Organizing WordPress Categories and Tags: A Cookbook Analogy

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Updated: 7/16/24

If you're familiar with adding news or blog posts in WordPress, you’ve likely encountered the terms “categories” and “tags.” Both are foundational tools for organizing your content, but they serve different purposes. To help you understand the difference between categories and tags on your WordPress posts, let’s use a cookbook for a simple analogy.

Getting Started

Taxonomies

Before we dive into categories and tags, it’s helpful to understand the term taxonomy. In biology, taxonomies are used to classify and organize plants and animals with shared characteristics, such as mammal > carnivore > feline > lion. In WordPress, categories and tags are types of taxonomies that help you organize and group content with related topics, like recipes > desserts > pies.

WordPress Pages vs. Posts

WordPress has two types of content: Pages and Posts. Some websites also have custom content types, but we are focusing on the defaults for this article.

  • Pages: Pages are static and typically used for content that doesn’t change often, such as your About Us, Contact, or Services pages. They are hierarchical, meaning you can have sub-pages, and they are not part of the blog feed. Pages do not use categories or tags.
  • Posts: Posts are dynamic and used date-specific content such as blog entries, announcements, press releases, news articles. They are listed in date order on your blog page, can optionally display the author info. Categories and tags are important for posts, and are what we're talking about below.

The difference between WordPress categories and tags

WordPress Categories: The Sections of Your Cookbook

Imagine you’re flipping through a cookbook. The first thing you'll notice is that it's divided into sections or chapters. You might find sections like Appetizers, Main Courses, Sides, and Desserts. These sections help you quickly locate the type of recipe you’re looking for. In WordPress, categories work in a similar way.

Think of categories as the chapter headings or sections in your cookbook. They guide you to broad topics.

Characteristics of Categories

  • Broad Topics: Categories are broad groupings of your content. Just like the sections in a cookbook, they help organize your posts into major topics.
  • Multiple Categories: A single post can belong to multiple categories. For example, a salad recipe might be categorized under both “Sides” and “Main Courses” because it can be served as either.
  • Hierarchy: Categories can have sub-categories, which helps create a structure. For example, under “Sides,” you might have sub-categories like Soup, Salads, and Bread.
  • Requirements: Every post in WordPress must belong to at least one category. If you don’t assign one, WordPress will automatically put it in the default category, usually “Uncategorized.”
  • Formatting: Tags are usually capitalized, like a title (“Main Courses”) because they can appear in Google search result listings as a heading.

Cookbook Example of Categories:

If your website is about cooking, your categories might be:

  • Appetizers
  • Main Courses
  • Sides
    • Soup
    • Salads
    • Bread
  • Desserts

Someone looking for a dessert recipe can easily find all the dessert options by clicking on the “Desserts” category.

WordPress Tags: Recipe Ingredients, Details, and Occassions

Now, let’s think about what makes each recipe unique: the ingredients, types of dish, or occasion. In a cookbook, specific ingredients or dishes are listed in the index. If you look under “apples” in the index, you'll find a list of apple recipes and their page numbers. On a WordPress website, tags are used in a similar way. They are used to group posts with similar ingredients or details, regardless of which category it’s in. So if you click on the “apples” tag, you'll see a listing of all the apple recipes.

Characteristics of Tags

  • Specific Details: Tags are more specific than categories. They describe and organize details that help people further drill down into your content topics for information that is too detailed for the category level.
  • Multiple Tags: A single post can have multiple tags.
  • No Hierarchy: Unlike categories, tags don’t have a hierarchy. They are flat labels.
  • Requirements: Tags are entirely optional. Some websites don't use tags at all.
  • Formatting: Tags are usually all lowercase (“chocolate”)

Cookbook Example of Tags:

For a recipe titled “Mom's Apple Pie”, you might use tags like:

  • apples
  • pies
  • thanksgiving
  • vegetarian

These tags help visitors find other pies, recipes using apples, or recipes commonly served on Thanksgiving.

Using Categories and Tags Together

Let’s put it all together with our cookbook analogy. Imagine you’re publishing an apple pie recipe. You'd start by selecting the Desserts category so it shows up in the right section of your website. If you'd like to stop there, that's fine. If you have a lot of pies, you may want to provide another layer of organization to help people find specific pies. In which case, you might add tags as well.

