Avoiding a Tag Flood

With the increased popularity of tags growing daily, one can often fall victim to what I like to call a tag flood. I’m sure you’ve seen this before, and any tagging newbie has probably done this in del.icio.us at least once. The key is to avoid this habit on your blog, and if possible fix the problem in all of your social networking venues.

With Wordpress 2.3 on the horizon and the inclusion of built-in tagging, what better time to take a look at simplifying the process meant to simplify things.

Tag clouds are the ever popular collection of weighted links associated with different keywords used to describe content on a blog. This display of folksonomy is a nice use of anarchy in an otherwise clean-cut categorical system. The problem arises when an author gets carried away, but there are little things that can be done to prevent this.

As you begin tagging content, or go back re-tagging content, decide on a few guidelines to help along the way. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I going to abbreviate or spell it out? ex: SEO? vs. Search Engine Optimization?
2. Will I use the singular or the plural? ex: Plugin vs. Plugins
3. Should I Include Parents? Will I be using Wordpress and Plugins, Wordpress Plugins, or Wordpress:Plugins
4. Do these two tags contain the same content? Are you using tutorials and howto when one would suffice.
5. Are my tags being used? Do I have them displayed in a manner that they contribute to the navigation of the site? Are they compatible with my meta keywords?

There are countless tagging tools available and plenty of services take advantage of tags. Remember to think about these questions and help your cloud lose a few pounds this summer, or at least turn that weight into muscle.