How to Use Tags Effectively in Articles?
Article writers have been asked, in recent times, to use keyword-rich title, good keyword density, keywords or keyphrases in bold, targeted keyword or keyphrase in each paragraph (at the beginning of a paragraph in the case of Google and at the end of the paragraph for Yahoo!) etc. among other miscellaneous tips like a few italicised keywords or keyphrases and a few anchor text links pointing to your websites or blogs.
But the tragedy is that the search engines had long ago ignored all these techniques that had worked once upon a time! And the pity is that we continue to read such junk advice.
Are Keywords and Tags the same?
Keywords: These are the words (supposedly) chosen by the website owner for on-site optimization with the fervent hope that the search engines will fall over and push up the website in search rankings and more keenly on the top page of Google. Thus, a keyword is assumed (wrongly) to be of relevance to search engines.
Tags: Tags or labels are like folders we use on our desktops to keep files of the same genre in one place. These are like library catalogs for the website where the primary tag is the keyword or phrase showing top level relevance of your webpage followed by several secondary keywords. Just like we can on our desktop, the same tag can be filed under another folder if it is felt it has some relevance elsewhere too. In simple words, a tag is a brief name to identify and store or place your article or webpage by your own website.
How are tags useful?
No doubt, the search engines are not going to go by your webpage's taxonomy or tag cloud to index the page or to put your website on the top pages of search. They are essential in several ways as we will see now.
First, let us see how APSense uses tags in RevPages, Articles, Talents and for Members:
Page Type Folder Name
RevPages tag
Articles tag2
Talents tag3
Members mtag
The tags on APSense appear on the left sidebar for RevPages, Articles and Talents while it is on the right sidebar for member tags (Hot Member Tags) in the form of tag cloud. When one clicks on one of these tags, a new page opens up and shows the pages that use this tag or members' haves and wants. Note that (so far) there is no quality ranking there but the pages are listed in chronological order with the newest page on the top.
Before writing an article, one should check the articles that have used the primary tag or even the secondary tags and whether your article is going to be any different or better than that of others.
Use the following syntax:
Page Type URL
RevPages http://www.apsense.com/tag/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
Articles http://www.apsense.com/tag2/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
Talents http://www.apsense.com/tag3/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
Members http://www.apsense.com/mtag/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
( Note: If there is a change in the naming of 'tags' as a result of the forthcoming changes at APSense, the syntax will get modified.)
Copy and paste the URL in the browser and hit the enter button or just click there. The tag page will open and show you the results.
Examples:
Tips for adding tags
1. If there are about 15 or more links on the tag page of your primary tag, it is a good sign because all those 15 or more webpages have a link to the tag page and the tag page again points to your page. This improves the SEO of your article or revpage or talent pages. It is not a good idea to use a primary tag that nobody considers on their page unless you have other ways to build up back links to your article.
2. Use about 5 to 10 tags only, else, it will be considered spam by search engines.
3. If your niche is 'internet marketing', use it as the primary tag and when you write a few more articles related to that, use it again as the primary tag in those articles.
4. Use at the most 1 single word tag, 2 two word ones, 2 to 4 three or four word tags or long-tail tags. You can use Google's AdWords Keyword Tool for this.
5. It is not necessary to use the chosen tags in the article if they are highly correlated to the primary tag. (Correlation technique will be the subject of a separate article.)
6. It is a good idea to link relevant articles and revpages to each other provided the same tag(s) are used - of course, nor purposely!
7. Your revpages will not be useful for ranking if you do not include more relevant articles or revpages for the same reason as point 1 above.
8. If you do not know what tags to use, first publish the article with the primary tag, copy and paste the URL of the article in Google's Keyword Tool in the Website URL box, check the related search box and enter. Depending upon the traffic and competition choose the tags without a worry because they are from your article page only. Edit the article and include appropriate tags and re-submit.
Caution: If your article is not original, you can safely ignore whatever I have written above!
UPDATE:
The above-mentioned syntax is no longer
valid from 24th June 2011!
New Syntax:
Member http://www.apsense.com/mtag/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
Search http://www.apsense.com/brandingtag?
tag=/[Keyword]
or [Keywords separated by "_"]
Example:
Member:
Search:
All Categories
Book Reviews
42
Travel
850
Health & Medical
2882
Automotive
122
Affiliate Marketing
1551
Entertainment
223
Music
35
Technology
635
Kids & Teens
20
Food & Drink
451
Society & News
1412
Self Improvement
192
Gaming
246
Others
673
Arts & Crafts
361
Finance
423