Wayne on April 21, 2008
Well, in light of how I've mangled the categorization of my posts after transitioning my posts from one host domain to another, I thought it would be a good idea to find out exactly how others are using categories and tags together. They both seemed the same, but I was sure there was a distinct difference between the two.
A quick Google search for 'blog tags and categories' came back with a ProBlogger post in the first position. "Of course" I thought to myself. ProBlogger.com has some of the best posts on blogging, in my opinion.
To sum up the post, categories are basically like a filing cabinet, where one would place a single piece of paper (or post for this matter). Tags on the other hand are given liberally to the post to describe various topics the post discusses. I understand there may be some disagreement about this, but really one needs to simply pick a method or categorization and organization and stick with it, however there may be ramifications to your decision, so drill deep and understand it well to help make the best decision for your needs.
I like how the post goes on to describe how categories and tags benefit your readers. Tag, for example, are going to be useful when a read is looking for a specific topic. Unlike search functionality where results for given keywords are displayed without regard to what the posts are really about, selecting a tag would presumably result in the display of all posts that are about that tag. Indeed, this depends upon the authors diligence for tagging posts appropriately.
Well, I have a little mess I need to clean up with my posts. In the coming days I'll be changing my posts categories and tags to reflect some of these ideas. Thankfully I don't have hundreds of posts, only a handful.
Read More:
Using Categories and Tags Effectively on Your Blog
Entrecard DropSurf