What Are Blog Tags and Why Do You Need Them?

Blogging is an essential part of a good content marketing strategy. There are several components that go into making a blog searchable, crawlable and valuable — SEO, keywords, word count, etc. But your blog also has a usability component both on the front and back ends, and that is where blog tags come into play.

If your usage of blog tags goes unchecked, your CMS will be a messy place. On the user side, readers will have a hard time filtering your blogs to find what they’re looking for, and that isn’t helpful for anyone.  

With a strong blog tag strategy, you can bolster your SEO and the value you’re serving readers. 

What Are Blog Tags? 

A blog tag is a word or phrase that describes what your post is about. You can also think of it as a label. Attaching a blog tag is a good way to keep your content organized and a way to lead readers to other blogs with similar content. Blog tags are typically one to three words.

For example, this blog about blogging would be tagged in Lynton’s CMS with a Blogging blog tag (phew!). If you were to look for this blog on the Lynton website, an easy way to find it would be to filter our blogs by the Blogging tag, and it would lead you to a hub with other blogs about blogging. 

Blog Tags vs. Categories

In your CMS, you may notice that in addition to tags, you’re able to choose a category for your blog. What’s the difference between blog tags and categories? 

These words may be used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. The difference is simple: A category is a broad topic you cover in your blog. It acts as the umbrella to a bunch of smaller topics. Blog tags are one small idea in an overarching topic.

For example, this blog would fit into an Inbound Marketing category because it is about one component of an inbound marketing strategy. Tags could include blogging or SEO.

How Blog Tags Help SEO

Using blog tags won’t get you a huge bump in SEO, but it will help. With every new blog tag you create, an additional webpage is added to your site. Your blog tags act as keywords when Google indexes your site, and the best part is that this page is always updated with new content. 

When people Google one of your blog tags, they have the opportunity to be taken to this tag’s page, and it’ll be updated with all the info they need.  

Blog Tags Best Practices

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you create blog tags:

• Keep them short — between 1 and 3 words.
• Don’t use different variations of the same word — for example, SEO, search engine optimization, SEO tips. Choose one.
• If you create a new tag, be sure you’re constantly adding content with that tag. Consistency is key. 
• Along the same lines, don’t create a blog tag that is too specific. If you don’t foresee your company writing another blog along these lines, choose another tag.

Why You Should Use Blog Tags

The purpose of blog tags is two-fold: to help you stay organized and to help your website visitors find what they’re looking for. If they read one blog about inbound marketing, chances are they may have other questions about inbound marketing. Blogs that answer those questions can all be found on a handy blog tags page.

Keep a running tally of your blog tags in a spreadsheet to help guide your content strategy for the year and just to see what tags you already have in use.