Apr 23, 2024 1 min read

Using Tags vs Topic Pages in Digital Garden Running on Ghost

As an alternative to native Ghost Blog tags in my Digital Garden I currently use topic pages.

Not without automation, but they used to be plain posts/pages that were linked to other pages of the related topics via direct links (out-links) and backlinks.

Ghost Tag Pros

Tagged posts show up on the Tag page automatically
Tag is clear for everyone
The tag page looks kinda nice with its posts list
Allows to seamlessly integrate the digital garden into the blog

Ghost Tag Cons

My current theme only shows a primary tag on the post page which limits navigation capabilities. For that reason, it won't work well with densely liked notes.
The "Related posts" section is also limited
Tags are searchable. Too many tags would overflow search results.

Topic Page Pros

Matches Zettelkasten note structure
Allows to add additional context for the topic or seamlessly turn the topic page into an outline.
Using tags only for the "blog" allows me to keep the digital garden separately from the blog itself.

Topic Page Cons

The topic page needs to be re-published every time so that backlinks would pull in
The plain text list of backlinks doesn't look as good as the native "related posts" section.

In general, topic Pages make more sense on the "backend" of the Zettelkasten. From the user's perspective it makes very little difference: Blog vs Digital Garden From User's Perspective. Nevertheless, tags and tag pages look much better.

I've been considering replacing them with plain old good tag pages and tags, like this: iOS App Development - Kazai Storyboard

Finally, I've developed a better alternative that takes the best from both worlds: "Topic Page" and "Ghost Tag Page" and almost doesn't have any downsides: Using Private Tags for Digital Garden Backlinks in a Ghost Blog