In WordPress, categories and tags serve similar purposes but have some key differences in how they are used:
- Categories are hierarchical in nature, meaning you can create a hierarchy of parent and child categories.
- They are typically used for broader classifications of content on your website.
- Each post must belong to at least one category.
- Categories are usually used to structure your content in a more organised manner, providing a clear taxonomy for your site.
- They are often displayed in menus and navigation bars to help users find content by topic or subject area.
- Categories can be assigned to custom post types as well.
- Tags are non-hierarchical, meaning there is no parent-child relationship between them.
- They are used for more specific, granular classifications of content.
- Posts can have multiple tags assigned to them, allowing for more flexibility in organising content.
- Tags are often used to highlight keywords or topics that are relevant to a particular post but might not warrant creating a separate category.
- They are useful for creating connections between related content across different categories.
- Tags can also be used for filtering and searching content within your site.
In summary, categories are best suited for organising content into broader topics or subjects, while tags are more suitable for adding specific keywords or topics to individual posts to enhance discoverability and interconnection between content pieces.