Apr 23, 2024 Last updated May 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.

Topic Page is note dedicated to a single topic which acts like a node for relevant content and links to other notes. The problem is how to manage these links and keep them up to date.

I used to automate it the following way: when Topic Page was published all the outcoming [[Double Bracket]] links were replaced with urls. Backlinks were inserted right into the topic page body.

Here is breakdown of pros and cons of doing that.

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.

I wasn't 100% happy with how my topic pages and developed a better alternative that takes the best from both "Topic Page" and "Ghost Tag Page" and almost doesn't have any downsides: Using Private Tags for Digital Garden Backlinks in a Ghost Blog