I came across this article by Clickz entitled How Will Tags Color The Web. In this article Clickz talks about the Tagging web content. The most recent tagging application of significance is Technorati tags while other services that make of tags are Delicious and Flickr which have been around for awhile and have members who have been tagging just as long. Tags are descriptors or words describing web content. You can assign tags to your content or photos that identify what your content or photo is about. You are basically naming web content as a way to categorize it for sharing.
Bloggers have been especially interested in Technorati's Tag service and how the service effectually works to the bloggers advantage in real world application. I wrote this article on Technorati Tags back in January. Here are some quotes from that article to quickly get you up to speed:
"Tagging represents a new way to filter and categorize the web even further than we already can. But it also represents a new level of viral socialization. Technorati.com has implemented a new tagging service which makes use of Flickr and Del.icio.us...
Tags allow bloggers to increase the value of individual posts within a blog by driving greater value into a topic at at large. An example could be if I write a post about "rc cars" on my remote controlled toys blog and I tag that post specifically with "rc cars". That post has just become much more searchable within my niche and adds another way for my content to be located and used by contributing to a specific information cluster about rc cars that is gathering beyond my blog discussion...
As the use of tags grows, new information clusters will form within the greater blogosphere via Technorati and tags will be a way of adding your content to these clusters. The idea of tags is to socialize and aggregate interests across blog posts and add a virtual layer (if you will) that kind of abstracts an additional layer of relevancy from the blogosphere that is searchable based on these named clusters of information called tags."
When reading most information about Tagging you are bound to come across information about the efficiency or inefficiency of tagging semantics, taxonomies, or folksonomies. A lot of the tag discussions cover the issue of how to obtain accuracy in what you are looking (searching) for with Tags if the informal, user-generated tag can will have different meanings to different people.
You can read the Clickz article in detail for a treatment of naming, categorization and meanings. What I'd like to offer here are a just a few observations I've made about Technorati Tags and how to promote your blog with them which may be of some benefit to other bloggers.
Observation 1: Technorati Tags Starting To DeliverTraffic
I'm starting to finally see referrals from Technorati Tags in my blog stats. I think this is significant for a few reasons. This means that certain tags I've targeted have a common enough meaning to enough people to generate click throughs, albeit a small volume at the moment. Results willl definitely vary based on your Tags. Second, there is "traffic value" to using Tags. While traffic from tags may be self evident I like to see results. I'm now seeing results even though I'd immediately appreciated or understood the benefit of using Technorati Tags from the start.
Observation 2: Technorati Tag Searches Yield Highly Relevant and Targeted Results
I've observed that when I use Technorati Tags for searches on topics of interest, there are highly relevant and targeted search results. If you are using the FeedDemon RSS reader (my favorite) there is a search channel plug-in specifically for Technorati Tags.
FeedDemon has several search channel plug-in that include Delicious, Flickr, Google News, MSN, Yahoo plus the high profile and well known search engines like Technorati, Blogdigger and Feedster. There are more that I've not listed here. This means that can perform these searches from within FeedDemon, save those searches as RSS channels. You don't have to visit each search directory to formulate searches and save them. You do all from within FeedDemon and your search will update and filter results automatically.
Okay, back on topic...Not all Tag searches return results. You'll need to perform your Tag searches on words and phrases commonly used by a group of people. Technorati Tags are still new so even terms and phrases commonly used in Google won't have content for them in Technorati. This is a possible opportunity for you.
Here's something else. When you do a Tag search in Technorati pay attention to Technorati's Related Tag field. My observation is that the related tags are not only just related tags, they are indications of closely associated conversations plus they are also indicators of hot topic or frequently discussed topics. Technorati does not suggest Tags that do not have a steady content stream on that topic (again from my observation).
This represents an opportunity to target more traffic. Blog about the topic and tag your content. There are opportunities to dominate these conversations as represented by these tags as well. For example if you look at the tags How To Blog you will see that Blogthenticity is currently dominating those results or conversation more than anyone else.
If you look at blog promotion you will see that Darren Rowse and I are dominating that "conversation" at the time of this writing. You can tag conversations or content that you blog about often. The Technorati Tag for blog promotion is one tag that is starting to send me referral traffic.
Another example would be blog marketing you will see that Build A Better Blog by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff as well as myself are dominating that discussion (or tag) in Techorati at the time of this writing.
If your tag becomes a frequently searched Tagged word or phrase you can get extra visibility and traffic. Remember I stated that my observation is that Technorati does not suggest related tags unless there is a content stream or conversation for that tag. Well, that tag also needs to have searches also. A tag with a content stream but zero searches won't yeild you much traffic in the near term.
Observation 3: Technorati Tags Showing Up In Top Google Search Results
Technorati Tags are now starting to rise in the Google search results. And why not? Afterall, tags exhibit the same characteristics of blogs which makes them extremely attractive to Googlebot. Technorati Tags are content rich, targeted and frequently updated. Click Here to see the Google search results for Blog Marketing. You will see the Technorati Tag for blog marketing ranking number 11 in Google. When someone clicks on that Google link to Technorati and your content is tagged you have the opportunity to increase traffic to your blog as visitors see your content in the Tagged results.
Observation 4: Users Are Targeting Popular Keyword Phrases With Tags
When it comes to naming and categorizing content with tags I've noticed that people are carry their web marketing habits over to Technorati Tagging. Here's what I mean. One fundamental web content publishing effort is publishing keyword targeted content for search engine optimization and improved search engine rankings. Well bloggers are targeting popular keyword phrases with their tags as well.
One thing about tags is that anyone can use any descriptive term that has meaning to them. This can make finding certain content challenging if you are not thinking about the same words and same meanings about the similar content. While the discussion of folksonomy will continue, there is a opportunity to benefit from popular keyword phrases in Technorati Tags because people are indeed using them. The blogosphere is very organic and social. Tagging is a highly social activity that lacks tools for searching on popular terms which you can do with Google in order to find your supply and demand topics.
So I've observed the traffic and blog promotion benefits of Google, keywords and Technorati Tags. In Blog Promotion with Technorati Tags - Dominate Niche Conversations and Get Traffic, Part 2 I will discuss blog promotion with Technorati Tags.
