Book bloggers: it is time to learn how to use post tags correctly and stop treating your blog tags the same as you do on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
In the Age of Social Media, we all use tags and hashtags to group posts together with other similar content from other users on the platform. I’ve seen a growing number of blogs using the same methodology for blog posts, not realizing blog tags function differently and they may actually be hurting their SEO. So let’s talk about the purpose of blog tags and how to use them correctly!
What Are Post Tags, Really?
With new technology and social media expanding usage and shifting the public understanding of key terms, it is no surprise that many new bloggers assume that blog tags operate the same as on social media.
A blog post is not Instagram and blog tags are not meant to be used for content discovery. (It’s true that the WordPress Reader does have a tag search feature, but it’s rarely used and stuffing your tags can hurt your SEO.) Tags on blogs are meant to connect visitors to other similar content and keep them on your site.
The Anatomy of a Blog Post
Just like post headings are reading and SEO tools with very specific functions, Categories and Tags are organizational tools that group posts together.
- Categories are broad topics or sections that your posts fall into.
- Book Reviews, Memes, Discussions, Guides
- Tags are specific, smaller details that further groups under the larger category.
- genre, age range, Top Ten Tuesday, seo basics
Post tags do not improve SEO or index the post to show up in Google searches for that tag, but rather it does create a search results page on your blog for every post on your blog with that tag included.
The above screenshot is from an actual blog post I saw and the catalyst for this guide. Clicking on any of these tags will bring you to a page with all related content on that blog but there is only two tags that are useful to the visitor in finding other related posts of interest: fantasy and “yalit” (and maybe book review, but that depends on if they have a book review category or not).
It’s also worth mentioning that tags on blogs can be a couple of words! Unlike social media hashtags, your blog post tags can have spaces in them (“ya lit” versus “yalit”).
How to Make Best Use of Blog Tags
A good rule of thumb is to remember that clicking on a post tag delivers results for other similar posts on the same website. It’s a label that groups similar posts together and is a tool to help visitors find similar content on your blog.
Ironically the above tag screenshot highlights that I still need to cleanup my tags as I have a duplicative tag for book review so even I am not immune! 🤦 (Why? Because the Category for Book Review does the same function!)
The above example shows how you can structure your categories and tags differently in a way that isn’t duplicative like mine. Because Soph reviews other kinds of media, she has a “books” category and a “book review” tag, which is smart!
When creating tags for a blog post, it’s best to put yourself in the shoes of your visitor. Imagine they just found this amazing post of yours and would like to see similar content: think to yourself “how does this post relate to others I’ve created? if a visitor wants to see similar content, what keywords make sense?” and then make sure related posts on your blog have that tag, too!
In Conclusion
Post tags are a completely different beast than on social media. You can click on “bookblogger” on IG or TikTok and be served all sorts of content on the platform from multiple creators, but on a blog those tags aid in the discoverability of similar content on your own site. You can use all those other tags when you share your posts across your socials!
I hope you found this guide helpful! It can be daunting to think about needing to update post tags and delete unnecessary ones, but remember that it can be done over time and will help readers find similar content they enjoy. It’s a win-win!
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Wow, did I need this post! I have never really understood how to properly use tags in – let’s be honest – any context, so this was super helpful and I will be keeping it in mind for the future! Plus, I definitely need to go back and fix my old tags :’)
I am so happy you found this post useful, Sabrina! I need to fix my tags too – it will be a fun project that will encourage me to finish adding post headers to my old content haha
This was such a helpful post! Thank you. I never took post tags seriously before but maybe I should look into it.
Thank you Aamna, glad you found the post helpful!
I’m always confused on the difference between categories and tags, so this post is realllyy helpful!
Glad I was able to help, Tasya!
I had no idea on this. I’m definitely going to change my tags after all my scheduled posts are done. I’ll try to be more specific and not add basic ones. Thank you for this post!
You’re welcome and I’m so glad you found the post useful! I did massive tag cleanup a year or two ago and it isn’t too bad as you can just delete the ones you don’t want to use anymore. But then you have to go back into your old posts and add new ones… which isn’t as easy but it doesn’t need to be done all at once.
Thanks for the reminder. I am so tag happy and really need to sit down and figure out all the tags I really want to use & delete the others.
You’re welcome, I hope this was helpful! I have to clean up my tags a bit too…
Wonderful post! This is so informative and I’ll definitely be going through my tags. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much, glad you found the post useful and good luck with tag cleanup!
I’ve done cleanups on my tags before, but I also have both a “book review” tag and category so obviously there’s still more work to do. Thanks for the info!
Hahaha yea, me too! I was so shocked when I noticed it on my screenshot! And then I laughed and figured it would be good to keep included. Thanks for reading
When I first started blogging I had no idea what the tags were for so I kind of treated them like social media tags. So mine are kind of all over the place. I should probably edit them so that the older posts don’t get so lost in the mix lol
You aren’t alone, I think all of us have gone a little hard on the post tags! It’s a good cleanup activity that’s kinda mindless when watching tv to update old posts to aid in their discoverability through tags, etc.
