Pierce Designs Blog

As the web evolves, new ways to display and navigate information are introduced. Within the last few months “Tagging” and “Tag Clouds” have been gaining momentum as methods to bring visitors to sites. The faster you get your users to the content they want, the more likely they are to come back later.Originally, when media publishing sites released articles, posts or news events, content would be assigned into a single category. This limited authors in how they could classify or categorize their articles and information. As a result, their content would often get lost in a pile of other information, some of which had little, or no relevance to the end user. Recently, newer media publishing sites have addressed this limitation by developing a system of keyword-based classifications known as “tagging“. Authors can now assign their content with multiple labels, “tags“, to help clarify what exactly that piece of content really is.

Example of a “Tag Cloud”

My favorite examples of tagging can be found on tag-enabled photo services, such as Flickr (www.flickr.com). Because search engine technology is much less evolved in terms of indexing photos, it is much harder to give end users the picture content they are looking for. This is where tagging comes into play! You can now help search engines by tagging that photo of you and your dog Spot with as many keywords as you would like to help explain what it is, i.e. dog, brown, sunny day, Seattle, Spot.

You also might be familiar with tags or categories in relationship to blog posts. Services such as Technorati also use tagging for its directory of links.

The fun really begins when users get to see the “Tag Cloud“, a new navigational component featured on sites such as CNet and also Flickr.com. Keywords within the tag cloud that are larger mean that there are more articles tagged with that keyword, while keywords that are smaller are less popular. Clicking on the keyword will then navigate the user to a list of relevant content, whether it be photos, stories, music, etc., that tagged with that keyword.

What tagging means for your business

With blogging becoming a staple of many companies’ websites, the ability to tag relevant content connects your business to your target audience. In addition, the ability of your site visitor to tag content affords them a method to interact with your company, and internalize your product, ensuring a return customer. Tags are an excellent way to increase your “Google-juice”. Search engines feed off of these tags and allow users to make a bee-line for your content. Using tags gets you better SEO (Search Engine Optimization), period.