What is the difference between Categories and Entries- and when should I use each?
Both categories and entries hold content in the CMS, but they serve different purposes and behave differently.
Entries
Entries are the primary content objects on your site. They have their own URLs, appear in search results, can use the content builder, and are what visitors actually navigate to. A business listing, an event, a blog post, a destination guide- these are all entries. Entries tend to be rich, detailed, and standalone.
Categories
Categories are labels used to organise and filter entries. They sit behind the scenes, tagging entries so they can be grouped and surfaced correctly on listing pages and in search filters. A category might be an accommodation type (Hotel, B&B, Camping), an activity type (Walking, Cycling, Water Sports), or a region.
Categories have a title and a slug, and can optionally have their own fields if additional information needs to be stored against them. But they are not standalone pages that visitors navigate to in the same way entries are.
When to use each
If you are creating something a visitor will read or interact with- a listing, an article, a page- it should be an entry. If you are creating a label used to organise or filter entries, it should be a category. If you create a category and expect it to immediately appear as a navigable page on the site, see the separate article on that topic.
Entries
Entries are the primary content objects on your site. They have their own URLs, appear in search results, can use the content builder, and are what visitors actually navigate to. A business listing, an event, a blog post, a destination guide- these are all entries. Entries tend to be rich, detailed, and standalone.
Categories
Categories are labels used to organise and filter entries. They sit behind the scenes, tagging entries so they can be grouped and surfaced correctly on listing pages and in search filters. A category might be an accommodation type (Hotel, B&B, Camping), an activity type (Walking, Cycling, Water Sports), or a region.
Categories have a title and a slug, and can optionally have their own fields if additional information needs to be stored against them. But they are not standalone pages that visitors navigate to in the same way entries are.
When to use each
If you are creating something a visitor will read or interact with- a listing, an article, a page- it should be an entry. If you are creating a label used to organise or filter entries, it should be a category. If you create a category and expect it to immediately appear as a navigable page on the site, see the separate article on that topic.