In plain English
Categories and tags are the built-in taxonomies. Custom ones can be registered for anything: industry, service type, region, difficulty level.
Every taxonomy term generates an archive page, which is both useful and a risk. Unmanaged, they produce thin pages competing with your real content.
What to know
Groups content
Built-in or custom.
Hierarchical or flat
Categories nest; tags do not.
Generates archives
One page per term.
Needs management
Or thin archives accumulate.
Why it matters
Taxonomy archives can be genuinely valuable landing pages if there are few of them and each has enough content. Left to multiply, they dilute the site.
Common mistakes
×Dozens of tags used once each.
×No control over which archives are indexable.
×Categories and tags used interchangeably.
×Custom taxonomies created with no archive template.
FAQs
Category or tag?
Categories for broad structure, tags for specific recurring themes. Use few of both.
Should taxonomy archives be indexed?
Only where each has enough content to be a useful page.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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