It’s time for a quick visit to Mr. Brewer’s 25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic for a review of his third piece of advice:
Tag content. Most blogging interfaces (like Blogger and WordPress) have ways to tag posts with keywords that you may use multiple times. For instance, I know this post will have a “blogging” tag at the very least, though there will probably be some others as well. And this enables readers to click on the tag to see all the content on your blog that is related to that topic. Plus, it helps with SEO (more on that below).
This is a part of blogging I’m not entirely on board with. Not because I don’t agree with Mr. Brewer but simply because I’m lazy. Keywords? Not only do I have to write this post, but now I have to come up with more words? And I bet you want words that relate to my post in some clever fashion, huh?
Well, let’s just ignore the grumpy old lady today and note that WordPress does make it easy to add tags to any post. As you compile a new post, over on the right hand side of the screen, there’s a Tags widget you can use to add your own tags. Immediately below that is a widget called Recommended Tags – this is for folks like me. With an easy mouse click or two, you can click on any number of the tags it recommends (based on the content in your post, usually helps to start typing to get something to show up there) and increase the likelihood that someone out there in the vast internet will find your perfectly crafted post. You can even click on the link Apply all and it’ll add ’em all.
Frankly, I think some folks over-tag their posts. I’ve seen posts with tags that seem to have absolutely no co-relation to the content of the post, but I suppose if the idea is to get traffic – anything goes.
Take home lesson? Use tags for each post. They are easy to do and even if they don’t increase traffic, it’s another tool you can use to organize your blog.
Until later, blog with tags.
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I try to put in tags that will make it easy for the people who might find my posts interesting or useful will find them. I know what you mean about tag overkill. With too many it is about numbers. That can backfire, because when people find what they don’t want, they will feel (at least slightly) cheated and remember the name.
Yeah. I know I don’t like it.
Call me a grumpy old man if you like but I consider that reverse spamming. I hate it when people do that and always make sure my tags are relevant to the post.
Right. I wasn’t advocating it, but just pointing out that that must be what they think.