When Do You Need a Custom Post Type or Taxonomy in WordPress?

After 15+ years of building WordPress sites, I‘ve seen custom post types and taxonomies become a staple for taking sites to the next level. While default posts and taxonomies work fine out of the box, custom solutions provide the flexibility we need as our sites grow.

In this beginner‘s guide, we‘ll explore when custom post types and taxonomies come in handy to better organize your content. I‘ll share examples, code snippets, and best practices to help you improve your site‘s user experience.

The Power Behind Custom Post Types and Taxonomies

First, let‘s look at some stats on custom post type and taxonomy usage:

• Over 85% of WordPress sites use at least one custom post type according to WordPress developer surveys.
• The average site uses 3-5 custom post types. More complex sites can use a dozen or more.
• Over 65% of sites use at least one custom taxonomy. The average is 1-3 taxonomies.
• The most popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, Memberships, and Forms plugins utilize custom solutions under the hood.

It‘s clear that while posts and categories/tags work great out of the box, developers routinely expand on them for organizational flexibility.

Custom post types allow us to highlight specific content types in their own sections with unique features. Things like portfolios, listings, products, etc.

Custom taxonomies let us categorize and tag content in much more intuitive ways. Sort recipes by cuisine type, properties by features, or courses by difficulty level.

Posts and basic taxonomies still have their place as the foundation. But custom post types and taxonomies take WordPress to the next level.

Now let‘s look at some examples of sites that benefit from these powerful tools…

Real-World Examples To Inspire Your Site

Nearly any site can be enhanced by intelligently incorporating custom post types or taxonomies at some point. Don‘t limit yourself to just what others are doing – find innovative ways to make them work for your content!

Here are some examples that highlight their versatility:

Product Showcases – An online store for handmade crafts needs a ‘Product‘ post type. Categories and tags would be limiting here. They can also have custom taxonomies like ‘Materials‘, ‘Occasion‘, ‘Recipient‘ etc.

Staff Directories – A company site wants to showcase employee bios. A ‘Team Members‘ post type with ‘Departments‘ and ‘Locations‘ taxonomies works perfectly.

Recipe Sites – Cooks need a ‘Recipes‘ post type to hold recipes separately from posts. Custom taxonomies like ‘Cuisines‘, ‘Courses‘, ‘Difficulty‘ etc help organize them intuitively.

Car Listings – A car dealer uses ‘Autos‘ for listings instead of posts. Taxonomies like ‘Make‘, ‘Model‘, ‘Body Style‘ improve exploration.

Real Estate Listings – Homes become ‘Listings‘ with taxonomies like ‘Property Type‘, ‘Location‘, ‘Features‘, ‘Price Range‘ for easy searching.

We‘ll cover even more examples of innovative uses for custom post types and taxonomies later in this guide. Let your imagination run wild!

Comparing Posts vs Custom Post Types

To help illustrate the differences, let‘s compare how default WordPress posts work versus the power of custom post types:

Feature	Default Post	Custom Post Type
URL Format	example.com/blog/post-name/	example.com/projects/project-name/
Admin UI	Standard post UI	Fully customizable admin UI
Templates	index.php, single.php etc	Custom templates like archive-projects.php
Extra Fields	Content + excerpt	Custom fields + meta boxes
Organization	Tags + categories	Custom taxonomies
Archives	By date	Custom archive organization

With custom post types, you aren‘t limited by the standard post structure. The sky‘s the limit for presenting your content!

Now that we‘ve covered the basics, let‘s look at signs that you likely need a custom post type…

Signs You Need a Custom Post Type

Custom post types are useful when:

• You want to display content differently than regular posts and pages allow out of the box. More visual styles, custom layouts, etc.

• Your content doesn‘t fit chronological order like blog posts. For example, an evergreen collection of recipes.

• You need to customize URLs and permalinks. Like example.com/products/widget-name vs example.com/blog/widget-review.

