Overview of Taxonomies
Understand taxonomies and their role in structuring your site.
What is a Taxonomy?
A taxonomy is a classification system used to categorize and organize content. It consists of:
- Taxonomy - the overall classification set / most parent category
- Categories - individual child classifications within the taxonomy
- Hierarchy - parent-child and sibling relationships between categories
The Benefit of Using Taxonomies
Taxonomies can help you:
- Organize large volumes of content
- Ensure consistent tagging
- Improve search and filtering
- Reuse the same categories across many content types
Taxonomy Example: Home Appliances
Imagine that we are building a product catalog and have a taxonomy for appliances called Home Appliances. Within this taxonomy, we can create child categories such as Function and Type, which are siblings. Each of these categories can then be further broken down into more specific child categories
Home Appliances (taxonomy or parent category)
├─ Function
│ ├─ Kitchen
│ ├─ Laundry
│ └─ Other
└─ Type
├─ Major Appliances
└─ Small AppliancesA content item for a microwave could belong to both the Kitchen and Small Appliances categories, in addition to the parent category of Home Appliances.
Best Practices for Using Taxonomies
- Keep taxonomies simple and shallow where possible: Shallow hierarchies make it easier for authors to quickly find and select the correct category without navigating through multiple levels of nesting
- Design taxonomies based on user navigation needs: When categories mirror users’ mental models, users can locate content quickly without relying on search alone
- Plan for change: Categories can evolve over time. As content increases, categories may need to be refined, split, or reorganized to remain meaningful. Start with broad, flexible categories and refine them incrementally rather than trying to anticipate every future need upfront
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