It might as well be paper or plastic. You step up to the cash register and the checker looks up and asks, “Paper or Plastic?”. If you’re like me, you start over-thinking the question. I’d like to avoid using petroleum products so I should go with paper, but those actually take more energy to produce, but I can use them for my recycling later… Meh, I should just buy some reusable bags and get it over with.
The same types of questions pop into my head when people ask if they should use tags or categories. Tags are easy and quick to add, but they lack the structure and navigability that categories provide. But then, it’s tough to decide which category certain content types belong in.
After far too much internal debate, waffling, and discussion, I know there isn’t one solution I can say is best. But there are a few solid rules you can defer to when thinking about tags and categories, and there’s one solution that I like to use for most of the sites I design.
First, the basics:
Tags are metadata about a post. They’re added keywords or a way to add a little bit more description to a piece of content.
Categories, on the other hand, are more structural and usually used more for navigation. You put a piece of content into a category. You add a tag to a piece of content.
Over the years, I’ve seen these two types of classification systems used interchangeably, often with one masquerading as the other. People want to put a piece of content in multiple categories to help alleviate some of the problems the rigid structure provides, but the biggest issue I notice with these two is not in the set-up phase — it happens in the day-to-day maintenance of content.
For instance, it’s hard to know what category a piece of content should be placed in. You usually have to go and review the list of categories already on the site, decide if it’s worth putting it in one of those, or maybe even decide to add a new category. If the content is being managed by a multitude of people and there isn’t an agreed upon rule set, things can quickly get out of hand—then you’re left with on-the-fly category creation and a serious navigation problem with your site down the road.
Tags have different problems. They’re easy to add, so you’re not stuck with a lot of mental load while writing or trying to add a piece of content, but they’re not very good at providing navigational structure. There’s no thought that goes into all that attached metadata and the typical way of displaying these tags (a tag cloud) is a messy form of navigation.
So what to do?
The easy option is to go with both: You add tags however you see fit and then put the content in pre-set categories and go on your way. In this case, you reap the rewards of both and your bases are covered. It’s not a bad solution, but like I mentioned before it can be pretty taxing on the content management end of things. Not only are you adding metadata via tags; you’re also having to decide on categories.
For most sites I design, I use a combination of the two, but not both separately. While posting and adding content, I do the easier of the two and just add lots of tags. I then create groups of these tags and make categories based on them. I like to call these groups of tags “sections”.
This way, if I want to have a design “section”, I can add tags like grids, color, layout, painting, sketching, etc. And then all the posts that are tagged with one of those items are placed in the appropriate section. If an article that I think should be in a particular category isn’t there, I either add the tag to the article, or add the tag to the section. It’s the best of both worlds.
It’s easy and quick to add tags while writing or posting and flexible when you’re trying to categorize your content.
But why not just use both?
It’s a good question, with a fairly easy answer: maintenance. Adding more content and tags and putting content into categories can make moving things around later a daunting task. Associating the tags with categories lets you move the content items around more easily and gives your sections meta data as well (the tags that are part of that section).
Bottom line
Like I said at the start, there’s no hard and fast rule for these things. Sometimes a site can work well with either both in unison or the way I described here. In the end you have to take a hard look at how you’re hoping to use these two in both your site’s navigation and your internal content management structure.
Is there a plugin you know of for WordPress that would achieve the grouping of “Sections” that you describe?
I really like your concept – tags and categories have always been a tricky issue – but I don’t like the idea of coding my own Plugin for WordPress :-)
@Zach Katz Glad you like the concept, but unfortunately I don’t use WordPress. Do let me know if you find a plugin out there for it!
Tom—I like your system for reconciling the tag vs cat disconnect. It maintains order and simplicity of navigation without strongarming yourself into strict categorization.
There’s some upkeep associated, but it seems more like a curative process than the “spring cleaning” that can happen in more rigid systems.
The thing I’m still unsure about is how to approach tagging with the lay-user. I’ve called them categories before because that term makes sense to non-techies. Still, the interface for tags is still imperfect. They don’t know what to do with an empty text field, but provoding tag suggestions becomes too constraining.
Any thoughts on tags for the non-technical user?
@AdamD Thanks! Yeah, a curative process is a great way to describe it.
With the tags for not-technical users, I’ve found when trying to explain tagging using the term “keywords” to help users who are unfamiliar with “tagging” can really help. I just explain it as just highlighting keywords or concepts from the article in a more explicit way. It doesn’t always work but it’s usually pretty helpful!
I’ve had some experience training non-technical staff in the use of tagging and categorization for an online magazine style website - boy was it tough to get around the question ‘what’s the difference???’. In the end, I employed the kind of conclusion arrived at in Everything is miscellaneous - category is for the ‘first order of order’ - the kind of system used in traditional taxonomies like Dewey Decimal - and then tags are used, like you say, as meta keywords. Seperate and distinct ways of creating multiple orders: one of them primarily for classical order and navigation, the other optimized for findability and relating to the more cluttered reality of the way user’s search the web. One thing I had to do though, was limit the CMS staff to only choosing one top-level category per article/page - whereas they can apply as many tags per article as they want. Keeps things very manageable.
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