Maintenance: Categories, Tags, and Keywords
- Posted: 7/11/23 (revised: 1/23/24)
- Category: Maintenance Software
Disclaimer: Maintenance pages are for those who update this website. Nonetheless, everyone is free to look.
Introduction
Three levels of classification are used by this website.
- Categories are the broadest. There are not very many.
- Tags are sub-categories, but not limited to any one category. They are also known as Topics.
- Keywords are topics, often proper nouns, within a document. (See below for the interaction between
metakeywords: true|falseandkeywords: listbelow.)
Categories
These are the broadest categorization of content. They should be kept to a minimum, and should be highly distinct from each other. Some articles will belong in several Categories. Consult the Categories page for the current list, and try not to add more until there will be several member articles.
(Maintenance is an internal classification. While website visitors may view them, these articles are intended for internal use.)
Tags (Topics)
These are more specific. Articles frequently touch on multiple topics so multiple tags (on one article) are common.
The Tags page shows the top (by count) topics, and then all topics (alphabetically).
Note: Tags are the primary factor in determining Related content at the bottom of each page.
Keywords
Keywords are used by search engines.
When metakeywords: true (not recommended) is present in the website configuration, <meta name="keywords" content="*list*"> is generated for the list of keyword: *list* values in the page’s web <head> section.
Today, however, this is considered bad practice.
Instead, when metakeywords: false is present (or completely omitted - recommended) from the website configuration, the <meta name="keywords" ...> tag in the page <head> section is suppressed. But the individual list of keyword: list values in that page’s markdown header (along with its tags: and categories:) are still used to generate the search-engine index. This is the preferred method to use.