what is Taxonomy in WordPress

What Is WordPress Taxonomy?

WordPress Taxonomy is a way of grouping and organizing content types into categories and tags, making it easier for users to navigate a website. Taxonomies in WordPress include categories, tags, and custom taxonomies, which can be customized to meet specific website needs.

Types of WordPress taxonomies

In total, there are four taxonomies in WordPress that you can use to group your posts. Let’s take a look at each one.

1. Category

The category taxonomy in WordPress lets you group your post into hierarchical categories. There are two different ways to group your posts via Categories.

The first way is to log in to your Dashboard and head to Posts -> Categories. There, you can define your categories, as well as add in the WordPress slug and define child categories.

The second option is to head to Posts -> Add New. You can add multiple categories directly from the panel next to your visual editor. While it is the easier option, it doesn’t let you define the slug and description.

2. Tag

Tags are similar to categories – it groups your posts. However, a tag is different from a category as it doesn’t have a hierarchical structure.

A tag is a single parameter that puts your similar posts together, but it focuses on smaller details of your content, rather than overall themes.

Let’s say that you want to create genres and subgenres for your movie WordPress site. You can do that by using category like taxonomy, as it supports hierarchical structure. If you want to group movies of any genre with Brad Pitt as the main star, you can add tags.

Creating WordPress tags is similar to creating categories. You can do it either from Posts -> Tags or panel next to the visual editor. Slug and description can also be defined.

3. Link_category

This taxonomy lets you categorize your links. If you link to many sources on your posts, you’ll find this feature particularly useful.

3. Link_category

This taxonomy lets you categorize your links. If you link to many sources on your posts, you’ll find this feature particularly useful.

Custom WordPress taxonomies

At the right side of your visual editor, you can see the “Categories” and “Tags” label. What if you want to have your own taxonomy that says “People”? Here’s where custom taxonomy saves the day. You can customize your taxonomy to better accommodate your needs.

For example, think of a fitness WordPress site. Instead of having a general taxonomy that says “categories”, it would be better to have custom taxonomies that say “Cardio” and “Floor Exercises”. Each taxonomy can be further modified with sub-categories like “Jogging”, “Intermittent running”, and “Crunches”. The same case goes with tags. You can have a tag that says “Fitness Instructor” instead of the default names.