In his latest 24 Hour Blog Question, Rory wants to know…
Do you use Tags on your blog posts, and do you find them a practical resource for you or your readers?
Yes, I use tags on my posts, but more for myself than for others. I use tags to search my posts to see if I’ve previously posted using specific words or names. For example, in Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday prompts, I always tag the post with the artist’s name so that I can search my old posts to see if I previously used any songs by that artist. Or if I want to know if I’ve recently posted about a particular topic in the news (e.g., abortions, mass shootings), I’ll search for my posts with relevant tags).
It’s also interesting to see the tag cloud associated with my blog.
Do you think your readership takes any notice of the Tags you have added to your published content?
That’s a good question. For those of my readers who are reading this post, do you take any notice of the tags on my posts? Let me know in the comments.
If you are a regular ‘user’ of Tags, do you randomly add them or very specifically optimise their use with your content?
Why would anyone just randomly add tags to their posts? My tags are specific to the content of each post. They’re not to “optimize” anything. Just to remind myself the key items the post covers.
This, That, and the Other 
no I never read them, but I use them on my own posts. E.g., your fowc. I put them in a general category, Responses to word prompts, but tag the post fowc.
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I do like your Tag cloud answer fandango. I like it so much, l am going to see if the business blog theme has the capability for that Widget, is it a widget?
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💡
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That (choice of icon) was a cosmic coincidence and not intentional (except very subliminally as well as super-surfacely)), nor linear from top down on this blog.
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Yep, it is a widget!
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Yes, l found it 🙂 I applied it to the other blog also, so many thanks 🙂
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Yay!
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A little ray of light as to why you choose your tags. I have, once in a while, noticed one. But I don’t always try to see them or look every time.
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I am the same as you re tags. I use them for myself, not others. I sure hope one of the names in your cloud disappears soon!
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Yeah, I hope so too, but I’m afraid as we get closer to 2024, that name may become even more prominent. 😡
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😡😡😡
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😵💫
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Tags are (right now, anyway, until WP changes it), the “quick link” to posts. They do NOT hang around long term as do categories. I use both — categories for long term use, especially when I want to reblog a post and I don’t remember when it ran or even remember what I titled it. That’s where categories play. Tags are fine for 6-months to a year, but after that, they disappear. So — at least as per the last time I checked with WP about this — categories are long term markers and tags are “quickies.” I use both. Are they useful? Well, yes, actually. Categories especially pop up on Google and people find all kinds of stuff. Someone doing a study at Princeton found of of Ellin’s old posts about her father — and it was her father for whom they were searching. The post went up in 2017, but in this case, I’m pretty sure the title was what popped up in Google.
I think anything that helps people find your posts is good. I don’t see how they could be a bad thing. Even though the tags officially disappear, nothing REALLY disappears on the web. If it was ever out there, it’s still out there — somewhere — and a good searcher can find it. You can’t make stuff disappear on the web even when you want it to go away and sometimes, I wish I could vanish a whole PILE of stuff.
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Just one more comment (sorry): It’s useful to put your name or the title of your blog site somewhere in your categories or tags. One year, WP disappeared my entire database. if I hadn’t been signing my photographs, no one would have ever found me. It took months to rebuild the base again and being able to search for my name was a huge help. This is also why I sign photographs and posts because not only do other people search, but I search. I don’t notice tags or categories per se, but I use them as do others.
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Good point, I’ll add my blog’s name to my categories.
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And let us fondly hope WP doesn’t make us disappear — AGAIN.
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I seldom look at the tags.
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I never look at the tags and searching in WordPress only turns up random stuff. I think they’re pretty useless in that context.
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I love the tag cloud too. I use tags for myself as well because like you, I find it easier when searching previous posts. I did find other blogs using tags although I don’t always check them 🙂
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I don’t look at the tags of other writers. But use tags in my posts too. 🙂
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I use tags and often get a preview of a post by reading the tags. Sometimes they can be a good ad for the post.
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I tag my posts too with the topics the post is about, I feel that is good, and its a worthwhile exercise. X
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