Monday, September 21, 2015

How to Label and Tag Your Blog Posts—Blogging for Writers, Part Four

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

One thing every writer with a blog wants to know is this.

"How can I get my blog found?"

Of course there is no single answer—but one of the major part of the get-my-blog-found question is to learn how to label and tag your blog posts correctly.

When I give this answer, I get a lot of blank looks. This is one critical step a lot of blogger miss when posting a blog. Today, I’m going to give you the tools that make labeling/tagging a breeze and immediately help your blog move up in the search engine rankings.

Definitions
Tags and Labels: these two mean the exact same things. It just depends on which blogging platform you use.
Blogger: uses the term labels. Below is screenshot #1, showing you where to find the place to add LABELS on a blogger site.
#1. Where to find LABELS in Blogger
WordPress: uses the term tags. Below is screenshot #2, showing you where to find the place to add TAGS on a WordPress site.
#2. Where to find TAGS in WordPress

Even though successful tagging may seem like a complicated formula—one part magic and two parts luck—it’s more of a game and not nearly as difficult as you may think.

A keyword is like a label. It's a short way—although almost always more than one word in length—to state the purpose of your article. Articles can have several keyword groups or only one.

Targeted Labels/Tags make your posts easier to find when a topic is typed into a search engine. When your individual blog posts begin showing up in the top, it will drive up the visibility of your site.

The picture below is screenshot #3, of where my blog post about the 2015 Facebook changes showed up in a Google search. Just FYI, it's number 4 out of about 416,000,000. Not bad. 


Warning, Brief Geek Content
To understand how tagging can help your blog post get found (or lost in the sea of other blogs) you do have to understand a little about search engines. Search engines crawl the Internet searching and sorting all the information. In the simplest of terms, the more your information about and on your page matches up, the higher you rank.

Now, for those of you who truly understand search engines, you know this is way over simplifying the concept. Lots of other things come into count when your post is ranked, but tagging correctly will get you way on down the road!

Basics of Proper Labels & Tags
1. Your labels/tags are usually a group of words, not just an individual word.

2. Always use your blog post title as one of your labels/tags.

3. Always us your name as one of your labels/tags.

4. If it’s different from your name, always include your blog title (for example, my blog title is The Write Conversation) as one of the labels/tags.

5. Come up with a couple of phrases that relate to the focus of your individual post.

Here are the labels/tags I used for this specific post:
Edie Melson, The Write Conversation, How to Label and Tag Your blog Posts, Blogging for Writers, Writing Instruction, Social Media for Writers, Successful SEO, Social Media Monday

Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,

Edie

TWEETABLES
Learn how to Label & Tag your blog posts from #blogging expert @EdieMelson  (Click to Tweet)

 Get Your Blog Found with Proper Labels & Tags - via #Blogging expert @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)
If you've missed the previous posts in this series, here are the direct links:

Blogging For Writers

Posted by Edie Melson at 4:00 AM
Labels: , , , , , , ,

27 comments:

  1. Sheryl BakerSeptember 21, 2015 at 6:38 AM

    Thanks Edie. Even though I use tags on my blog, I didn't understand them. I guessed at what I should put in. This is has been very helpful.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2015 at 9:15 AM

    Edie!

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I am trying this today after I write my post, "Does My Child Have Aspbergers?" I did not have a clue about any of this. So grateful.

    Trish

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 21, 2015 at 10:46 AM

      Trish, Tags and Labels make sense once someone explains them to us! Blessings, E

      Delete
  3. Elva Cobb Martin, South CarolinaSeptember 21, 2015 at 10:55 AM

    Good job, Edie! Thanks for all your great details. I've shared this on Twitter. See you Saturday the 26th speaking to our ACFW-SC Chapter on Editing a Novel. And, of course, visitors are always welcome.
    Hugs, Elva Cobb Martin, Pres. ,ACFW-SC Chapter

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 21, 2015 at 12:23 PM

      Elva, thank you! I'm looking forward to Saturday! Blessings, E

      Delete
  4. Rene Diane AubeSeptember 21, 2015 at 11:35 AM

    Thanks, Edie. Though I've started my blog/website, I have yet to start posting. Your explanations are very helpful and SOMEDAY will be used as I move forward in my writing journey. God bless. :)

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 21, 2015 at 12:24 PM

      Rene Diane, I'm glad the info helped! BTW, I noticed I hadn't replied to your comment on a previous post (Blog or Website, Which Does a Writer Need). I have now gone back and answered. Sorry about that. Thanks for stopping by, Blessings, E

      Delete
  5. Marilyn TurkSeptember 21, 2015 at 9:10 PM

    Hi Edie, It works! I've just started using labels/tags on my blog and it's made a huge difference in the number of hits I get. I forgot last week and wondered why my numbers were down, then I read your post and realized I hadn't used labels! Thanks so much for always sharing such helpful information!

