You will already have heard me make mention of ‘tags’ throughout this course – and following on from my presentation in week one of this semester, it is a great idea to make use of the Tags function on WordPress. So…
What are Tags and why should you use them?
Tags are a searchable classification, as are categories (as previously discussed) – but tags even more so. Very often people confuse the terms tags and categories, and use them interchangeably…but they are definitely not the same thing. The misuse of these terms can lead to quite a lot of confusion but hopefully the following description of each of these terms will help to set the record straight:
Categories: act like an overarching filing system for your blog – and have the unique capacity to also be hierarchical (please refer to my previous post: categories on wordpress). You might like to think of categories as broad classifications for particular subjects. Categories will allow you to classify each post by subject and this will allow both you and your readers to quickly and easily navigate to the information that you are interested in. Categories are shown below each post and in the Category widget in your side bar (should you choose to show it).
Tags: on the other hand are detailed keywords or labels that you can add to each post – micro categories if you like. If you choose to add tags to your posts (and bear in mind that you have the option to add multiple tags) you are effectively adding a keyword or a label, which will make it easier for you to find that post again later (like categories) but tags will also help others to search for you. Tags only show below each post but they reach beyond your blog by assisting not only other wordpress users to find you (via searches from wordpress) but also trawlers. The trawlers will find these tags when they crawl your blog and this will assist your site to be picked up by big sites like technorati and found more easily in google and yahoo searches. In this sense, tags are great for heightening the SEO (search engine optimisation) of your blog.
I hope that this clarifies the difference between categories and tags. Some people ask ‘which should I use?’ and my answer to this is that I don’t view these terms in isolation from one another. It isn’t a case of ‘which should I use?’ but rather a matter of using both in combination as each has its own distinct advantages.
How do you create tags?
From your dashboard you can click on ‘Tags’ in ‘Right Now’ (top centre of interface) and you will be taken directly to the ‘Tags’ page where you can add, edit and delete tags. You can also get to this page through the navigation on the left–under ‘Posts’ > ‘Post Tags’.
The tag name is how the tag appears on your post/blog and in searches. As with categories you can choose to add a description but some themes will not show it. At the top of the ‘Tag’ page you can see which of your tags you use most prominently. This is known as a ‘tag cloud’ – it provides information on which tags you use and those that are currently available, as well as showing the popularity (by use) of these tags.
Right Now in Tags
Have you ever noticed on your WordPress login screen the ‘Right Now in Tags’ section on the right hand side of the page? It gives a current list of the most popular tags being used across WordPress. The tag cloud only includes recent activity so it does change over time – what you see when you log in today mighn’t be the same as the information in the tag cloud when you log in tomorrow.
Tag Surfer
And finally, you can search through the tags of wordpress.com blogs via the ‘Tag Surfer’ in your Dashboard menu. This page allows you to selectively choose the type of information and the content that you wish to read by subscribing to certain tags that you are interested in.
Posted in Blog, Blogging, Wordpress
