“Techie” Tip – What’s a Tag?
February 7th, 2010 by DebraDavisHinkle
TAG (Metadata)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.
I thought tags were the uncomfortable things I cut out of my clothes. They are, but they are also a way of bringing viewers to your post, page or photo. Once you get them there, hopefully, they like what they see and read. They will come back, leave a comment or even better they might tell others about your site, using a Share/Save button. (This is something that will be discussed in a future “Techie” Tip blog.
On SLO NightWriters’ site we have a “Tag” spot on the right blogroll. The left blogroll has a “Latest News” and “Topics” spot. All three of these are just different “sorts” of our blogs. The different “sorts” help readers zoom in on what they are interested in. Further explanation of the SLO NightWriters’ website:
Latest News – blog titles sorted newest to older; approximately five titles.
Topics – author chosen categories of our blogs; it has less than ten titles.
Tags – the “one-word or phrase” describing post or page by the author.
Archives - “old” post categorized by month and year.
I hope this helps you negotiate our site.
Check out the two tags I placed on this post. They are below the Save/Share button on the left hand side in a very small font.
Comments are always welcome!
Contributed by: 
Great explanation on such an important little item! In my experience tag words can be THE way of directing traffic to a website when they have been formulated with specific, well-crafted care. It’s the difference between showing up on a search engine’s first page or their 5,000th. My website frequently shows up on page one of a Google search (and therefore earns hits) simply because of these little babies
. Thanks for the encouragement and detailing.
Thanks for the compliment!