I was looking for something like this! I honestly used to think of post tags as an afterthought but it turns out it is significant. I love how simplified yet informative this post was, thanks!
AHHH, so glad I was able to help! Tags are definitely significant and you can keep your older posts alive by linking them together in this way.
I use them… sort of. But the new emails that WP is sending out, come without all the tags and categories. That can’t be a good thing.
I never noticed that the tags used to be included in the WP emails, to be honest I just delete those and go straight to the posts. The fact they are removing them there also leads me to think they tag discoverability in the WP Reader, which is a thing but I didn’t mention because it’s a largely unused feature, will probably go away. I think WP tried to pivot to cater to social media tags in that way but it didn’t change the core functions of the blogs/sites.
As someone who usually panics when I need to add tags to posts, this was extremely helpful! Thank you for writing this guide 💕
YAY, I’m so glad this post will help you – let’s reduce that panic!
Very helpful post!
Thank you!
I am apparently hopeless at remembering how to use tags on the blog, so your post really came through and helped make their function crystal clear to my poor brain. Loved this post, will definitely be going back and redoing all my tags now that I know what I should be thinking about when making them.
Aww Cloclo you aren’t hopeless at all – for Gen Z especially it makes sense since you grew up with social media & hashtags! Glad you found the post useful and the good news is you can just delete the tags you no longer want without needing to update all the posts that include the tag. You’ll just need to edit in new tags if you choose to.
This really helpful! We made this mistake of not really using post tags until about a year into blogging.
Oh goodness, I made the opposite mistake of TOO MANY TAGS! It was a lot to get everything cleaned up and there’s still work I need to do. Glad you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for explaining this to me Kal! I see that I have some work to do LOL
You’re welcome Sophie, and good luck cleaning up your tags!
Hey, I had something correct for once!! 😅 though I do need to tweak a few things.. i do tag some things exactly like the category 😬 for the difference of « review requests » within the book review category. All of my bookish posts also do get the « booklr, bookblr, book blog, book blogging » tags, which might be kinda useless.. thank you for the guide!
WAHOO, great job Kristina! I also tag things like the category so even I have work to do, oops. Good luck tweaking your blog tags and connecting your posts together!
Absolutely loved these tips and tricks Kal, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Different platforms have different ways of using tags to deliver the right content.
YES, each platform needs to be treated differently – you can’t just use the same strategy on each. Thanks for reading and commenting, Tanaz!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I needed the refresher. 🙂
You’re welcome and I hope you found the post helpful!
This is literally SO helpful! I had no idea about most of the things in this post! I will definitely be changing the way I use tags
Ahhh, so glad you found and learned from this post!
Thanks for these tips! I’ve always had a grasp on how to use tags but I still could do with tidying up my tags since I have a few duplicate ones.
I think tags are definitely something we all can continually improve on, haha. I have a few duplicates as well to clean up.
Wow, the way I bookmarked this post so fast. I have been meaning to clean up my tags for AGES and his is going to be so helpful.
AHH, so glad this post motivated you and hope it helps!
Such a great, helpful post! 💕 I sometimes wonder if I should use more Tags and what they should look like, so I’ll keep this post in mind 😊
As someone who likes to be VERY ORGANIZED I want to tag like literally everything lol. I have to rein it in quite a bit. Glad you found the post helpful!
THANK YOU this was so helpful!!
You’re welcome and I’m so glad you found it helpful!
This is really helpful. I think sometimes I have things as a category when they should be a tag. I think I need to sit down and analyse what I’m using and how they fit together
Yea…. I have the same problem sometimes between tags and categories as well! I’m glad you found the post helpful and good luck. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment
Wow, this is so helpful! Can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 4 years but didn’t know this… I certainly have some cleaning up to do.
Thank you for this post, Kal <3
AHHH, I’m so glad you found the post helpful and I was able to teach you something! I hope the tag cleanup goes/went well.
This was super helpful!! And I’m glad you pointed out that Categories and Tags worked the same way because I was thinking that as reading and wasn’t sure what I was missing!
OMG Brittany, long time no see!!! I’m so glad you found the post useful and hope you’re doing well. Thanks for stopping by!
Not going to lie, after reading this I immediately went and fixed my tags. Thank you!!!
You’re welcome, glad the post helped you out! Thanks for letting me know
Great read and helpful tips. We often work with blogs clustered wit low relevant tags. Often the client is unaware in how to make use of tags and they simply mass target their main keyword. Bookmarked for others to read!
Cluttered tags are a literal nightmare of mine, I think social media like IG really ruined things for blogs. Thanks for reading and bookmarking!