No, it’s not about tagging photos on Facebook, silly. If you need to let the world know that you are there and ready to conquer the online world via your WordPress website, tags are going to be your best friends.
Tags will help you in getting your word out there and making it relevant for like-minded folks who are looking for information on the same topic. With tags, it would be easier for search engines to process your blog post and summon it from millions of pages on the internet.
How do tags do it? How do you use tags properly and use them to optimize your websites? Read on and we will learn more about tags.
What are WordPress tags?
Okay, let us get things straight. Both Categories and Tags are useful in promoting your blog. But Category is used for broader topics while Tags are used for specific ones.
For example, you have a general sports website and would want to write everything about the universe of sports. The Category would encompass different kinds of sports.
These could be articles like basketball championships, football players, surfing, football cup schedules, tennis matches, etc.
If one of your followers decide to read one of your articles about running and want to read more, a “running” tag would be helpful.
This locates other articles that you’ve written. It can locate articles about running regimens, famous runners, and even running complications.
Here’s a thought: if you want to locate a particular kid you recognized from a group of children who threw eggs at your house – look for Category Mom and you may find Tag Son.
If you locate Tag Son, you can now find the other Tag Egg Throwers.
Would tags improve navigation on my page?
If used correctly, yes it will definitely work. To know more about properly using tags to make them work for you, read on. We will take a closer look at each of the factors that makes tags an advantage for your blog.
Are you required to use tags?
Use of tags is not required but if you want to stay afloat in the sea of web pages, it is wise to do so. There are alternative ways of navigation for your reader on pages, for sure.
There are search toolbars, table of contents on the side so they can do it manually. Using tags is not really harmful and will not take too much of your time to maintain it so there’s not that much of a downside.
Leveraging Tags for Your WordPress Site
Now, if you are planning to put up your WordPress or you already have one, it’s never too late to use tags. It is about time you utilize the WordPress platform for your own good.
Here are some reminders on how to use tags efficiently to bring your blog to life.
Don’t Double Tag
First, do not double tag. Categories should be different from Tags on your blog. Stick to specific keywords for Tags as well as Categories.
Double tagging means using the same keyword on both the Category and the Tag resulting to duplicate content.
Duplicate content confuses search engines because there are two URLs for single content resulting to not indexing either of the two copies. This is not going to be good for your blog because this means less traffic.
The Shorter, The Better
Use short tags. Do not use long tags consisting of phrases or even sentences because that will not help your blog at all. Use single words, maximum of two words as tags.
When people use search engines they don’t really ask the search bar using two complete sentences unless you’re my grandma.
For example, you want to tag an article you wrote about packing things then bringing your cute dog to the beach. Relevant tags would be “dog” “beach” “pack”.
Search engines could easily look for your article and your future readers could read more articles you wrote about dogs, jogging or going to the beach.
It would be useless to use tags such as “cute”, “adorable”, “huggable”, “beach bum”, or even “buddy and things” no matter how much you want to.
Use Tags in Multiple Pages
Third, use the tags you have decided to use in your blog in several pages. Do not just use the “dog” tag in a single article. This would be irrelevant and not contribute to bringing traffic into your blog.
To use particular tags, use it in no less than two to three articles. If you used the tags “dog” “beach” in your first article, you may use it again. ‘
Use them in articles that talk about what to do with your dog while in the beach, or safety reminders when you’re in the beach with your dog. It’s a matter of creativity and consistency to cause traffic in your blog.
If you just keep newly put tags stagnant and not use them again, you will just end up with a pile of irrelevant tags. Besides, who doesn’t love dogs and beaches?
Be Consistent
Lastly— consistency. Commitment is a big word for me so I’d just stick with consistency. If you can’t commit to your dog, using tags might be a little challenging for you.
If you decide to use tags, you should keep on doing it and not stop unless you’re putting down your blog. This is not something that you have not pictured so might as well stick to using tags.
Before releasing your articles into the jungle of web pages, make sure to equip it with tags. Link them to your previous articles or if you decide to use new ones, make sure to include them in your next related articles.
If you’re too excited to publish a post and forgot to include tags, make sure to update as soon as possible. Add relevant tags. Make a rundown of your tags once in a while to monitor which ones you frequently use and those that are not important anymore.
