As your website grows and you start publishing more blog posts, it becomes important to keep everything organized. That's where categories and tags come in—they help both your readers and search engines understand the structure of your content.

What Are Categories?

Categories are used to group posts into broad topics. Think of them like sections in a newspaper—News, Sports, Lifestyle, etc.

• Every post must have at least one category; if you don't choose one, WordPress assigns it to "Uncategorized" by default;

• You can also create subcategories to organize your content even further.

Example:
If you run a food blog, your categories might be:

• Breakfast;

• Lunch;

• Dinner;

• Snacks.

What Are Tags?

Tags are more specific than categories. While categories are broad, tags describe the details of your post.

• They work like keywords that help identify topics within a post;

• You can assign as many as you want;

• Unlike categories, tags are completely optional.

Example:
For a post in the Dinner category, you might use tags like:

• Vegan;

• Pasta;

• 30-minute meals.

Tags help readers find related content, and they can also improve your site's internal navigation and SEO.

When to Use Categories vs. Tags

Use categories to structure your site into clear sections, and use tags to highlight specific details in each post.

Don't overuse tags—focus on quality, not quantity. If too many tags overlap with categories, it can confuse your readers instead of helping them.