Categories/Ultimate Tag Warrior

[Pennywise]

Whats the difference between the two? Should I use both or just one?

[Mittineague]

I read that cats are like the TOC and tags are like the Index.

[Pennywise]

Sorry, whats TOC?

I heard Tag warrior is good for seo?

[Dan Grossman]

Table of contents. Tagging is overrated.

[Pennywise]

How does the tagging work exactly? Is it just like the catergories? How is it different? Thnx

[Mittineague]

Tags are stored in a database. What the schema looks like depends on what you use. Most often these are used for a "tag cloud" navigation links. They (some apps, anyway) can ping sites like technorati that use tags.
Kind of like a highly visible "preselected keyword search" where the user can look for something of interest and go to posts that are tagged with that tag.
IMHO if your category structure is clear (you have good navigation), and you have a good site search feature, tag clouds aren't needed as much as being 2.0 candy.
If you feel that most users have come to think of a tag cloud as the "norm" and expect to see one, then go for it.

[ses5909]

If you are using the new version of WordPress, tagging comes built in. I haven't upgraded yet so can't tell you exactly how it works in the new version.

[rguy84]

This is a hot debate. I don't use UTW, but I plan to use tagging when WordPresss 2.3 comes out. I would say it is your call. I am planning to use both. I have a developer background, but I study politics in school. So I blog about technology, news, politics, etc. I have done like 3 posts on apple products. This is not my focus, so I wouldn't make a category for apple, but I would certainly make a tag for it.

[bdude]

You really should use both, this post on Problogger explains it quite well:

Categories are best imagined as a paper filing system. Each page in the system must be filed away in the appropriate drawer. There are only a set number of drawers, and so each must cover a rather wide blanket.

Think of tags as the colorful little page markers you might use to flick back to your favorite pages in a book. The tags don’t describe the book as a whole, instead they describe individual sections of the book.

[Mittineague]

I agree, "semantics" are important. Tag clouds shouldn't be just a differently styled cat nav.
But I do wonder there if there is any data regarding what percentage of users actually use them, do they hit better than other links. etc.