To tag writing samples on a portfolio, decide first on a small, fixed set of categories (usually by format, such as reviews, features and essays), then add a short controlled list of topic tags that match the words editors use when they commission, and apply both consistently to every piece. Keep a written list of allowed tags, merge near-duplicates, and only create a tag page when it has enough pieces to be worth visiting. The aim is that an editor can go from "Can this person write about X?" to three relevant clips in a couple of clicks.
This guide covers the decisions behind a tagging system that stays useful as your portfolio grows. It draws on information architecture research and the documentation of common publishing platforms, and the advice applies whichever platform you use.
Categories and tags do different jobs
Most publishing systems offer two ways to group content, and it helps to use them differently.
Categories are a small set of broad containers. WordPress's documentation on the Posts Categories screen shows that categories can be organised hierarchically, with subcategories under parent categories, and that themes commonly list them as navigation links leading to archive pages.
Tags are flat descriptors. The WordPress guide to the Posts Tags screen states that, unlike categories, tags have no hierarchy, so there is no parent and child relationship, but tag names must still be unique.
For a writing portfolio, a reliable pattern is: one category per piece, describing its format (review, feature, essay, interview, column), and several tags describing its subjects. Editors often commission by both, so the two dimensions let a visitor answer "Does she write long features?" and "Has she covered photography?" separately.
Build a controlled list before you tag
The biggest risk with tags is drift: "Theatre", "theater", "stage" and "drama" all appearing on similar pieces, each with its own thin archive page. Information architects avoid this with a controlled vocabulary. Nielsen Norman Group's Taxonomy 101 defines a taxonomy as a closed list of acceptable terms, arranged hierarchically and used to describe and classify content, and describes taxonomies as controlled vocabularies: planned, prescriptive ways of adding metadata so content can be found.
You do not need a formal taxonomy, but you do need a short written list. A practical way to build one:
- Inventory your work. List every piece you want in the portfolio, with title, outlet, date and a few words on the subject.
- Note recurring subjects. Circle the subjects that appear in several pieces. These are your candidate tags.
- Choose one preferred term for each. Pick the word an editor would use, and record the variants you will not use ("Theatre; not theater, stage").
- Write the list down in a document you keep next to your portfolio, and tag only from it.
NN/g's article lists the same broad stages for larger projects, from inventorying content to establishing governance for ongoing updates.
Borrow terms from existing vocabularies
You do not have to invent your terms. Professional vocabularies exist for many fields, and borrowing their preferred terms makes your tags more predictable. The Dublin Core metadata terms, maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, repeatedly recommend using a controlled vocabulary where one is available.
Art critics have a particularly good resource. The Getty Research Institute's Art & Architecture Thesaurus provides preferred terms and synonyms for generic concepts in art and architecture; the Getty notes that it contains generic terms but no proper names, so "cathedral" is in the AAT while a specific cathedral is out of scope. Using its preferred term for a medium or movement ("installation art", "lithography") keeps your tags in line with how museums and libraries describe the same things.
For other beats, look at how the publications you want to write for label their own sections. If a magazine's site groups pieces under "Visual art" and "Books", tags with the same names will feel familiar to its editors.
Choose tags editors will actually use
Good tags sit at a useful level of detail. A tag that applies to almost everything ("Culture") does not help anyone narrow down; a tag that applies to one piece produces a near-empty page.
Useful tag types for writers and critics:
- Subject: photography, contemporary fiction, opera, architecture
- Place, where it matters to commissions: London, Wales, Edinburgh festivals
- Approach: reported, first person, interview-led
- Recurring events you cover regularly, if you have several pieces on them
Avoid evaluative tags ("best", "favourite") and tags that only make sense to you ("2019 batch"). A label on a tag page or tag link should tell a visitor what they will find; WCAG 2.2 asks that the purpose of each link can be determined from its text or context, which rules out cryptic shorthand.
If you are unsure how others would group your work, NN/g's guide to card sorting describes a simple method: participants place labelled cards into groups that make sense to them. An open card sort with a few trusted editors or fellow writers, using your piece titles, can reveal groupings you had not considered.
Decide how visitors will use the tags
Tags can be visible navigation, quiet metadata, or both. Before you add tag clouds and filter buttons, decide what a visitor needs.
Nielsen Norman Group's article on filters versus facets explains that filters exclude items that do not meet a criterion, while faceted navigation provides multiple filters, one for each aspect of the content. It recommends faceted systems for very large content sets and cautions that they take significantly more resources to build and maintain. A portfolio of 40 pieces rarely needs facets. A short list of category links, plus tag links on each piece, is usually enough.
Some platforms offer tags that are visible only to you. Ghost's tags documentation explains that the first tag in a post's list is treated as its primary tag, which some themes display on its own, and that internal tags beginning with a hashtag are hidden from the public and can be used to filter and organise content internally. Ghost also generates a public archive page for each tag, with its own RSS feed. Private tags are useful for things like "rights reverted" or "pitch material" that you want to track without showing.
Keep tag pages from cluttering search
Every public tag usually creates an archive page. A handful of well-populated tag pages can be useful landing pages; dozens of near-empty ones are clutter for readers and for search engines.
Google's documentation on managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs explains that filter-style URLs can cause overcrawling, with crawlers spending time on many URLs before establishing that they lack value, and slower discovery of new pages. Its recommendations, if you do not need such URLs indexed, include blocking filter parameters in robots.txt or using URL fragments. Most portfolios do not reach that scale, but the principle applies: keep the number of public tag pages proportionate to your body of work, and merge or retire tags that hold only one piece.
If your site outputs structured data, the schema.org keywords property describes "keywords or tags used to describe some item" for creative works. Many platforms handle this automatically; check what yours outputs rather than adding it by hand.
Maintain the system as your work grows
A tagging system needs occasional housekeeping, the same as any archive.
- When you add a piece, tag it from your written list, not from memory.
- Every few months, sort tags by number of pieces. Merge duplicates, rename vague tags and retire tags with a single piece (fold them into a broader one).
- When your focus shifts, add new tags deliberately and update your list. Do not delete old tags that still describe real work; editors may be looking for exactly that range.
- Check the visitor's route. From your home page, try to reach your three best pieces on a given subject. If it takes more than a couple of confident clicks, reconsider the category links or feature a curated selection.
A small, consistent set of tags tells an editor more about your range than a long, inconsistent one. More tool-neutral guides on writing portfolios and author websites are collected on uniblog.org.
