Have questions about paid ads, campaign optimisation, or platform features? Browse our knowledge base for step-by-step guides, FAQs, and expert insights to help you succeed.
Categories and tags explained
On This Page
Categories are the few broad shelves your blog is organised into. Tags are optional labels for specific things mentioned across many posts. The single most useful rule: a category is a section of your blog, a tag is a subject. Most businesses need five or six categories and no tags at all, and a site with forty of either has effectively none.
If you only remember one thing: pick one category per post and move on. Categories exist so a reader can find more of the same kind of thing. They are not a filing cabinet for your own benefit, and no visitor has ever been impressed by a thorough taxonomy. Two minutes of thought when you set them up, then never again.
The difference, with an example
Imagine a coffee roaster. Sensible categories: Brewing Guides, Coffee Origins, Roastery News. Every post fits in exactly one of those. Sensible tags, if any: espresso, cold brew, Ethiopia. Those cut across the categories, and a reader might reasonably want everything about espresso regardless of which shelf it came from.
| Categories | Tags |
|---|---|
| Required. Every post gets one. | Optional. Most posts need none. |
| Broad. Five or six for a whole site. | Specific. Only if used repeatedly. |
| Usually shown as your blog’s navigation. | Usually shown as small links under a post. |
| Decided once, changed rarely. | Added as you go, if at all. |
Setting them on a post
- Tick one category. Occasionally two if a post genuinely belongs on both shelves. Never four.
- Add tags only if you mean it. Type, then press Add. Separate several with commas.
- Use Choose from the most used tags rather than typing, so you reuse the existing spelling instead of creating a near-duplicate.
Why “Uncategorized” matters
If you publish without ticking anything, WordPress files the post under Uncategorized, which then appears on your site as a section called Uncategorized. It looks careless and it tells a reader nothing. Ticking a real category takes one second and avoids it.
Managing the list itself
Posts, then Categories, is where you add, rename or delete them. Same for Tags.
- Renaming is safe. The name changes everywhere it appears and posts stay put.
- Changing the slug is not. The slug is the part in the web address. Changing it breaks any existing link to that category page. Tell us if it needs doing properly.
- Deleting a category does not delete its posts; they fall back to Uncategorized. Which is usually not what you wanted, so re-file them first.
Adding a category can change your site’s navigation. On many of the sites we build, the blog’s filters or menu are generated from the category list, so inventing a new one on the fly can make a new item appear in a place you were not expecting. It is not dangerous and it is easily undone, but check the front of your blog afterwards, and ask us before adding a category you are unsure about.
The mistake worth avoiding
The common failure is treating tags like keywords, and adding eight of them to every post in the hope of ranking. It does not work, it never has, and it produces dozens of near-empty pages that make your site look thinner than it is. If in doubt, add no tags. You can always add them later; removing four hundred is a project.
What we need if something fails
What you were changing and what the blog looks like now. If a section has appeared or vanished from your site after a category change, say so, because that is the one that occasionally needs us.
Related
Still haven’t found what you’re looking for?
Let us know and we’ll do our best to help out!