Tags and tag cloud in WordPress are terms that quickly tell readers what a post is about and a useful way to group related posts together. A very few years ago I used to thought that tags are tricky things that are placed by bloggers to confuse people (:-D)! But soon I got familiarize with this one and so I thought to write a blog post to let readers and WordPress beginners to be familiar with tags and tag cloud.
In this article I have tried to answer a few questions about tags and tag cloud so that visitors and bloggers can understand the terms and their importance. I’m writing while keeping WordPress in my mind and they are true for other platforms as well.
Introducing tags and tag cloud
Tags are actually made of one or two words each that bloggers use to attach with a post to let readers know what is a post about? And tag cloud is collection of all tags used in a blog which is usually placed in a sidebar. Clicking on a particular tag will take the visitor to a page where all the posts having the same tag are listed. this in turn, helps visitors to find the blog posts of their interests and author of that blog gets more traffic and interaction of visitors in this way.
Why do tags in cloud have different font sizes?
Wonder? The answer is quite simple. Size of tags are directly proportional to their use, it means most frequently used tags (tags that are attached in many posts) will appear in large size whereas less used tags have a smaller font size.
Do search engines index my tag pages?
Sorry! The answer is No. Search engines now a day won’t index your tags and categories pages. They only index those pages where content actually lies. However it will sure help you to increase your page rank and decrease bounce rate as you are providing a nice way to stay visitors connected to your blog.
Do I need to remember names of tags used in my blog?
Naah..! In context of WordPress you never need to remember, you just have to create. As you can see in image, clicking on choose from most used tags will expand the tag cloud in front of you and you can select related tags there in WordPress post editor screen.
Are categories and tags are complementary?
My answer is YES. You can see tag and categories pages with same layout and a common url structure. Both display posts that fall under their names and moreover you can easily convert categories to tags. A post may have many tags and a post can have many categories as well. The difference is just their purpose to introduce.
Can a category and a tag have same names and slugs?
Viyola! It is bit tricky but yes. While creating tag with same category (which is already exist) name and slug, don’t assign and slug to the tag and WordPress will take care of it. Be aware later if you tried to change any existing tag slug with existing category slug then WordPress will complain about it. An example is here, few of our tags and categories names and slugs are same like jQuery, PHP.
Should I use tags and tag cloud?
Of course! Undoubtedly you are providing your visitors a way to find content of their interest and they will sure spend more time with your blog. This will sure help you to improve performance of your blog in front of search engines and visitors interactivity.