WordPress Tags vs Categories 2023: Everything You Need to Know!

Are you wondering what’s better for your SEO – WordPress tags vs. categories? Well, let us help you walk through both of them.

When you create your WordPress blog and publish a post, you will always find the WordPress categories and tags tab in the sidebar. Most users probably don’t know the difference between the two and how they can affect your SEO.

Categories in WordPress are grouping your content or labeling it, while tags provide in-depth labeling to your posts.

In this article, we will help you understand the difference between WordPress categories and WordPress tags and how you can use them efficiently for better performance and easy accessibility for your readers.

Quick Navigation:

What Are WordPress Tags
What Are WordPress Categories
The Key Difference
How to Add Categories and Tags in WordPress
Optimizing Tags and Categories for SEO
Number of WordPress Categories
How to Use Categories in Your Posts URL
Best Practices for Using WordPress Tags & Categories
Which is Better for SEO
Final Thoughts

So, without wasting time, let’s dig into each one in-depth to better understand the differences between WordPress categories and WordPress tags.

WordPress Categories vs Tags: What Are WordPress Tags?

WordPress Tags are crucial if you want your content to be identified using a specific keyword. Tags are used to describe your posts’ precise details to get notified quickly whenever someone puts a keyword in the search bar.

All you need to do is pick the words or keywords that describe your post the best. You can use multiple tags for your WordPress posts, and it won’t cause you any trouble.

This article contains various tags even though you can’t see the tags displayed in the post. These tags help users to find the content for their relevant searches quickly.

For example, if we write a post about Serena Williams winning the gold medal in the tennis match, we can add various tags such as Serena Williams, gold medal, tennis, match, etc. Usually, tags are used to sum up, the basic ideas of the content.

What Are WordPress Categories?

Categories are crucial for every WordPress site. In simple words, categories are meant for grouping the content on WordPress sites. A category can be a single topic or a group of topics that are linked to each other.

A general label for your posts can also specify categories. The primary purpose of adding a category to your posts is to organize your post cleanly and make them accessible for your visitors or readers.

Sometimes, your post should be categorized into multiple topics. But we suggest not to assign too many categories to a single post.

Let’s consider an example to understand categories better. If we write a post on how you can secure your site, we will put it in the security category.

Similarly, if we offer a tutorial, we will put it into the tutorial categories, which you can access from the navigation menu. The main reason is to keep your content organized and easy to find for your users.

Remember, it’s essential to add a category to your content. If you do not add a category to your post, WordPress will automatically do it for you by assigning it to the default category known as “uncategorized.”

WordPress Categories vs Tags: The Key Difference

Although Categories and WordPress Tags might seem similar, they are very different. Both are used to group content, making that content easy to find. But you always have to categorize your post, but it is not always necessary to put the tags.

Undoubtedly, WordPress tags are beneficial, but you do not necessarily need to add tags if you don’t want to. However, if you do not add a category, WordPress will categorize it for you.

The difference between both lied in your usage. While the category decides the content genre with a broad classification, the tags give your posts more in-depth detail.

Therefore, you can use various tags in one post, whereas the fewer categories per post, the better.

Remember, you can add categories and tags to your pages using a plugin since WordPress only has tags and categories in blog posts.

How to Add Categories and Tags in WordPress

You can add categories and tags into your site quickly during the creation of the posts process. When you are editing or creating your post, you can find the options to add tags and categories into the document settings on the right-hand side.

Another way to add or edit the categories on your site, you can do it quickly by going to the Posts option inside your dashboard. When you click on the Posts option, click on the categories button.

You can easily add a new category. However, every category must have a name, slug, description, and whether it is a permanent category or not.

To add tags in WordPress, you can follow the same method by going to the Posts option and clicking on the tags section. You need to examine the WordPress tags section every once to ensure that you are using the right tags for your posts.

Optimizing Tags and Categories for SEO

Sometimes using WordPress tags and categories in the wrong way can have a negative impact on your site’s SEO. So you must change the default settings for how WordPress handles tags and categories to maintain your SEO and follow SEO best practices.

You can quickly change the settings for the tags and categories using the YoastSEO plugin. Let us briefly explain to you how you can do this with the YoastSEO plugin below.

Number of WordPress Categories

Most users are confused when it comes to categorizing their WordPress posts categories. Categories are used to encompass various posts, and you can use tags and sub-categories to divide your post further into small groups.

It’s ok to have multiple categories for most posts. Somewhere between 5-10 to ensure that your post is easily accessible for the users. If you are a beginner, you do not need to stress about the number of categories or the ‘perfect’ categories.

You can choose between 4-5 broad WordPress categories to get started and add more multiple categories as you understand categorization better.

And if you find you have too many posts in one category, you can use sub-categories to divide into small sections for more user-friendliness.

How to Use Categories in Your Posts URL

Lots of websites use WordPress categories in their post URL. You can do it quickly too. From your WordPress dashboard, go to the settings option and then click on the Permalinks option under it.

You can see the option of a custom structure where the link is embedded already.

Usually, WordPress redirects the old URL to the new ones. Therefore, you must ensure that your links are working correctly. You can also create a 301 redirect from the previous URL to the new one if you want.

