Difference Between Tags and Categories [VIDEO]

What’s The Difference Between a Tag and a Category?

Recently on the webinar I was asked the question by a new blogger as to what the difference is between a tag and a category.

If you’re reading this, possibly you have the same question. In fact, truth be told, that was one of things I was wondering about when I started blogging but was afraid to ask because I thought it should be one of those “common sense, dah” questions. But I wasn’t sure and so… I had to ask.

So when you blog, there’s two ways for your readers to easily find your valuable content.

Through Categories and Tags.

Blog Categories:

Categories are used to organize your content so your visitors can easily find a topic on a specific subject. When someone clicks on a category, they will see all the different blog posts, ideas, topics, thoughts, training, inspiration etc. for that ONE subject matter.

For example, if someone clicked on a “blogging” category, they may find several blog posts on the topic of blogging. It’s like a file cabinet or file folder where each topic has a place.

Here’s an image showing you where your categories are located (and can also be located down the sidebar of your blog). You can pick and choose which categories you reveal on your top bar.

Blog Tags:

Tags are like keywords as well as a word or words that people can type into your search bar to locate information they may not otherwise be finding under your categories.

So for instance on this blog, I have a category set up for ‘social media marketing’.

But let’s say you want to know more about Twitter, which is a social media platform, like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and others.

Rather than clicking on the category social media marketing, you can get to the exact content you want by going to the SEARCH BAR and typing in “twitter”.

You’ll then get all the articles written specifically for Twitter.

When To Set Your Category And Tags

After you write your content, assign it to a category, this is your file cabinet.

Regarding tagging, just ask yourself what someone might logically type into your search bar that would be directly related to what you’re writing about and what your readers are looking for. Think of my social media marking and Twitter example. You can put as many or as few tags into each piece of content that makes sense.

Assigning To More Than One Category

There will be times when you assign an article to more than one category, but try to keep it to just a couple if it relates to a couple of them. This will keep your blog organized better.

I hope this answers your question about the difference between tags and categories. If not, leave me a comment below and let me know what’s still foggy. I’ll help you out.