Example Post Organization:

  • Post Title: Mom’s Apple Pie
  • Post Content: Your full recipe and instructions
  • Category: Desserts
  • Tags: apples, pies, thanksgiving, vegetarian

By using both categories and tags, you make it easy to navigate your site and help visitors find exactly what they’re looking for.

Frequently Asked Questions

SEO Benefits

Are categories important for SEO?

Yes, using categories effectively can boost your SEO. This is because search engines like Google aim to match content with search terms people use. Categories help search engines understand your site's structure, making it easier to index and rank your posts.

When creating categories, think about keywords your audience might use to find content like yours. Incorporate these words and phrases to improve SEO and make your content more discoverable.

Pro Tip: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz, or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords with good search volume. Knowing what keywords are being searched frequently can help you fine-tune the wording of your categories.

Are tags important for SEO?

Tags, while helpful for organizing specific details and improving user navigation, generally have less impact on SEO. If you're aiming to improve your SEO, start by fine tuning your categories for better results.

Organizing Categories and Tags Effectively

Does a post need both a category and tags?

Every post must have at least one category, which helps group your posts into broad topics.

Tags are completely optional, and used primarily to enhance navigation and improve user experience.

Pro Tip: You can change your default category from “Uncategorized” to something more appropriate to your website. We often use “General” or “News” as a catch-all.

How many categories and tags should I use?

If you have a lot of posts, a good practice is to use 5-10 categories for your entire site and 2-5 tags per post. This helps keep your content organized without overwhelming your readers or search engines. Again, categories should cover broad topics, while tags should be more specific details or themes.

If you have a small website or are just gettings started with your blog, you may only need 1-3 categories, and no tags at all.

How can I simplify managing categories and tags?

Too many categories or tags can get unweildy to manage. Here are some tips to keep it simple:

  • Before adding a category or tag, think about what content you'll want to display when someone clicks on it.
  • Err on the side of too few, rather than too many.
  • Start with broader categories and add more if needed.
  • Avoid having tags that are also categories, and vice versa.
  • Avoid overly broad tags like “food” or “blog” unless it helps people find related content.
  • Avoid overly specific tags. If someone isn't likely to be searching for that term/phrase don't use it. (e.g. “Joey's 3rd birthday party”)
  • Watch out for near duplicates, like both “pie” and “pies”
  • Review your categories and tags periodically.

Ready to organize the categories and tags on your WordPress site?

Start by reviewing your existing categories and tags. Plan your revised structure on paper before implementing changes on your website. Focus on simplifying where needed and aligning your content with what your visitors are looking for.

Pro Tip: Editing or removing categories and tags can impact SEO and existing links on your site. Before making any changes, have a plan in place for setting up redirects where needed.

Follow these steps to assess and improve your categories and tags:

  1. Review and Analyze Content:
    • Review your existing content.
    • List all current categories and tags.
    • Check which categories and tags are used most frequently.
    • Identify any posts without tags or in the ‘uncategorized' category.
    • Identify redundancies or overly broad/narrow terms.
  2. Research Keywords:
    • Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz, or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords your audience uses.
    • If you don't have the time or knowledge to do keyword research, start with an educated guess of what your website are looking for. When you're ready, you can reach out to your web team for an SEO Tuneup.
  3. Plan the Structure:
    • Create a revised structure on paper.
    • Identify new categories and tags needed.
    • Simplify and consolidate existing categories and tags where needed.
  4. Implement Changes:
    • Update your categories and tags in WordPress based on your new structure.
    • Reassign posts to the new categories and tags.
    • Set up redirects for any URL changes to avoid broken links and maintain SEO.
  5. Monitor Performance:
    • Track the performance of your content using Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or other website tracking tools.
    • Schedule a future date to review performance and analyze content again. We recommend reviewing every 3-6 months.
  6. Stay Consistent:
    • Regularly review and update categories and tags.
    • Ensure new content follows the revised structure.
  7. Get Feedback:
    • Ask readers or colleagues for feedback on your content organization.
    • Make adjustments based on their input.

Conclusion

Categories and tags are powerful tools in WordPress that help organize your content and make it easier for your readers to find what they’re looking for. By using both effectively, you create a well-organized, user-friendly site that’s a breeze to navigate.

Have questions or need further guidance? Feel free to reach out!