What is a tag?

“Tags” are words or phrases that can be added to a post to aid a searcher to find all the relevant posts on that topic.

Tags on website posts

Each “tag” that you create on your website will also appear in Google search results. When the tag is clicked on (either via Google or on your website itself), it will bring up a list of posts on your website with that tag attached.

The tags you use on your website posts should relate to keywords people are searching online. Go to the Keyword research: know your audience tutorial to find out more about keyword research.

The tag will appear higher in Google search results if the post(s) it is attached to have words or phrases that are relevant to that tag. So if the tag says “how to stop being depressed” but your post title and intro don’t mention anything about depression, the tag will appear lower in ranking if anyone searches on “how to stop being depressed” because Google thinks your post(s) are not relevant.

Tags on social media posts

On social media, tags help users find posts that relate to a topic. They begin with a “#” and have no spaces, for example, #spiritualidentity.
Use hashtags (not too many – 2, 3 or 4) that make sense and are relevant to the topic, and that you think people might filter on to find more conversation about that topic.

To find out if a hashtag is trending currently on social media, or to find other related hashtags, type your tag into the search bar at the top of these pages: hashtags.org and hashtagify.me.

Also see the article Posts: focusing on a current topic of local interest to understand more about website posts.