How to Include Tags in Your WordPress Blog
Do roads have more traffic than your blog? Is your blog ready to move into the suburbs because it might eventually have to settle down? It is possible that you are not maximizing the tools provided by WordPress, such as tags.
Maybe you should start using tags and create a bustling community on your site. What are these tags and can they help you crawl out of your internet suburban nightmare?
Tags function as the sub-topics stemming out from Categories.
Let’s say you are maintaining a lifestyle blog and one of your categories is traveling.
Under traveling you may use tags pertaining to places you have traveled or want to travel to. You may use “Asia”, “Europe”, or even “Antarctica” if you dream about going there.
If one of your followers happens to be a fond traveler, it would be easier for him or her to find articles in your blog. If you have posts on Antarctica, they would be easily found through tags. How does this affect you? Simple. You will have more readers.
How, you ask?
Tags fuse all relevant materials and make it easier for your loyal followers locate them.
Tags can be very helpful in creating traffic for your blog if used appropriately. One thing to remember is to not double tag because this will cause content duplicates which puzzle search engines.
Another thing to know is that these tags are supposed to be short – one to two words are enough. You also use tags in more than one post so there’s something relevant to link to.
And these tags should be used religiously and should not be forgotten whenever publishing a new post. It takes consistent effort for the blog to create traffic and be indexed by a particular search engine.
The Basics
Here are the following steps to follow when putting tags on your WordPress site:
First you should be working on your blog before putting a tag.
Log-in to your account on WordPress to start working. If you don’t consider yourself a blogger and you don’t have an account yet, go to their homepage and sign your way up into the world of blogging. This would be an easy process to follow on you are on their website already.
If you are already there on the page, take a look on the left side of the tool bar at the upper part of your blog and go to “My Account”. This will lead you to your account.
One the left side of the page there are other pages you can view and customize. The buttons for pages, categories and tags are there but click on the “post” button first.
This will lead you to a choice of a new post and the list of your previous posts.
You may now continue to the list of your past posts. You may select which article or post you want to edit.
After clicking on a certain post, you will proceed to a new page that allows you to edit this post.
If you scroll, you will see a box labeled Tags on the right side of the screen.
This is the important part. Upon finding the box, you may now post tags related to the post. Remember all the pointers when using tags.
If your post is a rant about animal cruelty then you may use tags such as “animals”, “pets”, “cruelty” etc. After putting all your desired tags on your posts, click the add button. This will automatically link your post to other articles you have written before.
If you want your post to rise above the rest you may also opt to choose from the most used tags link just below the Tag box.
This will let you ride the wave of popularity of these other tags. If people decide to read on about these popular tags, they may be able to encounter your post along the way.
• To know your current tags, head on to your dashboard and check out the dropdown menu next to the word “Posts”.
You will find the “View Tags” link on this Menu. Upon checking this link, you will have overview of all your tags and you’ll see which of these tags are more popular –
This determines which of these tags on articles are frequently viewed by your blog readers.
After getting it on for a while and getting used to using a batch of tags relevant to your posts, a cloud of tags will display which of these are popular. There are plenty of WordPress themes than even show these tags literally on a cloud.
How to Manage Tags
It is not really that stressful maintaining an effective batch of tags. Take time every once in a while to check the format of your tags on your posts to make sure they are uniform with each other.
Remove duplicate tags. Having duplicate tags will confuse search engines. In effect, they might lessen your chances of getting more traffic.
If you do not do this every once in a while there is a chance you will end up with a stack of useless tags that would lead nowhere near your posts.
It is not a requirement to have tags on your website. It is optional but once you opt to do it, it is crucial for you to maintain it. If not maintained well, there is a chance this might work against your advantage.
But if you follow the rules and maintain the organization of your tags, this will help slowly build traffic for your site. If traffic is steady and constantly bringing in people more, your blog will be authoritative and more credible to your readers.
Using tags is just the beginning of a long-term engagement with a site. Pulling more readers in will get you out of your internet suburban nightmare into the busy internet city streets.
