Tags: Help me with my tags.
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Any expert taggers out there? I want to get better at tagging. I have read the wordpress suggestions, but still feel a little unclear and not yet masterful about it. I would deeply appreciate a little hand- holding and more specific examples. Can someone check one or more of my blog posts (especially, the most recent one) and suggest tags to remove (and why) and add (and why), so I finally *get it*. A warm wonderful thanks to you all! :)
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Seriously? You’ve read the support documents? That surprises me, because you are clearly tag spamming. Delete tags until each post has no more than 15 tags and/or categories. It doesn’t matter what tags. Just do it. And don’t over-think tagging. Figure out what your post is about, and use those words as tags. That’s it.
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Thank you for your feedback. Just keep it a bit more “positive” and less condescending ;-)
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That was a bit harsh, and I love how you responded with absolute positivity!
To be honest, I don’t even see your tags. Did you delete them all?
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@inspiredearth
All reasons for non-appearance of posts on Topics pages can be found here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/topics/#missing-postsIf you have assigned a combined total that exceeds 15 Categories/Tags to your posts, you need to edit and delete. http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/edit-posts-screen/ After removal of the excess categories and/or tags note it may take several days for your posts to begin displaying there.
You are inadvertently spamdexing AKA tag spamming. And, you ought to be more concerned about your posts not appearing and being well ranked on Google and Bing SERPS (search results pages) than not appearing on the WordPress.com Topics pages because it’s search engines that send a significant flow of traffic to blogs and they can choose to bury your content where the sun don’t shine for tag spamming.
The rule of thumb is to assign the least, not the most, combined number of only relevant categories and tags that accurately describe the post content.
For tips on tagging see > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2013/03/15/quick-blog-post-tagging-tips/
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@inspiredearth
raincoaster delivered valuable advice without a drop of smarm:Figure out what your post is about, and use those words as tags. That’s it.
These days search engines pay more attention to your keywords in your content than they do to your keywords in Tags/Categories. The function categories/tags serve on your blog is to provide readers topical access to content located deeper in your blog than the front page. Successful blogs draw between 30 – 60 % of their incoming targeted readers from search engine referrals produced by keyword searches focused on what’s found in your content.
Keywords and keyword phrases naturally occur in any speech or writing and in every language.
“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results. Proper keyword use in blogging or any online writing means the terms are found in the natural flow of language. They are not superimposed or “stuffed” into text.
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@smdaymeansnever
Thanks so much! I was probably in the middle of editing them when you looked, so I am not “tag spamming”. To be more specific (where I am a bit confused), for example, in my blog post: http://inspiredearthconnection.com/2014/03/27/affordable-wood-furniture-choices/ which is about affordable, sustainable, wood furniture choices, would a good tag be “affordable sustainable wooden furniture choices” or is that too long? Do I break it up into a few sections like “choices” ,”wooden furniture” , “affordable” and “sustainable” ? -
@timethief
Thank you so much! Very helpful! Now that I got the rhythm and flow of my blog going, I am getting concerned with showing up in search engines, SERP and wanting to learn/understand all you mentioned. The tagging part confused me. My specific questions are in the response right above this one @smdaymeansnever. I would be grateful for your feedback on that.Your second is especially helpful and clarifying. THANK YOU! I ma going to look more into how tags/categories help navigation more within in my site. I think I am finally getting it now.
And, yes, to organic, natural flowing keywords. I think a lightbulb just went off with all of your help. Muchas gracias.
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Timethief is dead on about how traffic is driven to your site. If consumers are looking for affordable, sustainable wooden furniture choices, they are largely going to find your site based on the content in your article, not your tags. So to answer your question, I would exercise some brevity with your tags.
For example, if your site focuses on both sustainable and unsustainable furniture, you might use the former as a tag. If all of your furniture is sustainable, then that particular article might only require furniture as a tag. You readers are going to glance at the tags for inspiration (“Oh, look! I wonder what other types of tables are on this sustainable furniture site!”), so consider what the audience wants to see when building them.
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That does clarify. I will create my tags to help navigation within the site (I originally thought it was for search engines) and get better at natural, non-forced keywords in the actual content of my blog posts. I have a lot of cleaning up to do! LOL.
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@timethief I read the articles you suggested (and the comments are closed), so when search “tags” in my “reader”, will I also be pulling up “categories” that people have assigned their blog posts. I.E. is an assigned category of a blog post searchable in the “tag” section of the wp “reader”?
That said, what are “Topic Pages”? Is that when I go to my reader, then freshly pressed and then choose a category? If not, please explain.
Also, will a keyword in the title of my blogpost be searchable in the tag section of the reader?
Thanks you!!
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