Is it Best to Have Only 8 to 12 Tags

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   Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years ago

   I saw this somewhere but do not know where. I see hubs with a lot more than that.

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2. 61

   tirelesstravelerposted 11 years ago

   We have to have at least 2; I think you can have as many as 30+.  Too many tags make the hub look like spam. I am sure there is something about them in the Learning Center.

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   psycheskinnerposted 11 years ago

   I don't think tags do very much and rarely have more than 2-3.

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4. 79

   Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years ago

   Tags are used only within HP to show related hubs on the sidebar. The tags are not used outside of HP, by Google or other search engines. The way I treat tags (well, except for older hubs that I haven't cleaned up yet)is to have only a few that are pretty specific. Otherwise the relative hubs shown could be about almost anything.
   For example, if you've created a how-to hub on refinishing furniture and you have a tag "table", you could end up with relative hubs that are anything from recipes to tours of the table lands of the Mongolian steppes. So be specific and experiment a little. Put in a few tags, then after you've published your hub, view it to see what relative hubs have been chosen for display.

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      Vampsdesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Oh I had no idea that's what the tags were used for.  Thanks for posting this.  I must have missed that along the way.  I'm going to go clean my hubs up now!

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5. 62

   Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years ago

   I thought that the tabs are looked at by the search engines to help to know what keywords your site is about. There are social media bookmarks and some of them ask for tags to help the search engines, not to link articles to you.

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      Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Tags in HP are not the same as tags outside of HP. In HP, you want to make sure your title, subtitles and picture captions have keywords in them. And of course your hub text. That was confusing to me, too, when I started writing for HP.

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      1. 62

         Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Is there a place that hubpages says this? Yes I know about using the keywords in title, subtitle and picture captions.

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      2. 62

         Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         So it was confusing to you in the beginning but then you learned something that is totally wrong. I guess you learned it from others that are confused. I have answered my own question right above this. Here is what Hubpages says when you first enter the tags (exact quote).
         
         "Tags can be important for people using a ►search engine◄ to find internet materials on topics. They ►alert the search engines◄ that you have relevant material on the topic described by the hub. Tags should be descriptive words and phrases."
         
         A book on SEO says that 8 to 12 tags are best. But I just put 13 tags on an article. The idea is that the less tags, the more weight each one gets.

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            Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Well, if that's what you say, you'll have to go with it. I won't.

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            1. 62

               Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I am not saying it. Hubpages is saying it.

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                  Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  If you don't believe what you're told, then why don't you just look things up for yourself in the first place. To ask for help then tell the people who are trying to help you that they're basically full of it is rude.
                  
                  I've seen many of the more successful hubbers discussing tags in both forums and hubs. They are people who have been making at least part of their income from HP for several years. I'll go with what they say. The reference that you're making is probably the one written by "hubpages" that had me confused when I first started writing for HP. So that's all I have to say. You do what you want and I'll do what I want.

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   floriferousposted 11 years ago

   It's the keywords/phrases you use in a "high quality" article that attract the search engines, not the tags. I see a number of outdated things on HubPages. The tags are for in-house searches. I'd be very surprised to learn otherwise.

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      Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      So you are saying that the above by Hubpages is outdated?

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7. 61

   floriferousposted 11 years ago

   Yes:) My experience off HubPages tells me it is. Tags don't have the Google juice that quality and keywords have (in that order). Ten or more tags probably won't hurt or help. With that many though, you will end up using terms that barely have a relationship to the article.

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   1. 62

      Chuck Bluesteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I could write a hub on this, but should I. Tags and keywords are in 2 different categories. Keywords are in your mind. Tags are somewhere in the article. So keywords should be in many places for best results. Put keywords in title. Put then in URL (HP does that). Put them in links going to your article. Put them in heading and sub headings. Put them in the beginning of the artcle. Put them in 3% to 7% of your text. Put them in descriptions of images. Put them in metatags. On most websites these are invisible to people but visible to search engines to help search engines.

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