The Importance of WordPress Tags for Your Website
Bloggers know the importance of utilizing Categories and Tags. Aside from advertising and promoting their website, these Categories and Tags help them get traffic.
On WordPress, it isn’t difficult to maintain an efficient routine for tags to workout. If you use tags well, this will create traffic for your website and build its credibility in time. But, one does not just use words according to their interest or what may sound interesting.
You should always take note not to double tag under categories and tags. This will confuse the search engines but will still show the original post. Having one single tag creates a more efficient navigation. There are better techniques on how to operate these already effective tags.
You should be able to determine the difference between Categories and Tags first. When you open a book, the first thing you’ll see aside from the title is the table of contents.
The table of contents for your website would be the Categories page. And remember when you flip your book and check the back, you’ll see the index page.
The index page shows keywords or ideas and in which part of the book they can be found. The index will be your tags. This locates pages or articles on your website.
Take note that tags, although still independent, are subheadings of categories. If you are maintaining a blog that talks about relationships, your categories could be family.
One of your tags for this would be “rivalry”. People will likely search terms who want to know more about those topics.
Linking Tags to Each Other
If your website deals with broad topics such as “relationships” for example, you can always interlink categories and tags.
Link them if they supply each article with extra information. Say you are reading an article about how happy it is to live with a big family, you can always link other related articles.
It is always chaotic yet fun to live with lots of siblings, but sibling rivalry cannot be avoided.
Assuming the bold part is a link, this will lead the reader to an article in your website that highlights sibling rivalry.
You can also link categories to tags to lead the reader onto a broader topic that he or she may want to explore more.
Let’s say an article you are writing about tackles about weddings and you want to direct the reader to an array of your other articles:
Basically, you should not stress yourself out during your wedding day. This is only the beginning. If you want to know more what happens your magical day, read more about married life.
The only downside of interlinking these similar pages is that these are the only topics that may appear on search engines.
Custom Taxonomies
If you have already an established organization of categories and tags on your websites, you may create a custom taxonomy.
Having custom taxonomy creates a head topic for the sub-topics that are no longer index in categories and tags. There are different ways of integrating this with your website. You can code this in your website blog or if you are not into coding, you may install WordPress plugins.
Your website probably tackles about family, love life, and friends. If you want to create more categories, you may want to create custom taxonomies.
You can mix together articles about long-distance relationships that will encompass family, love life, and friends. These are all separate categories but can be filed under long-distance relationships.
SEO Optimization
One of the best ways to create more traffic for your website is optimizing it using SEO. This helps the website look relevant and useful for the readers. One way to do this is to install the plugin SEO by Yoast.
After installing you navigate the button below the Dashboard which leads you to Titles &Metas, after opening this, remember to click the “noindex” checkbox.
In the Taxonomies tab, make sure to set the guidelines as to what should be done for every taxonomy category whether they should be indexed or just simply followed.
The goal after this is to appear at least on the first page of search engine results. It is important to click “noindex” so search engines such as Google or Yahoo! will not index these custom taxonomy subpages.
Display the Tags
Displaying the tags shows how which topics or sub-topics are more popular for your readers. One example is downloading the Tag Cloud widget that shows the subtopics literally on a cloud. The more popular the topic is, the bigger the word will be displayed on the cloud.
One can also use a whole separate page in displaying web page links. In this particular page, one can find chronological links of the articles. This will be helpful in looking for articles in a particular timeline.
You can also archive your web page content by category. This may seem too general, but at least the readers know where to look. Lastly, organize the topics by tag.
This is very similar to organizing topics by Tag Cloud. All tags will be displayed in ascending, descending order, or no particular order depending on your preference.
There are plenty of ways to utilize the benefits of tags. We may want to be read all over the world or reach a particular market, recognizing the use of tags would be very helpful.
Keep in mind to keep tags short and simple so they can be easily indexed. Always remember to not stack up on unused tags. Keep on using and promoting old tags because this can be very useful in linking one page to the other.
Using tags is a long-term project and will work on your advantage if used suitably. These are only techniques for you appear on search engines, but the key is still writing relevant and informative posts.
So Let’s Talk About Tips and Tricks in Using WordPress Tags
Have you been using WordPress for a while now but still not a celebrity blogger? How come your favorite style, food, and travel bloggers get thousands of view and you only get two? Have you been attracting flies instead of people to your blog?
