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

WeAfter building a website with WordPress, you 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 functions that come default with WordPress. Topics are not a default function in WordPress, but you can create them yourself using Plugins, modifying code, or using Pages.CategoriesA simple example: categories are the classifications for your posts, such as those on Naibabiji.Website Building Knowledge、Google SEOare categories. The purpose of categories is to organize your posts 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 post categories, you can select the category when publishing a post in the WordPress Admin Dashboard, as shown in the image below:If you are using the Gutenberg editor, the interface is different from the image above, but it is still located in the right sidebar; you can find it by looking. If no category is selected, the post will be categorized under the default 'Uncategorized'.TagsTags: everyone has a different understanding of tags. Their main function is similar to categories, but they link content through tags. An example might make it clearer. For instance, publishing two posts:

1. 3 Methods to Exclude Posts from Specific Categories on the WordPress Homepage(Published under the Experience & Tips category)
2. WordPress Latest Chinese Simplified Version Local Download_Installation Package(Published under the Resources category)

However, both posts actually discuss WordPress, so you can add the 'WordPress' tag to both posts. Then, you can aggregate all content related to WordPress through the tag, 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, Services pages, etc.Naiba Foreign Trade Website Building Serviceuses pages. Content published as pages does not appear in the website's latest posts list.SeriesKnown as series abroad,Naibabiji's seriesare implemented using a Plugin. This is equivalent to registering a new post type in WordPress. When publishing a post, you can select it (similar to choosing 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 posts together. If you will continuously add new posts to the series, you can use a series plugin or modify the code to call tags.

Their Differences

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

How to Plan and Use Them

So how do you use post categories, tags, pages, and series? For example, if I want to create a design blog sharing design tutorials and resources. Then the post categories can be divided into the following two classification methods:

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

Then publish corresponding posts under the categories. Then link the content together through tags. For example, if you publish a Photoshop post categorized under Graphic Design, add a 'PS' tag to the post; vice versa. You might ask:What if I don't want to display resource download posts on the website?Simple, just hide them from displaying on the homepage. For the method, refer to:How to Hide Specific Posts on WordPress Homepage or Category Pages How do I use series and pages then?Easy. For pages, at the most basic, write an About page; if you offer services, write a Services 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 made using a page, linking all the articles needed during the website building process, making it a series page. To make it automatically update with a post list, use a series plugin or tag calls, such as theBaota Panel Usage Tutorialseries effect.