden, look for the settings icon in the editor or switch to desktop view.
Step 3: Show a Labels List in Your Sidebar or Footer
Labels on posts are useful, but readers also need a list they can browse. Blogger has a free Labels gadget for this:
- In Blogger, click Layout in the menu on the left.
- In the section where you want the list (usually the sidebar or footer), click Add a Gadget.
- Choose Labels from the list of gadgets.
- Change the title if you like. Many bloggers use "Categories" or "Topics" because readers understand it better than "Labels".
- Choose your settings:
- Sorting: alphabetical or by how often each label is used.
- Display: a list or a cloud.
- Show number of posts per label: optional, for example "Phones (12)".
- All labels or selected labels: choose selected labels if you only want your main topics to appear.
- Click Save, then save the layout arrangement if Blogger asks.
For most beginners, a list with only selected labels looks cleaner than a cloud of every label you have ever used.
Some custom themes block new gadgets in certain sections; if Add a Gadget is missing, try another section.
Step 4: Add Your Main Labels to the Top Menu
On most Blogger themes, the menu is controlled by the Pages gadget. The good news is that this gadget can also hold links to your label pages, not just to your pages.
Find the address of each label
The easiest way is to open your blog, click a label under any post or in your Labels gadget, and copy the address from the browser bar. You can also type it yourself using this format:
https://yourblog.blogspot.com/search/label/LabelName
Spell the label exactly as it appears on your blog, including capital letters. If the label has a space, the browser shows it as %20, for example /search/label/How%20To. Always test the link before saving it.
Add the label links to the Pages gadget
- Go to Layout.
- Find the Pages gadget (often in the header or "Page List" section) and click the Edit (pencil) icon.
- Click Add a new item.
- Enter a short name, such as "Phones", and paste the label address.
- Click Save. Repeat for each main label.
- Drag the items into the order you want, then save the gadget and the layout.
Blogger Help confirms that the Pages gadget is where you choose which pages appear and where they show. If you have not created your About and Contact pages yet, follow our guide on creating About, Contact and Privacy Policy pages on Blogger, then add them to the same menu. A good beginner menu has Home, three to five main labels, and About and Contact.
Step 5: Use Labels to Help Readers Find Related Posts
Labels are not only for menus. When you write a new post, you can link to a label page inside your article, for example: "See all our Blogger guides." This sends readers to a full list of related posts in one click.
Label links work best alongside normal links from one post to another. If you are new to this, read our beginner's guide on how to add internal links in Blogger posts. Together, they give your blog a clear structure.
How to Clean Up Messy Labels
If your blog already has too many labels, you can tidy them without starting over:
- Write down the 5 to 10 main labels you want to keep.
- In your posts list, use the Labels filter to find posts that use an old or duplicate label.
- Open each post, remove the old label, add the correct main label and click Update.
- When no post uses the old label any more, it stops appearing in your Labels gadget.
- Check your menu links again to make sure each one still opens a page with posts.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Too many labels with one post each. They make your blog look empty instead of organized.
- Mixed spellings and capital letters. "SEO" and "Seo" can become two different labels.
- Broken menu links. A menu item with a wrong label name opens a page with no posts.
- A crowded menu. Long menus are hard to use on phones.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Blogger labels the same as categories?
Blogger does not have a separate category system like WordPress, so labels do the same job. Each label gets its own page that lists all posts with that label.
How many labels should one post have?
There is no fixed rule, but one to three labels per post keeps things tidy. Choose the main topic first, then add a second label only if the post really belongs there.
Do label pages affect SEO?
Label pages mainly help readers browse your content. Some bloggers also adjust how search engines treat archive and search pages using Blogger's custom robots settings. If you want to learn about that, see our guide on custom robots tags on Blogger, and change those settings carefully.
Final Thoughts
Labels turn a long list of posts into a blog that is easy to explore. Plan a short list of main topics, add one to three labels to every post from the Labels option in the editor, show them with the Labels gadget in Layout, and put your most important label pages in the top menu using the Pages gadget.
If your Blogger screen looks different from these steps, leave a comment and describe what you see. At Sam Trend Hub on GOJIST, we keep beginner BlogSpot guides practical for bloggers in Nigeria and across Africa.
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