You’ll want to have several top-level categories to start with. Some people organize by course, some by protein, some by method…and some by all of the above! Here’s an example of a ’simple’ category structure:
/recipes
/recipes/main-dishes
/recipes/side-dishes
/recipes/appetizers-and-snacks
/recipes/desserts
/recipes/drinks
/recipes/by-protein/
/recipes/by-protein/beef
/recipes/by-protein/chicken
/recipes/by-protein/pork
/recipes/by-protein/fish
/recipes/by-season/
/recipes/by-season/spring
/recipes/by-season/summer
/recipes/by-season/fall
/recipes/by-season/winter
/lifestyle/
/travel/
You should start by renaming the “Uncategorized” category to one of your desired categories, since that one cannot be deleted.
You should also set a Category Image while creating your categories. This image will represent the category on the Recipe Index page and in the Quick Links block.
We recommend creating a “Recipes” top level category only if you will also have non-recipe posts (see “lifestyle” and “travel” above). If you only have recipe content, you can make your other categories the top level (ex: “main dishes”), and we’ll create a Recipes page that lists all your posts.
Every post you make should be categorized, usually in multiple categories. For example you might categorize a post in “Main Dishes” and “Chicken” and “Thanksgiving”. You’ll select one as the “primary” category through Yoast, which in the previous example would probably be “Main Dishes”.
If you create seasonal categories (ex: “spring” and “fall”) you can use our Seasonal Content block to display seasonal content throughout your site.
If you need inspiration on a good category structure, take a look at https://thestayathomechef.com/recipe-index/. Try to fill categories relatively evenly so you don’t end up with what Google calls “thin content” (e.g. — 1 category with 80 posts and another category with just 4 posts).
Here are some podcasts that might help you plan out your content structure: