Have you found success using forum tags?

[AjayJunkies]

Forum tags are an option now that you can use on Xenforo which enables members to add tags to their threads which in turn, can help SEO.

Do you have tags enabled on your forum? Have you noticed any success using tags on your forum? Has it helped with SEO?

 

[cwe]

I have them enabled on my forums. 99.9% of members do not use it. The few who do, do not understand it's purpose and don't group topics under a common tag - they make unique tags every time.

I end up having to curate the tags on most every thread myself to achieve a measure of meaningful organization.

The real benefit to doing this is that I can make meaningful tags that are only 3 letters long and this makes searching for content that is too short for the general search function viable via the tag search (or browsing).

It's also helpful for directing folks asking questions to multiple threads on a given topic (via linking to the tag).

I have no idea if it actually helps for SEO or not. I use them because they are useful for me.

 

[Ricsca]

Unless it's a super technical form with users who know how to use them, it makes no sense for 99.9% of forums. I have always disabled them

 

[Mr Lucky]

I don't believe it helps SEO. I use them though for criteria in Search forums.

 

[bzcomputers]

XF 2.2 Thread 'Do Tags Improve Google Search Visibility or Just Help Within the Site?'

Jun 9, 2024

I'm curious about the use of tags on threads. Do they help improve my site's visibility on Google search, or are they mainly useful for finding threads within the site?
Thanks!

• VisEntities
• Replies: 5
• Forum: XenForo questions and support

 

[Ricsca]

I don't believe it helps SEO. I use them though for criteria in Search forums.

a link without the alt tag, which takes you back to a page without description and meta description, is unlikely to be read by Google

 

[CedricV]

They don't help with SEO at all. And most of the people don't use them. They are as useless as a tag cloud.

 

[Forsaken]

Not so much on XenForo due to lack of features (the tag add-on makes a big difference so far), but on other platforms tags used from a curated list as part of a guided posting strategy, or as an automated step that uses a curated list. Also having users be able to recommend tags, and have them go through an approval process to add to the curated list, or approve and show as secondary tags.

 

[Shortie]

I will admit that I used and do still use the tagging system on Xenforo but I don't notice the difference when it comes to SEO.

Content is King as they say and I try to get high-quality content to help with SEO, the tags are there to help users find the content they are looking for

 

[Digital Doctor]

I end up having to curate the tags on most every thread

Do tags help the Similar Threads listing ?

 

[cwe]

Do tags help the Similar Threads listing ?

Similar threads is disabled on my forums.

 

[Suzanne O]

Nope! We tag but it does bugger all.

What is tagging meant to do?

 

[Stuart Wright]

Yes, I think tags are useful if you use them with some help.

Has it helped with SEO?

I think it will help with SEO if Google uses the keywords structured data. It's set out here:

DiscussionForumPosting - Schema.org Type

Schema.org Type: DiscussionForumPosting - A posting to a discussion forum.

schema.org

If you look at the source of this page you will find

 "keywords": "forum tags, seo, xenforo"

So Xenforo is properly using tags in the structured data.
Whether or not Google uses the keywords, I can't say for certain, but in the SEO game, you have to play all the cards you can.

Tags also included in the forum search.
So I strongly believe that tags are useful for content discovery at least with the forum search but possibly with search engines also.

I have them enabled on my forums. 99.9% of members do not use it.

Agree. Most people won't create tags with their new threads as it's not something that people naturally or routinely do.
The problem is that the Xenforo implementation of tags is half hearted.

Unless it's a super technical form with users who know how to use them, it makes no sense for 99.9% of forums. I have always disabled them

I disagree. Whether or not the forum is technical is irrelevant. The key is how well you use the tags to help users find the threads they want.

This isn't an advert for my addon Tag Essentials, but my background of coding and running forums for over 24 years meant that I identified where the existing tags system was lacking and what was needed to make it work.

The key is to automatically add tags to a new thread based on its content. The user can enter tags (and edit later), but some are suggested based on existing tags which are found in the title that the user enters. This assumes that existing tags are good, which is not necessarily so, but better than nothing.
Then when the thread is submitted, we use ChatGPT to analyse the forum name, the thread title and the first post text to add tags.

I'm working on this further to refine it so that less useful tags (like adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, pronouns and conjunctions, for example) are excluded.

And I'm likely to add a batch update to add or replace tags in existing threads.

And Xenforo lacks proper tag management. Like blacklisting tags. So I've added that as well.

So while I agree that tags without Tag Essentials are not a useful feature on Xenforo, I believe that with Tag Essentials, they are. And that's why I have invested so much $$$ in developing and maintaining it. Not for sales (they will never recoup the cost of development), but for the use on my forums.

Here is an example of a thread created today in which the tags were, I'm pretty certain, added automatically.

Setting up LG HB806SH surround sound with UJ635V

I have been trying to set up this surround sound with my LG TV, I am not sure which way I should be cabling it? there is only one HDMI port on the surround sound, (HDMI out) at the moment i have a HDMI cable going from the SS into the ARC port on the TV, another cable going from my SKY box into...

www.avforums.com

 

[philmckrackon]

Yes, I think tags are useful if you use them with some help.



I think it will help with SEO if Google uses the keywords structured data. It's set out here:

DiscussionForumPosting - Schema.org Type

Schema.org Type: DiscussionForumPosting - A posting to a discussion forum.

schema.org

If you look at the source of this page you will find

 "keywords": "forum tags, seo, xenforo"

So Xenforo is properly using the in the structured data.
Whether or not Google uses the keywords, I can't say for certain, but in the SEO game, you have to play all the cards you can.

Tags also included in the forum search.
So I strongly believe that tags are useful for content discovery at least with the forum search but possibly with search engines also.



Agree. Most people won't create tags with their new threads as it's not something that people naturally or routinely do.
The problem is that the Xenforo implementation of tags is half hearted.



I disagree. Whether or not the forum is technical is irrelevant. The key is how well you use the tags to help users find the threads they want.

This isn't an advert for my addon Tag Essentials, but my background of coding and running forums for over 24 years meant that I identified where the existing tags system was lacking and what was needed to make it work.

The key is to automatically add tags to a new thread based on its content. The user can enter tags (and edit later), but some are suggested based on existing tags which are found in the title that the user enters. This assumes that existing tags are good, which is not necessarily so, but better than nothing.
Then when the thread is submitted, we use ChatGPT to analyse the forum name, the thread title and the first post text to add tags.

I'm working on this further to refine it so that less useful tags (like adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, pronouns and conjunctions, for example) are excluded.

And I'm likely to add a batch update to add or replace tags in existing threads.

And Xenforo lacks proper tag management. Like blacklisting tags. So I've added that as well.

So while I agree that tags without Tag Essentials are not a useful feature on Xenforo, I believe that with Tag Essentials, they are. And that's why I have invested so much $$$ in developing and maintaining it. Not for sales (they will never recoup the cost of development), but for the use on my forums.

Here is an example of a thread created today in which the tags were, I'm pretty certain, added automatically.

Setting up LG HB806SH surround sound with UJ635V

I have been trying to set up this surround sound with my LG TV, I am not sure which way I should be cabling it? there is only one HDMI port on the surround sound, (HDMI out) at the moment i have a HDMI cable going from the SS into the ARC port on the TV, another cable going from my SKY box into...

www.avforums.com

Excellent post. I believe tags to be essential for Google as when I check incoming links the majority are linking to posts with good tags.
Tag Essentials is a fantastic resource and it's Chat GPT useage is great. I look forward to the release when back thread batch updating is implemented.
In the mean time there a few good paid resources that allow you to batch update old threads, just be sure you have a very robust stop word list.