Do Tags harm your search results?

[Mckinise]

I just started two new wordpress blogs. One of them is being ranked for every single tag listed in the articles. I even have categories listed.

Should I be worried?

If so, what is a plug-in to stop these pages from being listed?

What other pages should be blocked? Archive, Categories, Tags... ?

 

[Ventio]

i read earlier that it can mess up your keyword density but other than that im not too sure, i would like some more on this too

 

[danms]

Think about it - why would google rank a tag page instead of your main page? They want relevant pages to appear right?

I wouldn't worry about it much - just build more links to your homepage and the page you want to rank. Add more content, interlink properly and get your UI to be not-so-bad, so users won't be like WTF when they land on your site.

Time a patience = ranking.

I wouldn't no-index them because... they scare competitors away, newbies especially (m. samurai and the like).

 

[noseo]

One of them is being ranked for every single tag listed in the articles.

Should I be worried?

You don't like being ranked?

 

[WhiteHatMaybe]

Google have said explicitly you should never worry about duplicate content issues created by archives (tags, categories, date archives).

The question is, do you want these pages being crawled every time using up valuable crawl budget. Unless it makes sense to have date ranges indexed, I would noindex tag pages and date archives and stick to category pages in the SERPs. Maybe give it a try for a month and watch rankings closely.

RE using tags in Wordpress, they are a legitimate way to sub-categorise main categories. They wont harm your rankings unless they're abused / overused / keyword stuffed.

Hope that helps

 

[Jodly]

Tags are pretty useless. They just create pages with duplicate content on your site.

 

[WebsiteLiving]

Not really sure on this. They used to be thought of as smart SEO, but I don't see many websites using it nowadays. I still have it on one of my older websites, but I couldn't tell you how google feels about it.

 

[lucasbraydon]

The question is, do you want these pages being crawled every time using up valuable crawl budget.

You are all taking this and that but not one of you contributes to the Crawl fund to increase your crawl budgets

 

[THUNDERELVI]

Think about it - why would google rank a tag page instead of your main page? They want relevant pages to appear right?

I wouldn't worry about it much - just build more links to your homepage and the page you want to rank. Add more content, interlink properly and get your UI to be not-so-bad, so users won't be like WTF when they land on your site.

Time a patience = ranking.

I wouldn't no-index them because... they scare competitors away, newbies especially (m. samurai and the like).

Wouldn't worry about it much ?
LOL you have no idea what you are talking about.

And what the hell tags have to do with competitors checking in MS ?
On-site SEO factors being checked in these kinda tools are meta tags (h1,h2,h3,etc.. headers, meta description tag and title tag) and if the URL contains the keyword or not.
9/10 if you are doing SEO right you will have all of the above (thus "scaring" competitors away) without the need of tags.

So at OP: No you don't need tags, they just create duplicate pages on your website and raise the keyword density of a page/post, which pushes you into over-optimization.
Even if you use them, no-index them of course, but still they will count to the total keyword density, so I recommend not using them at all.

 

[TheUnborn]

Yes it does harm, I removed all tags from wordpress and serp went from 300 to 1st page .

 

[ProSEO Show]

Wordpress creates a lot of "duplicate" pages / content, like for instance if you have only one author on the blog and have the front page displaying the most recent posts, the authors page will be almost identical to your home page...Or if you have 2 posts that use the same 2 tags because they are similar topics, but no other posts use those tags - now you have 2 identical pages (the two tag pages only display those 2 posts)...There are plenty of plugins to help with this issue - check out the 2 popular / free SEO plugins either Wordpress SEO by Yoast or Platinum SEO I think the other one is...Should be able to d0-f0ll0w but noindex your tag pages, strip category from slugs, and all kinds of other nifty shit

 

[Ventio]

some nice info in here.. thanks guys..

 

[Techxan]

Tags are evil, dump them.

 

[soda_Blez]

put the tag links in Nofollow - it may work

 

[ProSEO Show]

put the tag links in Nofollow - it may work

You don't want to do that...Keep them DO follow but no index...If you no follow them then you're basically putting up roadblocks for "link juice" or whatever the term these days is. You want them to continue to pass on authority through links but not be indexed and compete with real pages / posts in SERPs.

 

[lancis]

You don't want to do that...Keep them DO follow but no index...If you no follow them then you're basically putting up roadblocks for "link juice" or whatever the term these days is. You want them to continue to pass on authority through links but not be indexed and compete with real pages / posts in SERPs.

If they are not indexed - they dont exist. Thats a major roadblock for "link juice", unlike with nofollow, where you could at least argue about its SEO benefits.

 

[ProSEO Show]

If they are not indexed - they dont exist. Thats a major roadblock for "link juice", unlike with nofollow, where you could at least argue about its SEO benefits.

Lol dude when you noindex a page it can still pass authority...they don't exist in SERPs...but spiders still go to them, follow links through them, etc...Nofollow / do follow of course isn't set in stone law either that spiders must abide by always, but either way you don't want to index tag pages in most situations. Having 15 pages competing for the same / similar KW in SERPs can really fuck you. Like if you had a tag, category, and page with the same main keyword all indexed - that's basically making more competition for yourself.

 

[kimomalcolmx]

For most my sites I have nofollow and noindex for categories and tags, not shore if it "helps" in serps or not, here you have a good guide to wordpress seo http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-search-engine-optimization-optimization.html

 

[Mckinise]

I am going to move away from using tags. I have been away from the game a bit too long I guess.

 

[indieee]

Yes it does harm, I removed all tags from wordpress and serp went from 300 to 1st page .

How long did it take for you to notice the change?
I did a couple of my sites a week ago and there has been marginal movement (if any).

@OP, Wordpress SEO Yoast is the plugin that will help you deindex.