Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Less Tags better for SEO?
-
I am currently reviewing my strategy when it comes to categories and tags on my site. Having been no-indexed for some time, and having many tags with just one entry I am thinking that this is not optimal for SEO purposes.
This is what I am planning:
- Categories - Change these to Index, but only after adding a hundred words or so by way of introduction (see this example - https://www.besthostnews.com/news/hosting/a-small-orange-news/). With the categories I am thinking of highlighting key articles as well to improve link juice distribution to older articles that are important.
- Tags - About half my tags have only 1 entry, with a few more just having 2 entries. I am thinking of deleting all tags with just one entry, and trying to merge those with just two or 3 entries where it makes sense to do so. I will keep these as no-index, but I think this will mean more optimal distribution of link juice within the site.
I would appreciate your thoughts \ suggestions on the best practices here.
-
I have added an update here: http://moz.com/community/q/reviewing-category-tag-policy-update
-
Thank you. The example page i linked is actually a resource that helps with conversions. . The content at the top will highlight the better posts rather than some of the fluff posts that I rel canonical or no-index (i.e. old offers etc). The problem is that if I do more than 100 words, it would end up fluff. I think it adds value by linking to some external resources and key posts, so I will work towards building that up over time.
But thank you for your indepth reply. You are saying alot of what I was thinking, but not convinced enough to make the drastic changes I probably need to do.
I am tempted to remove tags. I don't think anyone ever visits them.
Update: I have now removed the tags. I can always create one or two new categories if I need to in the future, but for now I think I have made the best decision for my site. 160 pages that were never visited and diluted link juice have just been deleted.
-
I am currently reviewing my strategy when it comes to categories and tags on my site.
Everyone should do this. I do it once every year or so.
Having been no-indexed for some time, and having many tags with just one entry I am thinking that this is not optimal for SEO purposes.
I agree. I don't use tag pages.
Categories - Change these to Index, but only after adding a hundred words or so by way of introduction (see this example).
Where I have used categories, I wait until I have a substantive amount of material to appear on the category page. I visited your sample page and can't tell if the hundred words or so at the top is yada yada yada content or real beef. If it is real beef then go with it. If it is yada yada yada then wait until you have a large enough number of posts that your page is of substantive length.
Also, I run periodic traffic assessments on my category pages. If some of them are not bringing in the traffic or at least showing traffic growth then I delete them (301 redirect to the blog homepage). My philosophy is that a compact site competes better for difficult, high-traffic terms if it does not have a lot of useless pages.
I am thinking of deleting all tags with just one entry,
Yes, these never should have been created.
and trying to merge those with just two or 3 entries where it makes sense
If this is going to create pages that compete with category pages then just delete them.
I will keep these as no-index, but I think this will mean more optimal distribution of link juice within the site.
In my opinion, tag pages are dangerous if they have snippets of the same content that appears on category pages and on the main blog page and its paginations. Also, tag pages that are same topic as category pages are a bad idea in my opinion.
If you are not indexing pages they will pull zero traffic from search. If you have links to them then you linkjuice is being scattered into potentially low-value pages. I am all about internal linking but keep my philosophy that compact sites compete more strongly for the difficult queries where the big traffic is earned.
-
Neither have been indexed due to that very reason... duplicate content, poor quality \ thin content.
-
Have both the categories as tags been indexed by Google? Usually you leave one of them out of the indexes of Google to make sure you don't get in trouble with creating a lot of duplicate content and not unique pages.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Commas in title tags
Hello Guys, Thanks in advance for all who can help me with this I am helping a dinnerware company with their SEO. I told them to change their ambiguous title tags for more specific ones. However, they opted to create some title tags with 2 or three keywords separated by commas. I have attached an excel image illustrating their new title tags.. My question is, will this format be a problem with Google--penalties? The questionable title tags are highlighted in light orange. Thanks! lHH92
On-Page Optimization | | HectorCortes0 -
Does Bolding Text Have Any Impact on SEO?
Someone told me it does but I thought that was old school way of thinking. Any thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | tryfantasy1 -
Is it OK to include name of your town to the title tag or H1 tag on a blog to enhance local search results
I recently attended a webinar by ETNA Interactive on local search SEO. The presenter recommended including the name of your town in the title of the blog to increase local search SEO. Is this OK? Ive always been concerned that it is such an obvious attempt to rank locally that Google would consider it "spammy" ? black hat, "sketchy" or otherwise manipulative. Have the rules changed? Is it OK to do? Brooke
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
ALT tagging images with keyword. What is too much?
I was wondering about the best practices of ALT tags in images. Say if you have an eCommerce site and you're on a product page. This product page has 5 images of the same product (different images), should you give every image an Alt tag with the keyword for that page? Or, is that keyword stuffing, and it would actually be best practice be to provide alt tags on just one image?
On-Page Optimization | | John_Francis0 -
Prices in title tag
At our ecommerce site adwords ads generally perform a lot better when the product price is included in the ad title. Does anyone here have any experience and data on CTR with including product prices in title tags of product / category pages?
On-Page Optimization | | ese0 -
What is the most SEO friendly Shopping Cart?
What is the most SEO friendly shopping cart? I have been using zen-cart for 6 years. Seems Google doesn't like it as much as other carts. I started a new site about 6 months ago using Magento. When I build links to this site the terms move. The terms are very similar. So I would imagine the competition is the same. I am curious if anybody has tried with different carts and found anyone to be better than the others. Also the new site has about one tenth the amount of products but has a lot more pages indexed.
On-Page Optimization | | kicksetc0 -
H1 tag in the footer?
Quick question: I have been scouring SEOMoz.org along with webmaster forums looking for an answer, but we have a person who insists that the H1 tag be located in the Footer. I feel that is is fundamentally wrong because it is not the intent of the H1 tag, and I do not believe it is a best practice. That being said would we see what little value the H1 tag has disappear if we put it in the footer, would we be penalized, or am I being too vanilla by wanting to keep it in the Title position?
On-Page Optimization | | travelclickseo0 -
Is an Overflow SEO friendly
Is an "overflow" (scrollbar) seo and Google friendly? I only ask because it hides part of the visible text.
On-Page Optimization | | BradBorst0