Archive for the ‘Tags’ Category
How To Use Tags ***UPDATE***

***There have been changes to the widget discussed in this tutorial since the original publication (9-02-2009) of this tutorial. I have updated the tutorial to reflect these changes. Yellow font indicates where changes have been made. I have used the strike thru to indicate procedures that no longer apply. Also note that some images have been changed or deleted to reflect the changes to the widget.***
In this tutorial you will learn what tags are and how to use them. If you consider the amount of information on the internet it is no surprise that there must be a way to categorize that information for future reference by web surfers who are looking for it. The same holds true for information contained on your site.
To use tags you begin on the same screen where you write a post. After writing a post look to the right of the box where you have just typed the body of your post. You will see a white box labeled ‘Tags’ (notice the RED arrow in the illustration to the right). This is where you enter the tags which accurately describe the content of your post (see the GREEN box in the illustration to the right). Once you have added your tags they will appear under the header entitled ‘Tags used on this post:’ (inside the PURPLE box in the illustration to the right). If your post is about some aspect of the ‘$8000 Tax Credit’ then that phrase would be a good tag. You do not want to use non-relevant tags as visitors might get upset and/or frustrated if they click on ‘$8000 Tax Credit’ and the post(s) which are displayed are not directly related to that tag.
A wonderful tool that is available to help visitors easily use the tags you have entered is the Tag Cloud Widget. This widget is accessed via the dashboard; YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN. From the Dashboard this is the path:
Dashboard>Appearance>Widgets>Tag Cloud
If your tag cloud widget is not active and you want to use it, look for the ‘Appearance’ header on the left side of your Dashboard. If you hover over ‘Appearance’ a GRAY dropdown arrow will appear; click on this arrow. You then click on WIDGETS to open the list of widgets widget page. Simply add the ‘Tag Cloud’ widget to your sidebar by clicking ‘Add’ dragging it to the desired sidebar.
Tags which accurately relate to the content of your post are a great organizational tool. This organization can make your site much more visitor friendly. Imagine for a minute that you are the visitor and you arrive at a webpage looking for information on the ‘$8000 Tax Credit.’ If the site owner uses accurate tags then a visitor can simply click on the topic they are looking for in the tag cloud to display all of the posts that are tagged with that term! See the tag cloud to the right for an example of how a well utilized tag cloud might look.
How To Use Tags ***UPDATE*** is a post from: My WordPress Tutorial
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