Taxonomy Best Practices

The Taxonomy Structure provides a vocabulary set for each of the default Content Types. Site-authors can create terms within each of the provided vocabulary sets.

Type Terms

Stanford Sites contain vocabulary sets for Events, News, Person, and Publication content types called type terms. Type terms are visible and interactive to end users through the default list page and node page except on Basic Page type.

Some examples of type terms include:

• Basic Page Type: Internship, Research, Resource
• News Type: Announcement, Blog, Press Release
• Event Type: Exhibition, Lecture, Workshop
• Person Type: Graduate Fellows, Faculty, Staff
• Publication Type: Book, Journal, Presentation

Basic Page Type

Use the Basic Page Type vocabulary set to create terms and categories to be used for any Basic Page. For example, create Research or Resource as a category within Basic Page Type and label any Basic Page as Research or Resource page. 

Basic Page Type terms are part of the Page Metadata and support content authors in curating a list of content. For example, use the List Paragraph to create a list of Basic Pages labeled with Basic Page Type terms. 

Note: Basic Pate Type terms are NOT interactive elements for end-users.

Shared Tags

Shared Tags are terms that can be applied to any piece of content on your site. Shared tags should be terms that are universal to a site’s content and/or the subject areas. For example, a site could tag a News, Event, Publication, and a Basic Page as “water” or “featured”. Another examples of Shared Tags can be: 

• Award
• Featured
• Subject terms like Environment, Water

Shared Tags only support content authors in curating and featuring related content. For example, use the List Paragraph to generate a list of all pages tagged as Featured or Water.

Note: Shared Tags NOT visible to end users.

A taxonomy structure — its functionality and usage — will be as good as your content structure!