Creating structure in WordPress – tags and categories

In WordPress, there are two ways to group entries/articles/posts. They are called categories and tags/labels respectively and you should use them to get structure in WordPress and on your website and posts. None of these structures are normally used for pages. On pages, there is instead the possibility to arrange pages in hierarchies with sub-pages.

I see a lot of variations on websites in how these two structures are used. There may not be an outright wrong or right way, but there are good and not so good ways! In particular, avoid having the same name in both categories and tags (labels). It becomes confusing and less structured.

Tip: You can add a category in the menu and the visitor will find it!

The purpose of both tags and categories is to make it easier for visitors to find the information they are looking for, but the idea behind the structures is different.

Skillnader mellan taggar och kategorier i wordpress

• Categories is a grouping of articles that should be used to link the menu to groups of articles. If you want to make it easier for yourself, think of them as chapters in a book and that the categories are then in the table of contents of a book. Feel free to link to categories both in the menu and on individual entries. Traditionally, this is done before the content of the article.
• Labels or tags instead correspond to your index or the reference words you have at the back of the book to quickly find different places where the keyword is mentioned in the text. Tags can point to items that are in several different categories. Linking to tags is mainly done in individual articles, and usually the link is placed after the content of the article.

Often the same word is used as both a label and a category, and while this may not be entirely wrong, it is often unnecessary and indicates that it may be time to rethink the structure of the website. There are extensions that can move between labels and categories but it is usually just as easy to do it manually.

Hierarchy of categories (subchapter)

There is a further difference between labels and categories. Categories can be in a hierarchy in the same way that a chapter can contain sub-chapters whereas tags have a flat structure and cannot be set and used in a hierarchy. Personally, I think you should be a little restrictive in how many categories and tags you use on each post. If you use up to 10 pieces, you probably have tags that are too wide. As an example, it would be completely pointless for me to have a category or tag called WordPress as I can use it on all the material I make 🙂

Example på categories and tags.

This article is in the category (chapter) Tips which on my website contains a mixed bag of tips for WordPress, and is equivalent to what many call a blog part of a website. I think the word blog gets a bit wrong in search results so I call this tip. Then I also have a category I call blog that contains more personal reflections.

For visitors who come to my tips but only want to see, for example, tips for WordPress that deal with labels, this article is also tagged with Tags and Categories.

Create a structure in wordpress from scratch

It’s easy and human nature when writing your first blog posts to not care much, but if your site is new, write down a structure of what topics you think you’ll write about and create those labels and categories before you start blogging. It’s easy to create new ones, but it’s easier if they’re already there AND you’re more likely to stick to your plan.