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In this video, the fourth in the series, we take a look at how to better organize your posts in WordPress through the use of Tags and Categories.
Tags are essentially keywords that you assign to each post. They are typically displayed underneath each post. Someone viewing your blog can click on one of those tag links, and an archive page with all the posts containing that tag will be displayed.
Every post in WordPress is filed under one or more Categories. Categories allow your posts to be classifieds into groups and subgroups. If a visitor to your site clicks on a category link, an archive page with all the posts belonging to that category will be displayed. Unlike tags, categories may be assigned to a parent category, enabling you to set up a hierarchy within the category structure.
Covered in this video:
- Understanding the difference between tags and categories.
- How to add and edit categories using the Posts > Categories sub-panel.
- Using category parents to sort content hierarchically.
- How to add and edit tags using the Posts > Tags sub-panel.
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I have created 4 categories and a post for each but nothing is showing up on my site. Does anyone know why? I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong…
Hi Suzana,
There are a couple of reasons why your categories might not be displaying on your site. Most likely, you’ve correctly created the category and assigned at least one post to it, but it isn’t showing on your site because you haven’t added the category to your menu. If you’re using Custom Menus on your site, you have to manually add categories to your menu.
Another reason might be that the theme your site is currently using doesn’t display categories in the way you might expect. Without more details about your site, I can only speculate here, but it is a common problem, especially with poorly-coded, free WordPress themes.
Hope this helps!
Shawn
This video doesn’t really explain the differences between categories and tags. Yes, categories, but not tags, can have a hierarchy. But if we have categories, why have tags as well? Isn’t this redundant?
Hi Susan,
In the video, I explained that tags are like keywords. You use them in addition to categories, to help folks find other posts or articles that contain the same topic/keyword/tag.
For example, let’s say you have a product review site. On your site, you may have a category for “Computers.” You might write an article about the Apple MacBook Air, and tag it with, “Apple,” and “laptop.” Now, your readers can click the tag, “Apple,” to find other articles about all Apple products, including iPods, which are filed in another category called, “MP3 Players.” Or, they might click the tag, “laptop” and find all the reviews that are specifically about laptops.
So, tags help your readers find related content, either by filtering articles within an individual category, or finding related articles across categories.
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Is there a converter tool that you recommend for categories to tags vice versa? Time is Money…thanks for your answer in advance!
Hi Yolanda,
Sorry I missed your question when you posted it. In the future, you might post questions like this in the Q&A Forum, which I monitor daily.
Actually, the best tool for converting categories to tags — and vice versa — is the one that’s built into WordPress. It’s available under Tools > Import.
Hope this helps!
Shawn
Categories are like the table of contents in the front of the book. Tags are like the index. Categories give you a wider search range. Tags are more narrow.
what a great tutorial.. thanks mate for this..
Hello. I added the tags to categories plug-in for my site and then organized my categories. And now all the the tags are in my header and it looks aweful! I don’t know how to change that and get those out of there. My site is http://www.remainfit.net please look and advise thank you
Hi Cheryl,
Taking a quick look at your site, it appears that your current theme displays categories in the secondary navigation menu. You should be able to replace this default behavior with a custom menu, which is covered in this video.
Hope this helps!
Shawn