Is too many tags a problem?

1. 91

   alexadryposted 13 years ago

   I have a couple of hubs that were ranking well in Google for my chosen keywords, but lately a few other websites are toppling over them. These competitive websites however are rarely if ever updated(ie yahoo answers from a few years ago, closed to new comments). Being hubs from when I first joined hubpages about 5 years ago,( I knew very little about SEO back then) I noticed they had like 20 tags made out of single keywords that I feel people are unlikely to type to do a search. I would like to erase some of these tags and make them more relevant for the content I have, but I am afraid that it may mess up things and cause my article to go from first/second page of Google to page 10 or no where to find...Any ideas if updating the tags gives my hubs a boost or not? or is it risky business and I should just let it go? ideas appreciated!
   
   PS.Anybody know of a forum about Google or Google support email to learn why my articles do the Google dance all the time? By Google dance I mean hubs that are page 1 on Google and then next day page 4 and then 1 again for no apparent reason? I would understand this if the competitor websites were always refreshing their websites but it really looks they are not!

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Tags on HubPages are not the same as tags on a blog, they are not intended to be used by Google (you'll note on the new layouts, they're not even visible to readers).  But it's definitely worth reducing them, because there's always a risk your Hubs might be unpublished for "deceptive tags", even after all this time.
      
      
      
      Google is constantly tweaking its algorithm so that may account for it.  Google Support forums won't help you much - I recommend you sign up for a free trial of Keyword Academy and join their forum.

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2. 56

   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   I would suggest you 'experiment' with a Hub regarding your tags, just to see if there's a improvement. As for the 'G' dance we all go through it and just something not within out control so best not to stress over it. Just some thoughts.

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3. 91

   alexadryposted 13 years ago

   Thank you, I may try on a hub that is not doing too well and see how it affects it by monitoring it. I think about 20 single keywords will not be necessary and would better be off being tweaked a bit. Thanks for the info!

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4. 85

   Healthy Pursuitsposted 13 years ago

   If you choose an old hub and reduce the number of tags, it will probably be seen by Google as updated. So that may be to your benefit. If you're getting "related hubs" that aren't related at all, it's probably because you have a lot of tags, instead of just a few.

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