OK, so it’s not very sexy, unless of course you’re an SEO fetishist like myself, or you find the ability to retrieve information in a quick and efficient manner arousing. Don’t lie. I know that most of my readers are geeky brainiacs, and they get hot when technology is involved–especially if it improves their ability to read, write, or otherwise purvey smut. 😉
On my recent blog tour for The Fangirl’s Dream, I’m seeing that a lot of bloggers either do not use, or don’t know how to use keywords, ie tags, in their posts. Â This is a pretty significant oversight, in terms of making information in your blog easier to archive, retrieve, and possibly re-use.
 In the capacity of blogging, tags don’t necessarily impact where your post ranks in search engine results, or SEO (Search Engine Optimization).Yes, there are meta tags and keywords for SEO, but that’s a whole other topic, ripe for techgeek debate (Any takers? *swoon).  Tags on blog posts do, however, make finding posts of the same topic easier for you as the blogger, for readers, for future readers, and for general net searches.
When you enter tags on a post, they appear somewhere near the context of the post. They appear as links, and where they display depends on your blogging platform and theme. When you click on a tag, you are taken to a list including every post on your blog that is similarly tagged. In essence they create a breadcrumb trail for your readers to stay engaged with your blog.
The last thing you want is to shake that ass and get readers hot for your blog, then they read one item and leave. Interuptus. In this situation, you do not want a one night stand. You want the lovin’ to go all night, and by adding tags to posts, you give them an opportunity to keep reading along the theme that brought them to your bangin’ site to begin with. You want to keep readers engaged with your site as long as possible, leading them through as many pages of your site as possible. Adding tags is a pretty easy thing to do if you want to hold your readers’ attention.
Likewise, we all like to think everyone’s hot for us, though there are a few innocents that haven’t stumbled upon your sexy brilliance, yet. If you snag a virgin reader with that steamy post announcing your new anal anthology, proper tagging gives them the availability to trace back through your catalog of a similar theme.
In short, not tagging leaves a gaping hole in your ability to sustain readers’ interest. Tagging lets you lead them everywhere you want them to learn more about your interests and publications on your website.
Do yourself, your readers, and future readers a favor by entering tags for every post that you write. Â Likewise, ask your guest bloggers to submit them with post proposals. They know best what words describe their work, and if they haven’t thought about it… well. Tell them the part about shaking their ass and getting readers to stay at their site. Â Â In all of my publicity mailers for releases I always include keywords for bloggers, and the majority of them just copy and paste them into the blog post, itself. Â That’s not the sweet spot. Â Just as you include buy links, links to trailers, bio, blurb, and all other book-relevant info, so should you include tags, using the tagging function of your blogging platform. Â I also host for several blog tour companies, and after bringing this to their attention, they now require touring authors to supply tags as part of their promotion material.
So, if you haven’t been thinking about how to lead readers through your site, it’s time. Tagging is just the foreplay to get things started.
I always use tags, and I’ve noticed that some tour companies do now provide them. It’s something I’ve started including in the package I send to people when I visit their blog.
I just had you on mine, and now I’m hoping I used the proper tags.
You’re so with it, Jessica! Thanks for stopping by!
I think it was one of your posts on Savvy Authors that made me more aware of using tags properly. 🙂
Yes, this is a great reminder to keep everything on your blog connected for your readers, and for your own sanity. I use tags and keywords more for my own organizational purposes, but also to help guide readers toward additional content that they might be interested in. Thanks!