using tags instead of categories bad for SEO?

[Charles Steiner]

Would I be penalized for using tags instead of categories since the same content would show up under multiple menu items?

Is there a workaround?

An example would be a book library website where that the main menu has links to certain tags. Since books will have multiple tags, one book would come up under multiple tag menu items.

[WallBB]

Well i don't think you will be penalized as i see this on many sites

[Leftfield]

In Google Webmaster Tools, under Crawl -> URL Parameters, you can indicate Google how to handle parameters in your URL.

But, I am not sure what do you mean tags "instead" of categories. You can put whatever you want instead of categories but what you should do - ask yourself what is The best option.

[Charles Steiner]

Thanks for the input, guys.

By tags instead of categories -- example: using K2 to make a HOWTO docs.

I would only tag the K2 items instead of put them in a category. Say I write an article about Joomla, I might tag it with CMS, Linux and open source.

On the top menus of the site I have a dropdown menu for HOWTO's, instead of listing categories, the dropdown has tags as menu items. Included in those menu items are CMS, Linux, and open source. So clicking on any of those would bring up the Joomla article that has been tagged as such.

I'm thinking the site map's menu tree would lead google to crawl the each menu item, thus hitting Joomla article multiple time, seeing it as duplicate content.

But I guess it would recognize the URL f the article so would not see it as duplicate content. Maybe just penalize for duplicate content when there are multiple URLs with the same content.

Thanks for reading, I know it's a convoluted explanation.

[fai88]

In Google Webmaster Tools, under Crawl -> URL Parameters, you can indicate Google how to handle parameters in your URL. <<<< Thanks alot your inFormation

[Leftfield]

@Charles

Don't mix normal ordered URLs with tags. Different tags can show same articles. Personally, I would never use tags in the site map.

In your way you would have: http://www.mysite.com/linux/somearticle http://www.mysite.com/opensource/somearticle so you should use rel="canonical" etc...

I know what you like, but since you asked question regarding SEO then my answer is NO. Use normal URLs with category and use tags as usual. But in sitemap (I got excellent results with this) must be only URLs with category in it.

Or, if you want to complicate your life: make two sitemaps and (this is mandatory) then go to the webmaster tools (Google, Bing...) and tell them how to handle parameters.

I hope I make sense with my english

[Charles Steiner]

Thanks for the insight. You pointed me in the right direction -- now, I need to educate myself on rel="canonical"

BTW, your english is flawless.

[Leftfield]

Here is good start: https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 9394?hl=en

[maunya19]

not bad,
but i prefer use direct categories.
category more general and tags moor deep about your topic.
regards: kde maunya

[jack_rokeri]

No you will not be penalized using tags instead of categories.

[jonBuckner1]

Hi folks

Is there a performance side to this?

If, hypothetically, I was able to design a site that could use 100% categories OR INSTEAD, 100% tags...

Would you expect there to be a contrast in performance?

Thanks

Jon

[AndresNWD]

I don't know what code / database calls differences are between both but I have never read anything about it. Sounds really weird to me actually.

[jonBuckner1]

Hi AndresNWD

When you know nothing about database EVERYTHING seems weird.

The fact you have heard nothing about it seems good enough for me to assume a search result on tags or categories would be as effective as each other....

Thanks for reply

Jon

[AndresNWD]

There's a great difference: One article can only belong to a category, meanwhile it could have more than 1 tags (because it's a property of that item). I've just asked my fellow developer and he said categories are more efficient than tags.

[jonBuckner1]

Hi Andres

Thanks for that and thanks to your developer, too.

I suppose it comes down to a balance between rigidity and flexibility and how your content fits within that.