Tip: TAGS
Last week I gave suggestions for blog post titles that draw attention and can be searched easily by topic. Before we explore the inspirational world of tagging, I thought I’d clarify the idea behind the Intent Editor and these tips. None of the tips is mandatory; they are only suggestions and ideas. We choose the weekly tip topics based on questions from community members. Our intent is to be informative, and sometimes persuasive, but never commanding. Onto the juice, then.
Why bother tagging a post?
Tagging brings some order to the sea of information (blogs, videos, websites, links…). Tagging posts by their main ideas groups similar content together.
Is "the more, the merrier" true when it comes to tagging content?
Great question. The answer is no. Specific tags allow the content to be grouped with appropriate content and easily searched by people looking for that topic. A good rule of thumb is 3 to 5 tags per post.
Example
Thumbs up: Academy Awards
Thumbs down: Academy Awards, academy, awards (overdone. Academy Awards is sufficient. academy and awards as individual tags are not indicative of the content.)
Example
Thumbs up: Pinot Noir, red wine, Pinot (very specific to topic, but also inclusive)
Thumbs down: red, reds (not specific to search engines)
Nitty-gritty details of tagging:
- Intent’s system remembers past tags. As you type in your tag, look for the system to suggest an existing tag.
- Tags are case sensitive. Academy Awards (reads like the Oscars) is different from academy awards (reads like a school and like a prize).
- The system allows for 2-word tags with spaces in between.
- Separate tag terms with commas (not spaces; the system will interpret this as one long and indecipherable tag!).
- Single (‘) or double (") quotation marks aren’t recognized.
We welcome any questions and are happy to take a look at a post and give feedback on tagging/taxonomy. You can leave questions in the comments belows. And if I can’t answer it, I’ll take it to Tom.
Have a topic or question for next week? Write it in the comments and we’ll give it a whirl.
Signing off,
Olivia
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