Worry not because there are possibly millions of you out there in the blogging community wondering about the same thing.
Take note of these few reminders. In no time, you’ll be on your way fulfilling your celebrity blogger dreams and be the one to be blogged about.
Categories and Tags
Before creating categories and tags out of the blue, it is important for you to be familiar with their functions first.
Categories and Tags also determine who your readers will be and what topics they will immerse themselves. They have integral roles in navigating your site. It is important if you know how to use them effectively.
Refresh yourself as to where they are located on WordPress if you have not tried using categories and tags before. If look at your WordPress sidebar, these can be found under the Posts link.
If you have used Categories before, you will be able to see other ones posted there waiting to be checked. The same goes with Tags, but you cannot see previously used ones unless you click the hyperlink leading you to the list of most used tags.
You can find them already. Using them is not very difficult because what you need to know is shown there already. You should not use Categories and Tags carelessly.
Both are equally essential and one is not more important than the other. Use them sparingly but wisely to create more traffic.
Defining Categories
Categories are helpful for the reader if they want to access your blog’s subjects. This will help them go around your website and let them discover what piques their interest.
An organized and interesting blog will encourage readers to go back again for recent materials.
Categories are not limited to one level only. It depends on how broad the general purpose of your blog is.
If your blog is about pets, you can have categories such as Dogs, Cats, Birds, Fish, etc. You can have sub-categories under them such as Labradors, Persian, Parrot, Goldfish, etc.
Try not to have too many categories at first and increase only when needed. This will avoid too much clutter on your blog. Having too many categories would result in mix-ups for your readers.
Categories help search engines become familiar with your blog’s content. It also allows these search engines to determine your blog’s structure.
It is important to stick to your blog’s category system because it serves as its backbone which can be very difficult to alter.
As much as possible, link a post to one category only because it’s linked to two or more, it would defeat the purpose of having categories in the first place.
Defining Tags
Tags are used in line with categories to create a more organized blog. Tags help your blog followers locate the next post with the same topic. Tags do not function in levels because their structure is flat.
Many tags can be used on a single post as long as it is relevant. A post about Taylor Swift’s latest single can have tags like “1989”, “swiftie”, “Taytay”, “bad blood” because these are all associated to the article.
Tags are more organic and have lesser strict rules compared to categories. You can decide what tag to use while writing or after writing the post. Keep in mind to only use tags you know you will use again or you’ll end up with a heap of unusable ones.
Categories and Tags: The Difference
Categories and Tags are almost similar but interchanging them would result to fewer readers. If not used correctly, it would cause confusion on your website and navigation would be difficult.
• Categories unite all posts with the same theme. Tags label these posts and give importance to the main points of the post.
• Categories have order and can still have categories under it. Tags are at the bottom of the ladder with no sub-categories.
• Both Categories and Tags could be found on archive pages. This will link all posts under Categories and Tags.
• In a website, a particular topic can have one to two categories but can have plenty of relevant tags.
• All posts are required to have one category, but having tags is optional.
These definitions may seem vague so here is a concrete example. If I manage a blog that talks about pets, in general, I will have a post like this: Teaching a Shih Tzu Tricks.
My blog discusses pets in general so my Categories for this post would be, Dogs. I can still put this under a sub-category for its breed like Shih Tzu.
It’s up to you how you categorize your website as long as its organized and can be navigated easily. Next are Tags. What tags should I put in? I could use “dogs”, “Shih Tzu” and “tricks”. This will then link my article to past ones with the same tags.
Importance of Categories and Tags
Blogs started as online diaries for people who probably preferred typing than writing using pen and paper. Our ancestors used diaries and journals to talk about their personal lives.
Early blogs are formatted this way and are organized chronologically. Categories and Tags would’ve helped people in the old days categorize their diary entries into topics about love life, war, travels, etc.
Categories and Tags are great ways to locate topics without having to go through how they were founded in the first place.
It is a different approach into fast-paced reading which is very appropriate for this generation.
