Post Categories and Tags
Prerequisite Topics
Categories and tags are a means of taxonomy or a way of organizing posts. According to WordPress’s definition, a taxonomy is a mechanism for grouping items by their characteristics through the use of terms. By using categories and tags, you can make your content more organized, more usable, and easier for visitors to find.
Note: Categories and tags can only be used to organize posts. Pages are organized in parent-child hierarchies. For more about pages, see our article: Creating a Page.
Categories
Categories are a way to group posts into sections. Categories are usually a broad, yet descriptive word or phrase. For example, our introductory WordPress articles are arranged under a category called “Getting Started.”
Like pages, you can also create subcategories within categories. Sub categories will be more specific terms than their parent categories. For example, in a category called “Dogs," you might have the subcategories “Small Dogs,” “Medium Dogs” and “Large Dogs.”
A post can be sorted into multiple categories. However, it is typically best to stick to one category, because sorting posts into multiple categories can clutter the organization of your site and confuse readers.
Using Categories
To sort a post into a category, you must first edit the post. In the Edit Post page, there is a box on the right side of the page called Categories. In this section, you can select which category or categories you want to place your post into. You can choose from all categories or from the most used. You can also add a new category by clicking Add New Category.
By default, your post will be sorted into a category called Uncategorized, which is the single category that comes with a WordPress site. This is not a useful classification, so uncheck Uncategorized and select a different category. In fact, once you have created your own categories, it is best to delete Uncategorized, so that your posts will not be sorted here by accident. For more about creating categories, see our blog post: Creating Meaningful WordPress Categories.
To save your categories, go to the box labeled Publish. For new posts, you can either click Save Draft or Publish to save your changes. For an existing post, click the Update button.
Managing Categories
To view all your categories, go to your site’s dashboard, hover over Posts, and select Categories in the submenu. This will bring you to a page that lists all your categories and their properties. On this page, you can manage existing categories or you can add new ones.
Managing Existing Categories
Your existing categories will be displayed on the right. Each category has four properties. They are:
Name: The name of the category as it displays on your site.
Description: A short sentence describing the content of the category.
Slug: The version of the category name as it appears in a URL.
Count: The number of posts currently sorted into the category.
If these properties do not appear on the page, select Screen Options at the top of the page and check the box of each property to display them.
When you hover over a category, four options will appear beneath the name:
Edit: Directs you to a page where you can edit all settings for a category.
Quick Edit: Opens an in-context screen for editing the name of the category.
Delete: Deletes the category.
View: Directs you to the category archive page on your website.
You can take any of these actions. You can also select multiple categories and apply an action to all of them at once. Bulk actions can be found at the top and bottom of the list in the drop-down labeled Bulk Actions. The only bulk action available is to delete all selected categories.
Adding a New Category
On the left side of the screen, you will have the option to add a new category. First, create a name for the category. Optionally, you can select a parent category if you want to make a new category a subcategory, and you can add a description for the category. When you have entered this information, click Add New Category. Your new category will now appear in the list with the others.
Tags
Tags are similar to categories, but rather than grouping posts into sections as categories do, tags label posts with searchable keywords. Tags are more specific than categories and are used to highlight the groupings and relationships between posts. While posts should be restricted to one category, multiple tags are encouraged.
For example, a WordPress site might have a post called "Caring for a Dog." This post is sorted under the “Dogs” category. However, the author might tag this post with “dog,” “care,” “diet” and “health” because those are terms that people might enter into a search box if they want to find an article about caring for a dog.
In EWU's existing themes, tags will appear at the bottom of each post. You can click on tags to see all posts sorted into those tags. For example, if you clicked on the “health” tag, you would see all the articles that the author tagged with “health.” The articles may not be from the same category, but because they all were related to health, they all display. This makes it easier for visitors to search for specific subjects on your site.
Using Tags
To add a tag to a post, first you must edit the post. In the Edit Post page, there is a box on the right side labeled Tags. In this section, you can add tags to your post. You can add tags by typing them into the input box and then clicking Add, or you can click on Choose from the most used tags to see a word cloud of the most used tags. Tags that are used more frequently will be larger.
When you add a tag, you will see it listed in the Tags box. To remove a tag, click the X next to it.
Note: When adding tags with the input box, be careful to be consistent with existing tags. It’s easy to make typos or variations of the same tag. “Dog” is a different tag than “Dogs,” for example. Making too many tags and over-tagging posts can decrease the usability of tags on your website.
As with categories, after you have finished adding tags, go to the box labeled Publish. For new posts, you can either click Save Draft or Publish to save your changes. For an existing post, click the Update button. Your tags are now saved.
Managing Tags
To view all your tags, go to your site’s dashboard, hover over Posts, and select Tags in the submenu. This will bring you to a page that lists all your tags and their properties. On this page, you can manage existing tags or you can add new tags.
Managing Existing Tags
Your Tags page will have the same layout as your Categories page. Existing tags will be displayed on the right. Each tag has four properties. Like categories, they are:
Name: The name of the tag as it displays on your site.
Description: A short sentence describing the content of the tag.
Slug: The version of the tag name as it appears in a URL.
Count: The number of posts currently sorted into the tag.
If these properties do not appear on the page, select Screen Options at the top of the page and check the box of each property to display them.
When you hover over a tag, four options will appear beneath the name:
Edit: Directs you to a page where you can edit all settings for a tag.
Quick Edit: Opens an in-context screen for editing the name of the tag.
Delete: Deletes the tag.
View: Directs you to the tag archive page on your website.
You can make any of these actions. You can also select multiple tags and apply an action to all of them at once. Bulk actions can be found at the top and bottom of the list in the drop-down labeled Bulk Actions. The only bulk action available is to delete all selected tags.
Adding a New Tag
On the left side of the screen, you will have the option to add a new tag. First, create a name for the tag. Optionally, you can add a description. When you are done, click Add New Tag. Your new tag will now appear in the list with your other tags.
Widgets for Categories and Tags
Wordpress has widgets that allow you to add categories and tags to the sidebar on your site.
From the dashboard, hover over Appearance in the sidebar and click on Widgets in the submenu. Under Available Widgets you will find the Categories widget and the Tag Cloud widget. To add these to a sidebar, simply drag and drop the widgets to the Sidebar panel.
Changes made to the Widgets page will save automatically.
When you add categories and tags to your sidebar or another widget area, they become easier for visitors to browse through, so your content becomes easier to find.