WordPress Beginner Q&A: The Relationship Between Categories, Tags, Topics, and Pages

WeAfter building a website using WordPress, we will inevitably be involved in publishing posts. Before publishing posts, we need to understand several basic concepts: Categories, Tags, Pages, and Topics. Below, Naiba will introduce these terms and their specific functions.

Terminology Explanation

Categories, tags, and pages are three default features of WordPress. Series, WordPress does not have this feature by default, but you can create it yourself through plugins, modifying code, or using pages.CategoriesA simple example: categories are the classifications of your articles, such as Naibabiji'sWebsite Building Knowledge、Google SEOis a category. The purpose of categories is to organize your articles into classifications, such as technical logs and software downloads. Categories are added under the Posts menu in the Admin Dashboard. The default 'Uncategorized' category cannot be deleted, but you can edit it and change it to another name.It is generally recommended to use English or pinyin for the category slug, not Chinese, otherwise the URL will look unattractive. After adding article categories, you can select categories when publishing articles in the WordPress Admin Dashboard, as shown in the figure below:If you are using the Gutenberg editor, the interface is different from the above figure, but it is still on the right sidebar; you can find it by looking. If no category is selected, the article will be categorized into the default 'Uncategorized'.TagsTags: everyone has a different understanding of tags. Their main function is similar to categories, but they are linked through tags. An example may help you understand. For example, publishing two articles:

1. 3 Methods to Exclude Specific Category Articles from Displaying on the WordPress Homepage(Published under the Experience & Tips category)
2. WordPress New Version Chinese Simplified Local Download_Installation Package Program(Published under the Resources category)

However, both articles actually discuss WordPress, so both articles can be tagged with 'WordPress'. Then, all content related to WordPress can be aggregated together through tags, achieving an effect similar to categories. Demonstration:WordPress(Naibabiji initially used tags, but later hid and abandoned them. It's not that using tags is bad, but rather an issue with the website's planning.)PagesPages are generally used for relatively independent content, such as About and Service pages.Naiba Foreign Trade Website Building Serviceuses pages. Content published as pages does not appear in the website's latest articles list.SeriesReferred to as series abroad,Naibabiji's seriesis implemented using a plugin. It is equivalent to registering a new post type in WordPress. When publishing articles, you can check it (like selecting a category, but its function is the same as tags). If the series content generally does not change, you can directly use the page function to gather related articles together. If you will continuously add new articles to the series, you can use a series plugin or modify the code to call tags to achieve this.

Their Differences

The largest number of items on a website are definitely articles (for those using WordPress for e-commerce, products may be the most). When using articles, the category function must be used, so categories must be set. Tags are used to assist categories and are suitable for aggregating articles from different categories together. Pages are generally used for relatively independent content. Series need to be created additionally. An article can be assigned multiple categories and tags; pages do not have category selection. All articles appear in the website's latest articles list by default; pages and series do not appear in the latest articles list.

How to Plan and Use Them

So how are article categories, tags, pages, and series used? For example, if I want to create a design blog sharing design tutorials and design resources, the article categories can be divided into the following two classification methods:

• Classification method one: categories such as CorelDRAW, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, CAD, and Resource Downloads.
• Classification method two: categories such as Graphic Design, Interior Design, Exterior Design, Industrial Design, and Resource Downloads.

Then publish corresponding articles under the categories. Then link the content together through tags. For example, if a Photoshop article is categorized under Graphic Design, add a 'PS' tag to the article; vice versa. You might ask,What if I don't want to display resource download articles on the website?Simple, just hide them from displaying on the homepage. For methods, refer to:Method to Hide Specific Posts on the WordPress Website Homepage or Category Page How do I use series and pages then?Easy. For pages, the most basic is to write an About page; if you provide services, write a Service page. If you are willing to install a series plugin, do so; if not, use pages to create a series yourself. For example,Steps to Build Your Own Websiteis a series created using a page, linking all articles needed during the website building process, making it a series page. To make it automatically update with the article list, use a series plugin or tag calls, for exampleBaota Panel Usage TutorialThis topic effect.