So what really is the difference between WordPress categories and tags?

Posted on August 31st, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,720 views

When version 2.3 of WordPress was released, the WordPress World got something they had been wanting for for a very long time – tags.

Prior to this watershed release of WordPress, which is still considered the best recent release of WordPress by some, tags were not implemented in the WordPress core code, instead individual bloggers had to rely on third party plugins developed to fill this gap, such as Ultimate Tag Warrior.

Version 2.3 made all these third party tag plugins obsolete. Finally, at last, WordPress had tags built right into the core code! It truly was a huge advance and many WordPressers raced over to download it.

However, before all this happened, many WordPressers (including this one) misused categories as tags, and the number of categories ballooned out of control. SEO plugins also encouraged WordPressers to adopt this malpractice.

Since then I’ve never taken the time to tame my WordPress categories and put them to the use they were originally designed, until now, that is.

So what really is the difference between WordPress categories and tags?

First of all, I’ve read a lot of posts which tackle this subject and still come away scratching my head and not fully comprehending.

Until I got stuck into playing with them directly and setting up a coherent browsing strategy, I never understood the BIG PICTURE that would allow me to just create them on the fly as I blog.

If you’ve never sat down and focussed your attention on just analysing your categories, you have probably missed what I always did.

The fundamental difference between categories and tags is this:

Categories are hierarchical structures whereas tags are flat.

That is the power that categories have that tags will never have. Categories form groups and super groups and super super groups etc., whereas tags just form groups.

If I have a category structure of World->Africa->South Africa->Cape Town and I place a post in the Cape Town sub-sub-sub-category, that post is included not only in Cape Town, but also in the South Africa sub-sub-group, the Africa sub-group and the World group.

People (your site readers) can use a coherently structured category list to drill down to exactly what they want in ONE CLICK or back up a bit, up the hierarchy, and take in a larger group of posts.

Categories are structured with the most broadly encompassing container at the top and the most specific container at the bottom.

In other words, a person can take in Africa as a whole or zero in on a particular house in a street in a town in a region in a province in a country in Africa. That’s the power and directness of categories.

Categories are not meant to be loosely structured and lying all over the place. They are meant to be tightly organised and logically put together under each other to give you the structure you need.

On the other hand, while categories represent order and logical structure, tags represent anarchy and chaos.

There is no structure or hierarchy to tags. Tags are one long list of attributes, that you assign to posts as they relate to them.

I have heard some bloggers opine that tags should represent keywords that are NOT present in your post. WRONG, oh WRONG WRONG WRONG. No, no, no, no! Do not do that!

Au contraire, go find the juiciest most important keywords in your posts and tag your posts with those. This will allow people to quickly zero in on exactly those posts where those important concepts are discussed.

To enhance your archive pages which list posts in the various categories or tags, there is a useful WordPress plugin, WP-SNAP!, that will alphabetize your posts and give you a clickable A – Z index at the top of each page.

To conclude this post, I will add that if you make it easy for visitors to browse your site by category or tag, you will retain their readership longer by giving them a more satisfying experience.

This site is in the process of optimising its category structure.

Tags: Categories, Tags, Ultimate Tag Warrior, WordPress, WordPress plugin, wp-snap
Filed under 2.3, Categories, Tags, wp-snap | 2 Comments »