Benefits on SEO
Using categories and tags wisely will likely bring in more SEO boost for your website. Engine crawlers on your blog could find its way into your contents and find out your blog’s content.
If your links are organized and followed by these crawlers, there’s a huge possibility that these crawlers will index these pages.
Your category names and tags will clue in the engine crawlers to what your website is about. Then finally it will search the posts for needed keywords.
If one of your posts becomes popular on authoritative websites, your categories and tags will link readers back to your blog. A huge possibility of creating more traffic will happen.
Using Categories Effectively
Now that we have defined categories, here are some ways to utilize its purpose.
Be careful on how you organize your website posts. It should be small at first and concentrated on several categories instead of going big immediately.
Re-organizing your categories will not be a breeze especially if they have already left their mark on the World Wide Web. Before coming up with a blog in the first place, make sure you already know what you want share into the world.
Now that you know what kinds of two cents you will share to the world, make sure that they are compartmentalized to one area of your brain.
It should be done so that when you publish it on your blog, categorizing would not be that hard.
Categorizing your posts into sub-categories will help in expanding your issues without going too far from your main purpose.
WordPress tolerates its users to have three levels of categories, at most. If you have sub-categories leave trails towards other posts so your readers know they are still in the same topic.
Choose category names that will be easily understood even by new visitors. Using clever puns or creative stints could be used on your title or blog post itself. This avoids misunderstandings.
Remember to capitalize these categories too because these are headings, not just words that suddenly appeared on your blog.
For the most of your posts, try to include it in just one category. Putting it in one makes it easier for readers to locate a certain post if they do not have the URL for it. If you want to include your post to several categories limit it to at least three.
Lastly, do not create a category that you have no plans of expanding in the near future. Only create ones you know you are able to fill out eventually. There’s no point in having a category with just a single post in it.
Using Tags Effectively
Use tags all the time for posts and make sure that it is relevant to you topic. Tags do not need to describe a post entirely.
It can just describe one part of your post. That will do as long as in the future, you will use it again.
As what I have mentioned earlier, using tags is not that strict compared to using categories. You can play around using tags and not use too serious terms as long these tags will still link on the post to the other.
You can use tags that can be effective on their own. If I use a tag “finance”, it will link immediately to posts that have been I have written about finance or even finance management. As long as it serves its purpose of linking several posts, it is okay it is okay to be creative.
Since tags are informal, using capital letters are not important anymore. This strict rule is applied only on categories but does not necessarily apply to tags.
It helps your readers identify the taxonomies used on your blog such as the difference between the categories and tags used.
Mind you that it is definitely okay to be creative in using. But make sure that if you create one use it again so that it may serve its purpose.
Use a tag at least two to three times so the reader will be linked to different posts that cover a similar topic.
If you are going to use a “summerfun” tag for your post, make sure to use it in related articles instead of just using only “summer” or using only “fun.
Do not use long tags you are never going to use again. Yes, it is fun for a spur in the moment posts. If it’s going to land on your archive page and not be used again, it is useless.
If you are going to use the tag “omgwinteriscomingtoanend”, make sure to use it yearly whenever summer is approaching.
Keep in mind that tags are not categories. Do not use category names of your blog as tags because there is not purpose in doing this. Categories cover broader ideas while tags should be more specific.
Do a monthly review of all your hashtags and check whether they have been useful or not. Remove it if you have only used it once. This will help in organizing the traffic that comes into your website.
Lastly, do not use tons of tags. If you like to play around using creative words, make sure that these will all link to each other.
Three to five tags on one post is good enough but if you are using twenty tags or so, make sure that they all connect to each other. If you are going to use tags, no matter how few or plenty always remember to use them consistently.
Final Thoughts
Using categories and tags can be very demanding. There are many Dos and Don’ts to follow but, in the long run, you will no longer be too conscious in using them.
It will come naturally like coming up with a creative relevant tag. It can be beneficial in the long run if maintained and used properly.
Keep in mind the differences and the basic structure on how these are used. These can be very helpful for someone’s blog for traffic and pulling in more followers who like to read on several articles about a particular topic.
Master the basic art of using categories and tag, and people will flock on your precious blog. Remember that interesting and valuable content is still important and these are just steps to help you accomplish your goal.
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