Taxonomy before taxonomy: name your buckets once

You need fewer categories than you think

Every CMS wants you to tag and categorize from day one. Resist. If you start filing pages before you know what your buckets mean, you'll spend months cleaning up a mess.

I've watched teams create "Resources" and "Insights" and "Learn" sections that all hold the same type of content. Then someone adds "News" and suddenly no one knows where anything goes.

Write the definitions first

Before you create a single category in your CMS, open a document and write:

• **Category name**: What you'll call it
• **Purpose**: What this bucket is *for* in one sentence
• **Includes**: Three concrete examples of what goes here
• **Excludes**: Two things that seem like they'd fit but don't

Do this for every category you think you need. Then cut half of them.

If you can't write a clear distinction between two categories, you don't have two categories. You have one category and some wishful thinking.

Test with ten real pages

Take ten actual pages from your site (or ten you plan to create). Try to file each one using only your written definitions.

If you hesitate, your definitions are unclear. If a page could go in two places, your categories overlap. If nothing fits, you've designed for a different site than the one you have.

Fix the definitions, not the pages.

One path per page

Every page should have one obvious home. Not two, not three. One.

If your structure requires multiple categories to make sense of a single page, your structure is the problem. Users won't build a mental map of your site if pages live in multiple places.

Tags can be loose and numerous. Categories must be tight and few.

Enforce it in your CMS

Once your definitions are solid, build them into your CMS as helper text. When someone goes to create a new category, they should see the rules.

Better yet: lock down category creation to one or two people. Everyone else can request a new category, which forces a conversation about whether it's actually needed.

Most requested categories are just tags in disguise.

When to add a category

You need a new category when:

• You have at least 8-10 pages that clearly belong together
• Those pages share a distinct purpose your current categories don't cover
• Users would expect to find these pages grouped this way

You don't need a new category when:

• You have three pages and a hunch
• You want to highlight something temporarily
• You're trying to match a competitor's navigation

The test that matters

Can someone new to your team file ten pages correctly using only your written category definitions? If yes, you're done. If no, your taxonomy is still wishful thinking.

Name your buckets once, name them clearly, then stop fiddling with them. Your content will thank you.