Best Practices for Using Tags in WordPress

Introduction:

Search engines like Google are constantly improving their algorithms to improve the quality of search engine optimization (SEO)

Due to this reason tags come into picture of being an important part to help in search engine optimization. They are actually quiet simple, if done correctly they can be very effective in increasing user experience. However, incorrect use of the same makes them hamper the user engagement directly.

Bloggers may prefer to avoid using tags thinking that there is no benefit of it. However it usually happens if the tags are used without prior thought or planning. Tags may not make a very huge difference but when used correctly they can certainly add extra points to the optimization of your site.

You should consider to implement tagging on your WordPress site and therefore we have mentioned certain points for you to understand, how can they be of best use to you.

What are tags exactly?

To understand tags let us consider an example. Most of any good non fiction book has one thing common in it, which is the table of contents. This basically is there to give the reader an idea of what is covered inside the book and how the contents are placed. The table of contents can be related to the blog categories.

Now at the end of the same book, it can be seen that there are words or phrases from the book called index. The index displays the page numbers where those words and phrases are used and also providing their meanings at the same time. Helping us to quickly locate those words at their respective places.

Tags Represent Website’s Index

Tags help in picking specific details about your posts and creating a simple ways to sort the content by that piece of information.

Let’s say you have a blog on food. The different kinds of food that you discuss on your website would be your categories: Non-veg, Vegetarian, Desserts etc. These are the various topics that you are going to be talking about on your website. Therefore let’s say your post talks about Cakes and Desserts and your reader is interested to read more posts about this food category. Hence they could go to the cakes and desserts category and look for all the posts relating about them, or another way is to link the words cakes and desserts to every other blog that you have written about cakes and desserts.

Tagging creates a useful way of navigating around your blog posts and hence becomes a great way to increase user engagement.

How can Tags be used effectively?

There are certain things to note before we begin the understanding, how to use the tags effectively?

• Short and Sweet Tags – Tags that we use should be short and not contain more than two or three words. The Tags are meant to represent important details contained in the post so they take us back to the most relevant posts of the website.

• Style of  Creating a Tag – For example “cakes and desserts” and “Cakes and Desserts” are two separate tags. If using the title case tag on some posts and the lower case tag on others, the posts does not get linked together. Making sure to use the same style of Tags consistently to avoid any adverse effect of the Tags.

• Not to be overused – Do not use same Tags more than two or three times in your website. It is irrelevant as well as unnecessary.
• Do not Use General Tags – The tags that are too general and will not offer any benefit to your website navigation.
• Ask a Question – Asking a questions about would the Tag be interesting for a visitor on your website to click on, this should be able to guide you how you can create interesting Tags.

Manage Your Tags Effectively

It is quite easy to make mistakes while Tagging something on your website. Hence there are few important steps to note in order to make sure the Tags are maintained well as well as used effectively.

Some of the tasks required to maintain a healthy Tagging on your website:

• Making sure the Tags are formatted correctly
• Remove all duplicate tags, they spoil user engagement
• Check each post thoroughly so that they are all Tagged correctly

Keeping a regular check on all the above mentioned tasks will help save time as well as improve your website ranking. Tag maintenance should be an ongoing task as the content on your website should appear relevant and fresh to the search engines at all times.

With the help of the above article we have understood the meaning and importance of Tags. They sure play an important role in increasing your sites ranking, which in turn helps you in making your website Profitable. Please share your views and comments with us, to let us know how have you made use of Tags in WordPress site.