Tags or No Tags?
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Hi there, I have been wondering what would happen if I stop using Tags all together and stick to broader meaning Categories. Would that affect my visibility on the net? If that is not the case, could I then increase the number of Categories, from, let’s say 10, to about 18 or 20, per post, I mean? I hope I made this question clear.
I don’t know about these things at all, but I’m looking at ways to simplify my WordPress tasks and give myself more time for actual writing posts.
Thank for any help, Paola EmmaThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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No categories and tags are treated the same way by search engines and at wordpress.com. If you use more than a combined title of 10 either categories or tags or 10 categories and tags on any post it will not appear in the wordpress.com global tag page results. The maximum recommended number is 10 regardless if it’s categories or tags or both.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/global-tags/#missing-postsThe aim is to use as few relevant categories and tags as humanly possible to accurately convey the contents of any blog post. It’s not to attach as many categories and tags as possible.
When it comes to assigning categories and tags to posts the rule of thumb ought to be “less is more”. This is because more is not better if “more” amounts to irrelevant tags then the result will be worse placement for your blog posts in the SERPs (search engine results).
Imagine you are in a library and some lame brained librarian was assigning a huge lot of categories and tags to books that did not accurately reflect their contents, or that described the contents in such minute detail only a professional in the field would know them. You would be running around in circles trying to locate truly relevant books.
I recommend that you click my username, then click “All Posts” and find the link to “Blogging Tips: Tags to Increase Traffic” and click it.
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Tags are a good <b>and fast</b> way to target alternate keywords and titles for your post. I get a good number of search hits via my tag pages because WordPress creates seperate pages for tags too.
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@naijajobfinder
The blog linked to your wordpress.com username is not a wordpress.com blog. Although I concur with your opinion on tags I do want to make you aware that this is the wordpress.com support forum. In case you are not aware of the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org are have been stated by Staff in the sticky post at the head of this forum. https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/please-read-me-first-before-posting?replies=1 -
Thank you, timethief, you made the subject much more clear for me.
I have trimmed now all my Categories and Tags, and also started writing excerpts for all my posts, a good way to summarize the content without recourse to too many tags.
For beginners like me these support Forums at WordPress are a lifeline. -
Why should you stop using tags? As said, it is a fast way to target alternate keywords for your post. Can someone give me a good reason to stop using tags?
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The tag cloud widget. It only displays the first 45 tags you use; there is NO way to show any more than those.
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No one said stop using tags, however. What I originally said to Paola Emma (in another thread) is that she mustn’t use the same word or phrase as both a category and a tag. What was then added is that the total number of categories plus tags per post must be reasonably low.
By the way, reasonably low doesn’t necessarily mean no more than ten. As tellyworth has explained, there’s no definite limit.
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And as TT said, categories work just like tags, so use those instead if you’re all up in your keywordism. The category widget has no limit.
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