Categories
Intermediate Training Module 3: Cards & Listings
Categories are used to organize content into meaningful groups. They help both website visitors and content editors find related information more easily.
More importantly, categories are what make dynamic listings and card blocks possible.
By categorizing your content, you can automatically display related posts, events, people profiles, videos, files, and other content types throughout your website without manually updating pages every time new content is added.
For example, if several news posts are categorized as Research, you can create a Research page that automatically displays all content in that category.
Why Categories Matter
Without categories, content exists individually.
With categories, content can be grouped and displayed dynamically.
For example:
Research
├── News Post
├── Research Story
├── Event
└── VideoA card or listing block can then automatically display content from the Research category.
When new content is added to that category, it will automatically appear wherever the category is being displayed.
When Should I Create a Category?
A category should represent a topic, theme, audience, or area of interest that will contain multiple pieces of content.
Good examples include:
- Research
- Faculty
- Students
- Alumni
- Accessibility
- Community Engagement
Categories should be broad enough to be useful but specific enough to organize content effectively.
Creating a Category
Categories can usually be created directly while editing content.
To create a category:
- Open a page, post, event, person profile, video, or other supported content type.
- Locate the Categories section in the settings panel.
- Select Add New Category.
- Enter a category name.
- Click Add New Category.
The category will now be available for future content.
Applying a Category
Once a category has been created, it can be assigned to additional content.
To apply a category:
- Open the content item.
- Locate the Categories section.
- Select the appropriate category.
- Save or update the content.
A single piece of content can belong to multiple categories when appropriate.
Categories and Dynamic Content
Categories become especially powerful when combined with card and listing blocks.
For example, a page could contain:
Latest Research News
Display all Posts categorized as: Research
Meet Our Faculty
Display all People Profiles categorized as: Faculty
Upcoming Events
Display all Events categorized as: Community Engagement
Because these listings update automatically, content only needs to be created once.
Common Category Examples
Many websites organize content using categories such as:
Audience-Based
- Students
- Faculty
- Staff
- Alumni
Topic-Based
- Research
- Accessibility
- Sustainability
- Community Engagement
Department-Based
- Communications
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
Choose an approach that makes sense for your site’s content and organizational structure.
Best Practices
Plan Categories Before Creating Them
A small, well-organized category structure is easier to maintain than dozens of unnecessary categories.
Use Categories Consistently
If one editor uses: Research and another uses: Research Projects, content may become fragmented.
Avoid Creating Categories for Single Items
Categories work best when they contain multiple pieces of related content.
Keep Naming Consistent
Use simple, descriptive names that are easy for editors to understand.
Think About Future Listings
Before creating a category, ask: Would I ever want to display all content from this category together? If the answer is yes, the category is probably worthwhile.
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Hello and Welcome to cutheme Module 2. In this video, we will cover categories.
Categories are a way to group similar content across your site. these can be posts, events, people, and videos.
Categories can be very helpful for both you and site visitors, as it allows similar content to be easy to be grouped together, and easy to navigate in between.
There are no limits to the number of categories a site can have, though it is a good idea to plan out your site’s categories, to maintain its organization.
So, to create a new category, go to the content you want to have a category for. In this case, we’re doing it for a post. On the right-hand side of the edit menu, there is a categories drop-down, so I’m going to click on that. Then, you’ll see we have a list of categories here. I’m going to click “News” here, take “Uncategorized” off, and now this post will have the “News” category associated with it.
If you go down to “Add New Category”, you can add another category. Let’s add “Education” as a category.
You can choose a parent category for the new category, so if you want it to be a subcategory of something, you can choose that. I’ll have this as a subcategory of “Research”. So now “Research” is a parent category of “Education”. Click on “Add New Category”, and our new category has been added.
Try it Out!
Practice creating and applying categories.
- Create a new category.
- Apply it to a post.
- Apply the same category to another content item.
- Create a card or listing block that displays content from that category.
- Add another categorized content item and observe how the listing updates automatically.