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What is a Tag?

A tag is a keyword or a descriptive term associated with an item as a means of classification.

Tags are typically used in a dynamic, flexible and automatically generated internet related environment and do not follow any specific defined classification scheme.

Illustration

Let’s try to understand the concept of tags with an example. For instance, a blog server which supports tagging might have the tags Broadway, Tickets, Phil Colner and Premiers.

A reader will be able to tell the purpose of the page quickly by scanning the list of tags. The server would list the tags in a list on that page, with each tag being displayed as a web link. This link would lead to an index page listing all web pages which use that tag. This process, in turn allows a reader to quickly locate all pages which are associated with the term Broadway.

In case the server supports tag searching, a reader would be able to find all pages that use a specific set of tags, such as Broadway and Premiers. To further reclassify the page, all that will be required is to change the list of tags and all the connections will be automatically tracked and updated by the software.

Forms of Tagging

There are two types of tagging patterns for blogs. The form of tagging you decide to implement in your blog depends on your blog and its goals.

However, it should be noted that whatever form you opt for, do it carefully, because once implemented, to change the form of tags later involves a lot of complicated exercise.

Here we discuss the two main types of tagging for blogs to facilitate your decision-making:

• Internal Tagging - This form of tagging capitalizes on the content on the

site and provides internal linking which is basically good for both, search

engines and your readers.

Internal tagging fundamentally uses the flow of conversation approach. The approach highlights that the flow of conversation is not only linear, but is also multi-topical and interspersed with other aspects of conversation.

• External tagging: External tagging is implemented by outside services like Technorati, Flickr or del.icio.us and gives the process an edge of external exposure. Bloggers who use this form of tagging do so because they already have categories for internal use and meanwhile tagging allows them to feed the subjects to such external tagging services.

External tagging facilitates a lot of broad exposure on individual entries but carries the risk of being unable to tie similar conversations together internally.

How to Implement Tags?

Most of the blog platforms do not support out-of-the-box tagging services. However, most of them provide support for plugins or extensions. Here we list a few examples:

• Ultimate Tag Warrior (WordPress) – This plugin provides a wide set of options for internal and external tagging both. This service allows the blogger to display tags in a lot of ways and is thoroughly documented. External tags have the provision to get linked to Technorati, Flickr, del.icio.us, Wikipedia and the like.

• Jerome’s Keywords (WordPress) – This plugin is the easiest to reverse mid-way as it implements tags as keywords.

• Simple Tags, (WordPress) - This particular plugin carries the basic Technorati tagging capability on a per-post basis. However, it does not carry the internal tagging functionality.

• TechnoratiTags (Moveable Type) – Similar in nature to the above two, this plugin feeds keywords to technorati as tags.