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Do tags affect SEO?

by dt.focus
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Sorry if this question has been asked before, but I'm looking for a Warrior's perspective. On my blog, does applying tags to each post make any difference one way or another in regards to SEO?

Thanks,
Derek
#affect #seo #tags
  • Profile picture of the author kristianw
    Tags will increase the relevancy.
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  • Profile picture of the author flashgordon
    Sure, it will add a few more of your targeted keywords to the page.
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    • Profile picture of the author dt.focus
      Originally Posted by flashgordon View Post

      Sure, it will add a few more of your targeted keywords to the page.
      I should clarify...the tags do not even display on the blog theme. So, is there still any benefit?

      Thanks,
      Derek
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  • Profile picture of the author stevetp
    The robots will read the code rather than the visible site so I would think they are still relevant.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    I'd have thought it unlikely that the search engines could see them if the readers couldn't - 'view source' and look at the code to check. Tags ARE important, as is everything else that can tell SE spiders what your page is about - image 'Alt' tags, category labels, even the name you post with (that's my view, anyway - why post as 'Admin' when you can post as 'Keyword Phrase'?).

    Source code can be very revealing if you want to know just what it is that you're feeding the search engines. For example, a lot of people who use the 'Tubepress' plugin don't seem to realise that, left at the default settings, what's behind that page of videos isn't much more than a load of gobbledegook. If they were to look at the source, they'd be straight back to the Tubepress 'settings' page to tick the boxes that display the video tags and descriptions, which actually feed the search engines with real words.

    It's never a bad idea to view your source code to see what your theme and plugins are doing, because it's not always what you'd think. That aside though, I'd switch to a theme that does display tags - search engine spiders can eat A LOT
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    • Profile picture of the author FredJones
      Yes, tags affect SEO. It is wise to use them. By the way, search engines do see the page source, and they don't see the browsers. So I agree with Diana that you must also make suer you know how the page source looks - this is something I do religiously as well.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Someone is going to expand and better my answer, I'm sure.

        The tags you put on your blog are more for helping
        you and your readers find your content. Probably they
        are not even seen by search engines, as they are more
        for internal use. However, if one does think they are
        seen, one must use these tags wisely. You cannot just
        spam a whole host of tags. Apparently, if you do, and
        you repeat them over many posts, search engines may
        see that as duplicate content. Supposedly the more
        important management to use is the category.
        Again, I have no proof, but supposedly search engines
        like this but not tags, or just one but not the other.
        I am of the ones who believe that these tags are irrelevant to
        search engines. Content is king. But this is my own opinion
        that I have developed over the past year or so. In fact,
        the way I read it somewhere is that even if you have tags,
        you still must have content to back it up. Search Engine A
        looks at tags, then content. If there is no match, page is
        tossed. But I think it is true more for searching for blogs
        within the blog universe, not using google.

        I am sure there is some warrior who will expand on
        that duplicate content thing.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author domaintrader85
    Keywords make the post more relevant and they are crawled by robots.. Tags increase the keyword density as welll..
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