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM

      Marilyn, you're right, it does make a HUGE difference! Thanks for the personal example, Blessings, E

      Delete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2015 at 5:46 AM

    Thanks, Edie! I've been looking forward to this post. I have been tagging my blog posts with several tags, but I was only using single words. Thank you for clarifying!

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 24, 2015 at 8:58 AM

      Amanda, that's a common error. When I began to use phrases, it really helped my blog get found. Blessings, E

      Delete
  7. Jeanne TakenakaSeptember 22, 2015 at 3:40 PM

    I need to figure out how to tag my posts better. Since I'm writing more of a devotional style blog, I'm not sure how to tag specifically enough to get things out there. I'll have to look more into this. If you have suggestions for these types of blog posts, I'd love to hear them. :)

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    Replies
    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 24, 2015 at 9:03 AM

      Jeanne, it doesn't matter what style posts you write, the concept is the same. When I write a devotion, I figure out phrases or things people would type into a search engine to find that post. For example, if I was writing a post about how to remain faithful during a dry season, my keyword wouldn't be just faith, it would be "faith during a dry season" and "how to grow my faith during a dry season". I would also add the Bible verse(s) I used in the post. For that specific post, Hebrews 11:1. This type of thinking helps all of us focus our posts to a single main concept.

      I hope that helps clear things up! I'm so glad you asked the question, I'm sure others had the same struggle. Let me know if you need more clarification! Blessings, E

      Delete
    2. Jeanne TakenakaSeptember 24, 2015 at 11:21 AM

      This is very helpful. Thanks, Edie!!

      Delete
  8. UnknownSeptember 23, 2015 at 11:50 AM

    Thanks for simplifying it Edie! I now feel I can execute. Thank you!

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  9. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2015 at 8:35 AM

    Thanks Edie for your very helpful series on blogging - particularly this one on labels. I thought labels were more of an internal tool for the blog. I've established labels that a reader of my blog could search when they have an interest in that label. Since I write devotional posts, they are things like prayer, encouragement, etc. I have a gadget on the blog to search by topic so I've tried to condense the variety of labels I use. This makes them not terribly specific.
    Now I see that my labels should be more about getting found. You've completely changed my thinking. I'll remove the search tool and begin using multi-word labels that more specifically describe the post. I'll think from a Google searcher frame of mind.

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    1. Edie MelsonSeptember 24, 2015 at 9:05 AM

      Cathy, it is a different way of looking at things. I wouldn't disable the search engine completely on your site though. It will still work by doing things this way. I have a search box, instead of a word cloud and that works really well with this type of labeling. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Blessings, E

      Delete
  10. Marsha WardSeptember 29, 2015 at 1:39 AM

    It makes a lot of sense to put Labels on posts for SEO--because although I've been blogging for several years, I'm still at a lower stage of readership and new viewers. My problem is that I try to keep my blog as tidy as possible, but let visitors search for posts on various broad kinds of topics. To that end, my Labels are visible. If I start adding a new set of Labels for each post, the Label area is going to be quite untidy very fast. How do I serve both interests, growth and tidiness?

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    1. Edie MelsonApril 6, 2016 at 7:07 AM

      Marsha, you really can't. You have to decide if you want your blog tidy or you want your blog found. By having a search option on your site and listing the top blog posts instead of a tag cloud, you can serve your audience and keep growing the larger reach of your site. Blessings, E

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  11. UnknownApril 5, 2016 at 10:44 PM

    This is definitely part of the blogging process that took the longest for me to understand. I'm still figuring it out. I'm wondering, why do you put your blog name in the tags/labels? curious I've never seen that done before

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    1. Edie MelsonApril 6, 2016 at 7:05 AM

      Sara Beth, this will help increase your blog's name recognition on the internet. Blessings, E

      Delete
  12. Jean HollandApril 19, 2016 at 8:47 AM

    Thanks again for valuable information.
    Shalom rav!

    ReplyDelete
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  14. KateDecember 16, 2018 at 10:58 PM

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
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