Model your taxonomies the right way

Choose the taxonomy approach that works for you

You can create taxonomies in Kontent.ai using either the built-in taxonomies or linked items. The approach to choose depends on your requirements.

Requirement	Built-in taxonomies	Linked items
Build a sitemap	✅	✅
Control who can edit the terms without access to the content model	❌	✅
Enhance terms with contextual details like scope and definition	❌	✅
Find assets and content items by a term	✅	❌
Limit the number of terms to a range	✅	✅
Limit the number of terms to exactly one	✅	✅
Tag assets with a term	✅	❌
Tag content items with a term	✅	✅
Set the taxonomy terms as non-localizable	✅	✅
Use a flat hierarchy (terms on the same level)	✅	✅
Use a nested hierarchy (terms on different levels)	✅	❌
Localize terms	❌	✅

Built-in taxonomies for flexibility and findability

The built-in taxonomy groups are the most intuitive and easiest approach to implementing taxonomies in Kontent.ai. The benefits? You can tag items and assets, find the items and assets by your tags, and create complex nested taxonomies. It takes three things: taxonomy group, taxonomy element in your content types, and tagging your content items. See the article about built-in taxonomies for more details on how to create it.

In the following video, Jake Kula, our Presales Engineer, will go over taxonomies and how to use them.

Linked items for permissions and added context

If you need to add extra contextual details to your taxonomies, let content creators update them, or localize the terms, you need to implement your taxonomy using linked items. It takes a few things: a content type that defines your taxonomy, content items based on the type that define the taxonomy terms, and linked items elements in the items you want to tag. Let’s take a look at an example of a taxonomy for tagging educational content.

1. Create a content type for the taxonomy

In Content model, click Create new.
In Content type name, type a name such as Humanities.
(Optional) Add guidelines elements to explain the taxonomy and tell content creators how to use it correctly.
(Optional) Add a rich text element so that content creators can include information about taxonomy definition and scope.
Click Save changes.

Time to create content items based on the new content type. These items will define your taxonomy terms.

2. Create content items for taxonomy terms

In Content & assets, click Create new in the upper right corner.
Select a content type such as Humanities created earlier.
Click Create.
In Content item name, type the name of the item, such as Philosophy.
(Optional) Add details about the term you just defined.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 as needed.

3. Add linked items element for linking the terms

Make a list of the types of content you want to tag. Then follow these steps for each type:

In Content model, open a content type such as Article.
Add a linked items element.
1. Give the element a name, such as Subject.
2. Limit the element to the types of content used for tagging, such as Humanities.
3. (Optional) If you want to limit the number of terms to select, limit the number of allowed linked items.
Click Save changes.

Now you can start tagging your articles. Open each content item and link the item with the appropriate term in the Subject element.