There is another way to add WordPress categories in the post URL by keeping the post in the parent category and assigning it to the child category. But this way may complicate things for you.

Many websites use WordPress categories in their posts URL. However, we suggest keeping the URL as crisp and simple as possible to get maximum flexibility when organizing your content.

Best Practices for Using WordPress Tags & Categories for SEO

So far, we have covered the differences between categories and tags. WordPress categories and tags play a crucial role in increasing your rankings in Google and other search engines while offering an excellent experience for your visitors.

Let’s look at the best practices for using WordPress tags and categories for better SEO.

Doing in-depth Keyword Research for Search Engine

If you want your posts to rank higher on search engines and attract the most traffic, you must use keyword-rich tags and categories for your posts.

For this, you must do in-depth competitor analysis, extensive keyword research for each search engine, and pick the most relevant and trendy phrases for your WordPress site, so that the search engines and your audience can find it quickly.

One crucial tip to remember is that you should not use unnecessary keywords that are not related to your blog posts. This can cause trouble for your SEO rankings. So use categories and tags that describe your posts accurately.

Related Reading: Best Keyword Research Tools

Creating Organizational Structure

Before you publish your content on your WordPress site, it is better to create an organizational structure. By doing so, you will avoid the creation of redirects when altering the existing categories, sub-categories, tags.

Based on the keyword research you did for search engines, you can use the relevant categories and tags to enhance your post’s flexibility and increase your readers’ visibility.

Remember, you should never exceed 5-10 categories for one post as it will lead to various complications for your WordPress website.

Careful Usage of WP.com and WP.org Tags

You should be aware of WordPress.com and WordPress.org being two different platforms by WordPress. While WordPress.com is a free blogging platform WordPress.org, on the other hand, is the most used CMS in the world.

And you need to be careful using the categories and tags for these platforms.

When you are using WordPress.com, you can use various tags as the platform lets you drive massive traffic to your site and enables the visitors to find your post under multiple categories.

However, utilizing multiple tags in WordPress.org can cause a tremendous negative effect on your site’s performance and lead to duplicate content issues.

Google may assume that your content is not relevant for displaying in a particular category, so please be careful here.

Avoid Making Different Categories for Multiple Authors

Most website owners separate categories for every author on their site to streamline their work and separate their posts.

When running a multi-author site on WordPress, creating separate categories for each author is one of the most common mistakes you can make.

WordPress already comes with an author categorization system, so it is better to avoid making a separate category for every author on your site.

Avoid Using Inappropriate Tags and Categories

When you use inappropriate tags and categories to enhance your site’s reach, you may end up getting penalties from the search engine. Therefore, it is better to avoid improper tags and categories for your post.

Use tags as well as categories wherever required. If you are concerned about the appropriate usage of tags & categories, you can also seek help from an SEO professional who will walk you through what is appropriate.

Avoiding Duplication When Using Tags and Categories

Categories and tags are used to find the right content quickly. That is why you need to remember not to use the categories and tags for your posts with the same name. Let’s consider this example.

If you have a category known as “Wood WordPress themes,” you must avoid using categories and tags with the same name as it leads to duplication issues and confusion for the search engines.

Usage of Singular vs Plural Tags and Categories

When you publish your content, you might end up in a dilemma for using singular or plural pronouns such as theme or themes.

It is better not to get confused here as you can use either the singular or plural pronoun based on your needs.

Avoid Using Too Many Tags

When you use too many tags on your post, it will dramatically affect the site’s usability and visibility for the readers.

Although there is no specific or appropriate number of tags that you should be using, one thing you need to remember is that every tag you will create will generate a separate achieve page. Therefore, you should be consistent and careful using your tags.

Using Exact Names for Categories

For a user-friendly environment, make sure that you use clear, descriptive, and simple categories to understand what the category is about quickly.

Doing so will also allow your new visitors to navigate your site and get a clear gist of your content without any trouble.

Categories and tags play an important role in SEO. If you want the make the most for your SEO with categories and tags, follow the above practice along with well-written SEO-optimized content.

WordPress Categories vs Tags: Which is Better for SEO?

Now that you know how to use WordPress categories and WordPress tags in your post, you must be wondering which one is better for SEO or if one has an advantage over the other.

The clear answer is that both come with different purposes, and there is no specific reason to choose WordPress categories over WordPress tags or vice versa.

You can use categories for every post and not use tags if you do not want to. However, we suggest using both in your posts to make your website more manageable for your users to navigate.

Lastly, your website design should keep the readers in mind. The aim should be to deliver the content useful to them in a clear and organized fashion. And when you organize the content efficiently, you will be rewarded with better SEO rankings.

WordPress Categories vs Tags: Final Thoughts

And that wraps up our WordPress categories vs. tags comparison. WordPress tags and categories are vital if you want your readers to have a seamless experience and easily find the content.

They also play a crucial role in improving your SEO rankings. So spend some time making sure you’re creating appropriate WordPress tags and categories structure for your posts.

We hope you found our comparison of WordPress categories vs. tags helpful. If you need help or assistance further, do not hesitate to drop your queries in the comment section below.

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