Three Ways to Use Tags on Your Website
Website content management systems like Wordpress, Movable Type, Joomla and Expression Engine offer tags as an option for grouping your content - be it entries, pages or assets like images, audio and video. If you're wondering how these can be used on your site to boost search engine optimization (SEO), or how they differ from traditional hierarchies like categories or folders, then read on!1. Make Alternative Archive Pages
The most common usage of tags is for grouping related content in a less rigid way than categories or folders. For example, you may have a press release that discusses a particular product or service. Its main category is "Press Releases," but wouldn't it be nice if it could also appear alongside other documents, like schematics for your product or FAQs? With tags, you can output a list of all of your related content, regardless of category or folder to which the individual pieces are assigned. Website entries can have as many tags as you like, so the opportunities to cross-reference are endless! These super-targeted pages can be great for SEO and for helping people discover new content on your site that is directly related to their topic of interest.
2. Fresh Content with Custom Page Layouts
Another way to use tags is to aid in your website's layout. For example, you can use a tag of "Featured" to update a special callout box on your home page. Or, "Slideshow" could be used to send a page's title and main image to a carousel of promotional content. For e-commerce, a tag like "Sale" can make your product title turn red and apply put a strikethrough to the old price. This makes it easy for content authors, editors and non-programmers to highlight different website pages on key areas of the website (such as the home page) on demand, keeping your layout from getting stale.
3. Increase Time on Site and Get More Clicks
Keeping visitors clicking through your website is a key piece of any SEO strategy. Tags can be used to deliver related pages at the bottom of articles. They can also collate and display videos or image galleries of similar topics inline with your content. By making sure your interactive content is relavent, you drastically increase click through rates and keep people on your site longer. Publishers can even associate tags with their advertising management system to make sure that the most appropriate ads are being delivered alongside their content.
For more ideas on how to use Tags on your website, Let's Talk.