Tags and Categories
When publishing content on the web, we're likely all aware of the need to organize the content into 'bite size' pieces of information, linked together in an intuitive, relevant and user-friendly manner. Using a properly created navigation system is the very first step towards enhancing your user's experience on your site. Once a visitor comes to your site, it is imperative that we as content creators understand that our primarily goal is to aid the way they search for the exact content they want. Studies indicate that the average maximum time a visitor will scan a page looking for a way to find the content they want is 5 seconds. If after that amount of time they have not been able to find what they want, not only are they going to bounce from your site, they will likely not bookmark you or consider your site a viable resource for future visits.
How do we enhance the way a user finds what they want? Two great ways are by the use of Tags and Categories. For the purpose of this examination, let's assume we're talking about a Wordpress powered blog style website.
Tags and Categories provide a way for blog visitors to filter the content based on their preference. Most established blogs regularly produce a large amount of quality content. In order to make it easy and efficient for users to find what they want, it helps to assign both Tags and Categories to each post. Although a blog user can filter posts using only one method, i.e., Tags or Categories, they can also use both methods in unison. They may begin their search by clicking a category, selecting a post and then reading it. At some point they may notice an enticing Tag on their chosen post and follow it, leading them deeper into the blog content. Simply put, the more filtering methods you can provide your users, the higher the chances they will locate something they deem valuable. As well, this method can greatly increase the number of pageviews per visit, which hopefully results in repeat visitors and/or goal conversions.
Tags vs Categories – What's the difference?
Simply put, you can think of Categories as the overall 'take-away' topic(s) of your post, whereas Tags are the finer, more granular details. There will be Tags that are also Categories and vica versa, but you would only ever apply 1-3 Categories max to each post, whereas there is no limit to the amount of Tags you can apply.
Similarities
- both are ways of defining and organizing content
- both enable the user to filter content
- both allow the user to find similar or related content
- both indicate what type of content can be found within the post
- both are applied during the post composition stage
Differences
- a post can be Tagged with a particular Tag with only one slight reference to the Tag topic within the post, but a Category should only be applied if a large component of the post is represented by the respective Category
- in many cases, the Category(ies) you apply to a given post will already exist in your blog's structure, whereas you will likely be adding new, original Tags quite often
- all Categories could also be Tags, but not all Tags are important enough to be Categories
- Categories will always be capitalized, while Tags will only be capitalized if they are proper names of people, places or events
- Tags should be kept to as few words as possible, whereas Categories can contain many words if necessary
Examples
If this article was to appear as a blog post and our aim was to give users an indication of what the post is about as well as increasing the chances this post will be found through filtering, we should apply Tags and Categories.
An example of applicable Categories could be:
- Content Filtering Methods
- Blog Optimization
- Content Organization
Of course there is essentially no wrong answer, provided the chosen categories represent a large component of what the post is about.
An example of applicable Tags could be:
- Tags
- Categories
- Filtering
- Navigation
- Blog organization
By putting some thought into the way you organize your content in relation to other content on your site, you will soon find using Tags and Categories becomes second nature. Your site visitors should be able to find content using various filtering methods . Tags and Categories are an efficient, relevant and widely understood method for content filtering.