Blog Pages, Posts, Categories, and Tags…
Adapted from a post by Michael Martine
When should you use a blog page instead of a post? How do you know
what should be a category versus a tag? After this post, you will
know exactly what to do.
Pages vs. Posts
Blog pages are timeless permanent content. Blog pages live outside
the normal date/time chronology of blog posts. Most of what you
write for your blog should be posts. Frequently updated new content
belongs in posts. Here are some examples of what should be in pages:
- Information about you and your blog (the “About” page)
- Your artist statment
- Information about your studio
- Contact information
TIP: Orchid bloggers can control the blog Navigation Menu links.
To add pages or category links in nav menu select: THESIS OPTION
menu under DESIGN.
Here are some things that could be in pages instead of being posts
or being in your blog’s sidebar:
- Archive links
- Blogroll or resource links
- Author information on a team blog
- Articles (longer than posts)
- Glossaries
- Image galleries
Any OTHER CONTENT you create should go into POSTS.
Categories vs. Tags
Categories have been around for a long time. Tags are a more recent
way to classify content on your blog. There is a difference between
them. Categories only live in one place, but tags can repeat
themselves and live in many places at once. Categories are like big
buckets to divide the information itself, but tags are ways of
labeling and identifying characteristics about the information.
Food is a great example of how to use categories and tags correctly.
Take Feelgood Eats, for example, which has categories for major types
of recipes. In fact, they’re not even called categories, they’re just
called recipes:
anytime recipes, fall recipes, holiday & party recipes
But the tags on Feelgood Eats are a more detailed breakdown of the
ingredients that might end up in any recipe, plus other ways of
classifying food info:
bread, breakfast, dressings & spreads
The analogy works for any kind of blog: what are your “recipe types”
compared to your individual “ingredients”? Think of it that way, and
you’ll be more easily able to assign categories and tags to blog
posts.
Does this clear things up for you? Let me know if you have further
questions in the comments!
