Tag Sections
Home Tag Sections are automatic, tag-based content blocks that appear on the Crimson homepage.
Instead of manually building homepage sections, you simply provide a list of tag slugs, and Crimson will:
Read your tag slug list from theme settings
Fetch those tags
Render one “Tag Section” per tag
Show up to 4 posts for each tag
Use the same layout style across all Tag Sections (you choose the layout once)
This is the feature that makes Crimson feel like a true “magazine homepage” where each topic/category becomes a repeatable shelf.
What a Home Tag Section contains
Each Tag Section typically includes:
A section header (the tag name/title)
Up to 4 post cards from that tag
A consistent layout style (set once via theme settings)
If a tag has fewer than 4 published posts, Crimson will show fewer cards and the section may look shorter. That’s normal behavior.
Custom Settings
Go to: Settings → Design & branding → Homepage group (Labels may vary slightly by Ghost version)
1) Tag slugs to show on home
Purpose: Controls which Tag Sections appear on the homepage, and in what order.
Type: Text field (comma-separated list)
What to enter: Enter tag slugs (not tag names), separated by commas.
Example: news,design,opinion
Empty value behavior
If this field is empty:
No Home Tag Sections will be shown
No “in-between” injected blocks will appear (because the tag section list is not running)
Important notes (read this carefully)
A) Use slugs only (not display names)
Tag name:
Cloud SecurityTag slug:
cloud-security
B) Order matters
Crimson displays Tag Sections in the exact order you provide.
Example: guides,news,opinion
…will render:
Guides section
News section
Opinion section
C) Avoid spaces (best practice)
Depending on how the theme parses the list, spaces can cause mistakes.
If you already added spaces and the wrong tags show, remove spaces, save again, and hard refresh.
2) Home tag section layout
Purpose:
Controls the visual layout used for every Tag Section on the homepage.
This is a global choice:
You select one layout
Crimson applies it to all tag sections
Option A) One row with 4 post cards (1|1|1|1)
Live demo: https://crimson.themeupstudio.com/home-tag-layout-row/
What it looks like:
4 equal cards in a single row (responsive grid)
Best for:
Balanced browsing
“Category shelf” style discovery
Sites where all posts in a tag are equally important
Option B) Two columns with 4 post cards (1|3) — default
What it looks like:
1 prominent “hero” card
3 smaller supporting cards
Best for:
Most magazine/blog use cases
Highlighting one key story per tag/topic
A strong editorial look without manual curation
Option C) Two rows with 4 post cards (2|2)
What it looks like:
2 cards per row
Total 4 cards with consistent sizing
Best for:
Image-forward sites
More breathing room between cards
Consistent card sizes across the section
Content behavior across all layouts
No matter which layout you choose:
Each Tag Section shows up to 4 posts
Posts are pulled from that tag’s published posts
If fewer than 4 posts exist, fewer cards show
Automatic “in-between sections” behavior
When Home Tag Sections are enabled (meaning tag_slugs_to_show_on_home has values), Crimson automatically injects additional blocks at specific positions in the tag-section flow.
These blocks don’t require extra toggles in the settings — they appear based on the Tag Section index.
Inserted blocks and positions
After the 1st Tag Section
✅ Editor’s Choice block is inserted
This is the same Editor’s Choice section driven by internal tag
#editors-choice.If no posts are tagged, Editor’s Choice remains hidden (as documented).
At the 2nd Tag Section position
✅ Categories block is inserted
This is the “Top Categories” block that shows tag cards (commonly top 4 tags by post count).
At the 4th Tag Section position
✅ Subscribe form may be inserted — only if Members is enabled
This subscribe form only appears if Ghost Members is enabled on your site.
If you have fewer than 4 tag sections, you may never reach this insertion point.
Best practices
1) Choose tags with enough posts
For best appearance:
Each tag should have at least 4 published posts
Otherwise sections will look short/empty
2) Keep the number of sections reasonable
Recommended:
5 to 8 tag sections
Why:
Better readability
Better performance (less content rendered at once)
Less “endless scroll” fatigue
3) Put your most important tag first
Because order matters, decide what visitors should see first.
4) Avoid whitespace in the slug list
Use: news,design,opinion
Not: news, design, opinion
5) Curate your taxonomy
If you want Top Categories to feel meaningful:
avoid creating too many one-off tags
consolidate similar tags
keep a clean set of “core” categories
Troubleshooting
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