Topics: Marketing Toolkit, Digital Media
Most companies in business today understand the necessity of digital marketing and are looking for ways to boost rankings for their websites. This is a complicated undertaking with many aspects to consider. For years, categorizing and tagging one’s online content was seen as an important piece of this puzzle. However, best practices change rapidly in the world of internet marketing, and this area is no exception. Keep reading to learn the best way to use categories and tags to improve your SEO rankings today. The answer will surprise you!
The Most Effective Way to Use Categories and Tags to Boost Rankings
The most effective way to use categories and tags to enhance SEO is to minimize their use. While this likely seems counterintuitive, bear with me. You’re more likely to harm your site’s SEO through the overuse of categories and tags than you are to help it. In fact, Google has gotten so good at scanning content and determining what the focus is and which keywords are being targeted that the use of categories and tags is almost irrelevant if you want to boost rankings.
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Where categories and tags shine is in their ability to provide content organization. By properly planning and utilizing an effective category and tagging structure, you will increase your ability to create focused and relevant content. You will also help your target audience easily access all the content that is pertinent to their specific interests.
If you overuse categories and tags, you will not only make it more difficult for users to find the content they’re looking for on cluttered results pages, you also make it more difficult for Google to determine what you’re trying to rank for. In addition, you risk damaging your site’s SEO through unnecessary content duplication and the potential to be penalized for keyword stuffing.
“To simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary can speak.”
– HANS HOFMANN
To optimize category and tags usage, keep your list of categories and tags small and focused, minimize the number of categories and tags you apply to each post, and make sure the categories and tags you use are relevant.
Here at MSS Media, Inc., we’ve been providing Education, Government, Real Estate & Lifestyle clients with succinct, optimized, and successful marketing solutions for more than 15 years. Consider MSS Media, Inc. a full-service, one-stop shop for all your Media and Public Relations needs. Your goals are our motivation. And our mission is to propel your message, further and faster, to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for. If you found this blog post helpful, please share!
