What’s the difference between content types and taxonomy?

When we work on website redesigns, intranet redesigns, or other content management system projects, one question I frequently hear is, “What’s the difference between content types and taxonomy?”

A site map, content types, content models, metadata, and taxonomy are all part of a site’s content structure. Yes, this is jargon, so let us explain.

The site content structure is the sum of the different components in your website that support the content, made up of site maps, content types, content models, metadata, and taxonomy.

A site map shows how all the pages on a site are related, in a parent-child hierarchy. We start with the home page and detail how all the pages fall under the home page.

A content type is a a discrete kind of content on your site. It has a purpose, metadata, a content model, and on-page layout. For example, you might want to have a content type for a press release, an event, or a news article. You might want each of these content types to have different metadata, different content on the page, and have the content laid out a bit differently.

A content model details the metadata fields, taxonomy fields, and the on-page fields. It doesn’t detail the on-page layout, because this is done in the wireframes, the design, and in the CMS templates.

Metadata fields record things things like title, description, author, published date, and topic. It’s the information you want to know about your content. For example, an event would have a start date and time and an end date and time. A news article might have an expiration date. Some of these metadata fields are driven by controlled lists, or taxonomy facets.

Taxonomy facets are pre-defined, controlled lists of terms used to tag content so that we can do something with that content. Taxonomy helps group pages together and helps users find content, such as through search results filtering or browsing by certain categories.

On-page fields in the content model would be elements such as an on-page table of contents, heading 1, text elements, subheadings, related content boxes, images and their metadata, and related links. The on-page fields don’t dictate where the elements are placed, only what will be in each content type. For example, in a media release, you might want to have a section for “About our company” and “How to contact us” and a link to your media kit. A news item might have a field for the writer or reporter, or date published.

Simply put:

• The site map tells you how all the pages are related

• Content types define the things on your site

• Metadata tells you what you need to know about content types

• Taxonomy facets are controlled lists and a type of metadata

So what’s the difference between content types and taxonomy?

Often in a CMS, the content types are a controlled list, just like a taxonomy is a controlled list. However, content types are a “special” controlled list. When you create a page, you have to choose the content type, and that sets all the metadata and on page fields.

Some of the metadata fields are driven by pre-defined lists, or taxonomy facets. Applying a term from a facet allows the content to be found or searched in some way.

Need an example?

In this example, each box represents a content type. The name of the content type is in bold. The rest of the text represents the metadata. The items in orange are the taxonomy-driven metadata for each content type.

Here are some content types with the metadata that goes along with them.

You can see how the content types use the same taxonomies. This is how content can be tied together and dynamically displayed. If you know that a content page is about a certain topic, and that a department talks about certain topics, then you can reference content pages on the department pages, or do the reverse.

Note about page layouts:

I said that content models dictate the on-page fields but not the on-page layout. That’s because in a CMS, the layouts are controlled by cascading style sheets (CSS). CSS specifies the presentation and styling of content. We separate the formatting and style from the content so that we can easily reformat and restyle content whenever we want. CSS has been around for almost as long as HTML has been around, and there are a lot of resources to learn more.