One of the dilemmas when you start a new blog is whether you should use categories, tags or both to organize content. Both are good options when used properly, but categories are necessary. Then you have the daunting task, before getting too far into blogging, of deciding what categories you will write about. When you actually start to write a post, you have to figure out what tags would be appropriate for this article.
Categories and tagging are one of the foundational aspects of blogging, guiding, connecting, and informing the viewer to the content they want to see. In the blogging universe, this has become the standard for navigation within a blog of hundreds or thousands of posts. WordPress is on the front lines of blogging software and has very successfully integrated categories and tagging to create the perfect network for professional and amateur bloggers. Yet, many people do not quite know how to use them as effectively as they should be.
One of the first things to remember is that categories and tags are to help the user. Sometimes bloggers get so caught up in wanting to make sure everything is nicely organized that it becomes too complex or confusing. We need to keep the viewer at the forefront of our blog layout. Also, you can always display both categories and tags with a single post so that it networks that post with similar posts. But you should note that only categories should be used as the general navigation for a blog.
With all of this confusion, here are ten comparisons between categories and tags to better clarify between the two.
- Categories should be static, tags are dynamic
- Categories require a strategy, tags are an afterthought
- Categories should define your website, tags define only one post
- Categories are vague, tags are specific
- Categories separate posts into groups, tags give details
- Categories help viewers navigate, tags share descriptions of the post
- Categories should represent numerous posts, tags maybe only ever represent one post
- Categories can be hierarchical, tags are singular
- Categories classify the post, tags reinforce the category
- Categories can always be tags, but not many tags should be categorie
Was this helpful? Check out my other blogging tips: Comments Are Critical & Avoiding Bait and Switch Titles.
Lars says
Good post Jeremy. Too often this is an afterthought of website strategy. Nice distinctions between categories and tags.
Jeremy Smith says
Thanks Lars. I agree and notice that people who do not figure it out right away do not do a proper job of establishing it compared to those who have it laid out well before hand. Good luck on tagging and categorizing!