Tags and Breadcrumbs

[dee]

Hi All

Are Tags something that I should be showing in my posts? Likewise, are breadcrumbs something that I should really be displaying on a wordpress site ?

Ta

 

[mat]

Tags are just another way of sorting posts like categories. For example you may have a "car" category and then have tags like "red cars" "sports cars" "convertibles", which if people click on will bring up other posts tagged with the same thing. Use if you think will be a benefit to your visitors.

Breadcrumbs are a way of people being able to easily click on or simply see where abouts they are on the site. Again another thing that may benefit your visitors and in some ways can make your site easier for search engines to crawl its structure etc, but not so important. Example: "Home > Blog > Cars > Blog Post Name" Someone who lands on your blog post can quickly see where they are on the site and click to visit the cars category or blog home page etc.

 

[dazc]

Tags are a great way of organizing your content internally but displaying these for SEO purposes isn't a great idea in my view. If you are going to use tags then it's important that you can control which tags are indexed and which are not.

For example, if you have a tag with only 2 posts you don't really want that to be indexed because it's shallow content but if a tag has loads of posts you might - so long as it isn't just a duplicate, or near duplicate, of another category.

Breadcrumbs can be a good idea and quite easy to test - just run for a couple of weeks and see what the impact is. I can't think of any reason other than aesthetics for not using them.

 

[Adam H]

Id always advise to make a judgement between what suits your site better, either having Tag's indexed or categories Indexed. Having both doesn't make sense and can cause possible duplicate content issues and/or thin content.

It's one of those things you can't simply blanket assess as it can be dependent on how you use your site and structure, whether you are customising category pages and what you are currently restricting from being indexed. Obviously you can have tags active for users and noindex them still.

Breadcrumbs again, on some sites can add to user experience and improve time on site and pages visited. On other sites it can get in the way and look/feel bloated. You can also use JSON-LD to apply breadcrumb schema, that way you get the small benefits from using schema markup where they apply, but don't have to display the breadcrumb physically.

 

[mat]

I tend to noindex categories and tags as standard and just index the main blog post list page, unless it is a major site with important categories with unique blog posts being updated on the category regularly. Otherwise said above its just loads of categories indexed with duplicate posts on etc.

 

[ausername]

I'm building a bit site which is largely tag driven. I show tags on posts, so people can click and see other content with the same tag, and even have a tag index.

But I'm noindexing them, with the exception of a few which have a large number of associated pages. Otherwise I'd have loads of 'thin' pages in the index, and probably some duplicate content issues.

As some tags grow in size I will allow google to index them.

Example....

Thin tag page, no index: http://documentaryvine.com/video_tag/algeria/

This one I would be happy to index, setting a yoast title of 'British Politics Documentaries': http://documentaryvine.com/video_tag/british-politics/

Because as it happens.... if somebody was looking for British Politics Documentaries, they'd probably like finding that page.

So tags = an internal navigation system, can also power other things like 'related posts'.

But don't index them unless you think they are a worthy addition to Google search results, be wary of thin pages + too many tag pages which have near identical content (dupe issues).

 

[dee]

Wow. That was quick for some great answers. Cheers... its what I thought really. I ment actually display the TAGS on the posts, but i'd rather not anyway. Likewise, breadcrumbs, id rather not. Just wondered if there was any advantage in terms of SEO.

I will work out how to no index the tags then I think. Thank you

 

[Adam H]

Thin tag page, no index: http://documentaryvine.com/video_tag/algeria/

This one I would be happy to index, setting a yoast title of 'British Politics Documentaries': http://documentaryvine.com/video_tag/british-politics/
.

Id recommend rewriting those URL's to remove the underscores, and add some content to them before allowing either of them to be indexed personally. A list of posts isn't really a representation of it not being thin. Add some unique content above and below the post lists outlining what the section is about do add some weight to it.

 

[dazc]

Id always advise to make a judgement between what suits your site better, having Tag's indexed or categories Indexed ?. Having both doesn't make sense and can cause possible duplicate content issues ....

