A taxonomy is a hierarchical set of controlled vocabulary terms used to organize content and assets. It allows a site to be accurate, flexible, easily found, and easy to use. A good taxonomy has terms organized in a hierarchy, with each term being unique and in sync with site content and navigation. The taxonomy lives in the backend and is not seen by customers. It powers search, related content, and dynamic page generation. An example taxonomy hierarchy is provided for people terms like actors, musicians, and producers.

1. Taxonomy 101 – What and Why?

2. WHAT IS A TAXONOMY?
A taxonomy is a set of controlled words in a hierarchy.
NAVIGATION
TAGS
METADATA
It’s NOT navigation.
It’s NOT only a big group of tags.
It’s NOT metadata.
2

3. WHAT IS A GOOD TAXONOMY?
A strong taxonomy has four characteristics:
1
It’s organized into a hierarchy. This means the tags can have both parents and children.
2
Each tag is unique. It can have multiple parents, but each tag exists only once.
3
The taxonomy is in sync with (but usually does not mirror) all of a site’s content, including navigation,
products, and attributes.
4
The taxonomy is built and maintained in the back-end, and will talk to the content management
system. Your customers probably won’t see much of it!
3

4. WHY DO I NEED A TAXONOMY?
A taxonomy allows your site to be:
ACCURATE
FLEXIBLE
FOUND
EASY
The standardized nomenclature provides consistent labels for all your content and
assets across all formats.
Using a tagging system means that content can be dynamically generated across the
entire site – for example, topic pages can be created instantaneously and related
content is more accurately associated.
When a taxonomy is used to standardize copy and tag content, it means that your site
is more likely to have accurate search results, show higher in search rankings, and get
users what they want.
When the editorial and production staff has a clear sense of the content and how to
use it, they are more likely to maximize its potential!
4

5. NOW THAT’S A TAXONOMY!
PEOPLE
Actor
Musician
Producer
Designer
P. Diddy
has alias
Puff Daddy
has alias
Sean John
has alias
Sean Combs
has alias
Citizen Combs
has been involved with
Jennifer Lopez
has been involved with
Kim Porter
has child with
has worked with
has alias
JLo
Kim Porter
Mary J. Blige
5

6. TAXONOMY FYI
Taxonomy
is a tangled hierarchy of terms that lives in the back-end of a content management system/PCM/etc. – the base
taxonomy that powers the user-facing systems such as the primary navigation, faceted
navigation, search, merchandising, and related content. This is the most powerful and useful way to use a taxonomy
- taking a site’s navigation, putting it into an excel spreadsheet, and calling it a taxonomy isn’t useful or powerful.
Navigational Taxonomy (i.e. Navigation… be careful with this)
is meant to be user-facing, what most people would see as a website’s primary navigation; it is often synonymous
with the sitemap. However, the navigational interface is separate from the back-end taxonomy, and it can change at
any time – while the taxonomy driving it remains stable. It can be created from the back-end taxonomy if
appropriate (usually for product heavy sites), but it is not the actual taxonomy.
Faceted Taxonomy
lives in both worlds: sometimes they mirror the back-end taxonomy as is, and sometimes they are curated for a
custom interface. However, like the navigational taxonomy, the difference in definition is an important distinction: it
should be created from the taxonomy, but it in and of itself is not the taxonomy.
6

7. Dawn Bovasso
Manager, Content Strategy
dbovasso@sapient.com
© 2013 SAPIENT CORPORATION | CONFIDENTIAL