Ghost Primary Tags: The Hidden Feature That Controls Everything

Primary tags in Ghost are critical for site structure, control URL routing, determine template selection, and define content relationships. Yet they're completely hidden from view.

What Are Primary Tags Anyway?

In Ghost, every post can have multiple tags. But the FIRST tag in the list is special—it's the "primary tag." This innocent-looking feature controls your URL structure, template selection, and navigation logic.

The Visibility Problem

Here's the kicker: You CANNOT see primary tags in Ghost's admin interface without clicking into each individual post.

Task: Find all posts with "News" as primary tag
In Ghost: Click every. Single. Post.
Time: 2-3 hours for 500 posts

Real-World Primary Tag Disasters

"We migrated 2,000 posts from WordPress. Didn't realize primary tags were scrambled until the client called screaming about broken URLs. Took 3 days to fix manually."

— Anonymous Developer

"Changed tag order for 'organization.' Didn't realize it changed 500 URLs. Lost 60% organic traffic overnight. Google saw it as a site restructure."

— Marketing Manager, Tech Publication

The Business Impact

• 5 minutes per post to check/fix primary tags
• 500 posts = 41 hours
• Quarterly audit = 164 hours/year
• Cost: €8,200 annually (at €50/hour)

Imagine if you could see all primary tags at a glance, filter by primary tag instantly, bulk update primary tags safely, and track primary tag changes. This isn't rocket science. It's basic content management.