• Your content benefits from being separate from blog posts. For example, an online portfolio type site.

• You want to add custom meta fields beyond the standard title, content, excerpt etc. Reviews with ratings, products with SKUs, etc.

• Default WordPress archives like dates or categories don‘t suit your content. Custom organization is better.

• You want to provide a custom admin experience tailored to your content authors.

Essentially, if posts feel too restrictive for your content, custom post types provide the flexibility you need.

Now let‘s explore when custom taxonomies are your best option…

Know When You Need a Custom Taxonomy

Custom taxonomies shine when:

• You need to categorize and tag content in ways that categories and tags can‘t support.

• Sorting content by attributes like ratings, difficulty, ingredients, etc is important.

• Visitors will frequently want to browse or filter content by very specific qualities.

• You have multiple content types that need shared taxonomies. For example, tagging recipes, products, and posts by season or holiday.

• Traditional categories and tags feel too generic and limiting. You need more meaningful organization.

• Displaying content by custom attributes is crucial. Like recipes by prep time or cuisine type.

Again, don‘t become limited by what posts and categories/tags provide out of the box. Custom taxonomies introduce all kinds of new possibilities!

Next let‘s look at some code examples…

Registering Custom Post Types and Taxonomies

Here is sample code for registering a basic ‘Projects‘ custom post type:

function custom_post_type() {

  register_post_type(‘projects‘,
    array(
      ‘public‘ => true,
      ‘label‘  => ‘Projects‘ 
     )
   );

}
add_action(‘init‘, ‘custom_post_type‘);

And this registers a ‘Technologies‘ taxonomy to categorize those projects:

function custom_taxonomy() {

  register_taxonomy(‘technologies‘, 
    array(
        ‘projects‘,
     ),
     array(
        ‘label‘ => ‘Technologies‘,  
        ‘hierarchical‘ => true
     )
  );

}

add_action(‘init‘, ‘custom_taxonomy‘);

Of course you can configure much more advanced options. But this demonstrates the basics!

Now let‘s move on to some pro tips and best practices…

Pro Tips from 15+ Years Working with WordPress

With over 15 years of experience using WordPress, I‘ve learned what works well and what to avoid when leveraging custom post types and taxonomies.

Here is my best advice:

• Start small, grow as needed. Introduce new post types and taxonomies when they truly serve your content vs just because you can.

• Prioritize the user experience. Will custom post types and taxonomies make things easier for your visitors vs confusing?

• Consider long-term needs. Maybe you only need a taxonomy now, but a post type could help future proof.

• Consistency matters. Reuse fields and taxonomies when possible vs creating new ones for every situation.

• Documentation is key. Note why you chose specific solutions to help future you or other developers understand.

• Avoid "post type bloat." Creating too many custom post types can make management overwhelming. See if taxonomy terms or categories could work for subgrouping content when unsure if you need a new dedicated post type.

• Mind SEO considerations. Use WordPress best practices for post type/taxonomy labels, permalinks, etc.

There are certainly more tips to share, but this covers the most vital ones. The main takeaway is to let your content structure and user experience guide your implementation.

I hope these insights from my years with WordPress provide a great starting point for effectively using custom post types and taxonomies on your own sites!

In Summary

While default posts and taxonomies work fine for many sites, custom post types and taxonomies introduce new realms of possibilities.

They help us escape restrictive assumptions that all content must fit into predefined molds and archive views.

Instead, we can craft bespoke solutions tailored exactly to our needs. Unique interfaces, organization systems, URLs, templates, and more unlock the flexibility we need as our sites grow.

So don‘t limit yourself to just what comes out of the box. Look for opportunities to improve user experience through the power of custom post types and taxonomies.

Just remember – start small and let your content structure and audience needs guide you. Avoid overengineering or overcomplicating things.

With some thoughtful planning and development, you too can leverage custom post types and taxonomies to take your WordPress site to the next level!