I agree although there are are exceptions depending, obviously, on the size and complexity of the site. If you have a dozen categories each with 100 or more posts then tags could be a good way of breaking these into quasi sub-categories.

One example I am using at the moment. I have a furniture site with living room, bathroom, etc categories. But some living room furniture is solid wood, some is self-assembly, some is ready assembled and so on. I use tags for these and can use for linking to related content and such.

For this example site I only actually have one tag that's indexed because it's just the way the site grew and the alternative would have been to re-do the url structure of 6 or more categories. Lumping them all into one tag was a lot easier.

 

[ausername]

Yeah I've been thinking about writing a little description at the top of each category + tag page, thanks - will add to the (long) list!

Not heard the underscore in URL thing before (or have but long forgotten), will have to do some reading up on that. Cheers Adam.

 

[mat]

Wow. That was quick for some great answers. Cheers... its what I thought really. I ment actually display the TAGS on the posts, but i'd rather not anyway. Likewise, breadcrumbs, id rather not. Just wondered if there was any advantage in terms of SEO.

I will work out how to no index the tags then I think. Thank you

I think if you are using tags, putting them at the bottom or top of the posts is probably the best way to get people viewing other pages on your site and sticking around. It could really add value keeping people on your site for longer and more interested, which as time goes on is all part of keeping search engines happy. (Well they tell you it does anyway )

 

[ausername]

I agree although there are are exceptions depending, obviously, on the size and complexity of the site. If you have a dozen categories each with 100 or more posts then tags could be a good way of breaking these into quasi sub-categories.

Pretty much what I'm doing... I've got "Paranormal" as a category, but there will be stuff within that category tagged with 'ghosts', 'ufos', 'aliens', and I can then index those tag pages for 'Ghost documentaries', 'UFO documentaries', and 'Alien documentaries'.

Otherwise I'd end up with 2000 categories or something, which is clearly going to make navigation an absolute nightmare for anybody who wants to come and have a browse.

 

[dee]

Next question then please. I havent used an SEO plug in so far, which would probably deal with the no index . Should i ?

Yoast?

 

[ausername]

Yoast 100%, imo

Tried one of the other popular ones before that and it added so much bloat it was unreal, can't remember which one it was now but it created sh*t loads of database tables for some reason and conflicted with several of my other plugins. Had no problems at all with Yoast.

 

[mat]

Yep Yoast will do everything you need and more.

 

[Adam H]

Yeah I've been thinking about writing a little description at the top of each category + tag page, thanks - will add to the (long) list!

Not heard the underscore in URL thing before (or have but long forgotten), will have to do some reading up on that. Cheers.

Depending on whom you speak to underscores are not a massive deal and others will say its a must. Personally its more of a consistency thing. It was a while ago when Google confirmed underscores were not considered separators, Id still consider it good practice to avoid if possible though.

If those pages are currently not indexed like you said..Id change them, if they already carry some weight id consider options carefully before making a decision.

 

[Adam H]

Used Yoast since they released it, but moved away this year because of too much bloat and 3rd party integrations. The only time id recommend Yoast now is if someone really relies on the traffic light scores for their content.

Hated how their schema data kept overlapping with my own on some sites. But obviously most people would stick to Yoasts default so doesn't apply to the majority of people using it.

Edit. Now use All in One Seo Pack

 

[mat]

Is that the same "All in One SEO" everyone used to use before yoast, or is it a different plugin? Will check it out again.

 

[dee]

Okay.... so this is an example of what I mean about my TAGS if anyone has the time to take a quick peek.

https://battersea.co.uk/new-river-bus-at-battersea-power-station/

I have the post, and then I've added tags that I consider might be relevant for future search which show up at the bottom of the post.

Does this approach make sense in this context ?

 

[Adam H]

Is that the same "All in One SEO" everyone used to use before yoast, or is it a different plugin? Will check it out again.

The very same, I left it originally because Yoast was getting ahead of the game but I like how light it is now in comparison. I've seen better results since switching. I know @tifosi mentioned another plugin in another thread, thats one i havent personally tried but suspect its just as lightweight.