When you first start with a WordPress website your need to know more about WordPress Categories vs Tags, which can be very confusing.
WordPress Categories are the main placeholders for your posts. You should think about the structure of your site before creating base categories. WordPress Tags are like connectors that can connect posts without them being in the same category container.
WordPress Categories
Categories are the pillars of your website; they group the posts about one major topic together and provide a clear insight and navigation through your website.
It is best to choose around five to seven categories at the beginning. Name them so they are closely related to the topic of your website and set them up right away.
For example, this website is about WordPress, and the major related topics are:
- WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Themes
- WordPress Widgets
- WordPress Tutorials
- WordPress Website
- WordPress Blog
- WordPress Basics
So these are the main categories, I use to structure the site.
You can even create child categories if you have a large topic to cover.
If you don't know, which are the best subjects for your main topic, let Google help you.
Do a search for your topic's main keyword and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Google shows you what they think are related searches.
You definitely should start by renaming Uncategorized to your main category, and don't forget to clean the slug field before saving. Otherwise, your URL will still have /uncategorized/ in it.
Use the Categories in your main navigation menu or in the sidebar.
WordPress Tags
Like I mentioned before these tags can connect posts on a different level going beyond the Category pillars.
You can use as many tags you want but keep in mind that your tags should never, never, ever have the same name as a category!
No, you won't get into trouble with WordPress itself; it can handle that. However, you want to avoid entries to your website by search engines using the same name but showing different content.
You don't need to set up tags upfront. You can put them in right in the writing screen, and you should.
Use tags that are mentioned in the post itself.
For this post that could be Category, Tag, Connection, Structure, WordPress,Website,Blog.
Do not use Tags as primary Navigation, it will be too much for your visitors. If you want you can show them in your sidebar as a Tag Cloud.
As you can see, with the right use of Categories and Tags can be best friends.
