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Tagging Content

Simon Munn

• 1 min read

Any blog uses tags to describe content and to make it ‘searchable’ or ‘findable’ by the internet search engines.  They can also aid navigation within blogs and their sites.  Tagging can greatly improve the chances of an article being indexed by a search engine.  It is worthwhile, therefore, to consider how a tagging structure might look for a blog.  To my mind, it is critical to make whatever system you use, you make it consistent.  Consistency will help the audience find what they are looking for and are more likely to return in the future.

With this in mind, I want to create a new tag plan for my blog and keep to it.  It does depend a little on the backend that you are using.  Some blog engines such as WordPress use categories and tags, whereas Blogger and Tumblr only use tags.  I’m going to make my first tag the category, should the option exist.  I know that I will be posting thoughts and ideas in the form of text and plenty of photos along with the odd video and audio.
This is what I’ve settled on
PostType – Text, Photo, Audio, Video, Quote (following Tumblr’s approach)
Equipment – iPhone, Olympus PEN, etc.
Location (if applicable)
Subject tags (probably no more than three)
So for one of my Cornwall photos of Truro Cathedral, for example, it would look like this

Photo, iPhone, Cornwall, Truro, building, cathedral

I have thought about if tags should have capital letters or not despite some research, I can’t really find an answer, so as long as I am consistent, it’ll be ok.  I’m going to capitalise places, e.g. Cornwall and Worcestershire and the PostType, but nothing else.  Worth noting is that I will aim to tag with single words, where possible.

I will need to go through all my previous entries and update them, but it will be worth it, to me at least!