After blogging for a couple of years, yesterday I realised that I could no longer continue in ignorance and finally got to the bottom of the difference between tags and categories. Actually I have been using tags on other sites for some time but never on my blog so it was time to understand (once again) what I was doing. And like many things that have been put off for too long it wasn’t that difficult. Thanks to Lorelle on WordPress for helping me sort this out.

Categories categorize: they help the readers find similar material. Tags help search engines organize the information found online.

Categories help visitors find related information on your site. Tags help visitors find related information on your site and on other sites.

Categories can have unique names. Tags need to be known names.

Categories can have long wordy names. Tags should have short one, two, or at the most, three words.

Categories generate a page of posts on your site. Tags can, too, but often generate a page of off-site posts on an off-site website.

Categories are not tags. Tags can be categories.

Categories don’t help search engines find information. Tags help search engines and tag directories catalog your site.

Posts are usually in one to four categories. A single post can list as many tags as you want.

So now that I have learned the difference and begun using Simple Tags to help me with my new-found tagging skills then maybe this will make a difference.