Technorati (http://www.technorati.com) is a leading blog search engine. In January of 2005, Technorati introduced the concept of tags to its search categorization. Tags are a way that an author can categorize the content of his or her blog postings. These are user-selected keywords or phrases. The tags themselves are links within a blog post that link to the Technorati category page for that particular word or phrase. In essence, by using tags you are telling Technorati to add your post to a list of related pages.

A Technorati tag link can look something like this:

<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Cars" target="_blank" rel="tag" title="Link to Technorati Tag category for Cars">Cars</a>

This is a link to the Technorati tag category for “Cars.”

You should use tags for all the important keywords or phrases that are relevant to your post. Don’t post irrelevant tags. Tag spam will be removed and can get you banned eventually. So be smart and only use appropriate tags.

However, you are encouraged to use variations of keywords and phrases. For example, in addition to “Cars” you might also want to use tags for “Car,” “Automobile,” “Automobiles,” “Motor Vehicle,” and “Motor Vehicles.” Different users will use different ways to categorize content. This includes using both singular and plural versions of tag phrases as well. As of this writing, this practice is not considered tag spam as long as the variants are relevant to the article you are posting.

Take a look at the resulting Technorati tag category page for Cars:

http://www.technorati.com/tags/Cars

You will see many different links to pages that have used the tag “Cars” in their posts. Of course this can mean many different things to many different people. It can mean the 80’s band “The Cars” as well as automobiles. Try to use the most meaningful terms that you can. This is very similar to the choice of keywords in standard search engine optimization. If you choose terms that are too broad, you will get lost in a sea of generality. If you choose terms that are too narrow, no one will ever search for those terms.

Common Tag Questions:

1) My blog application says that its “categories” feature will automatically be added to Technorati tag pages. Why should I use explicit tag links?

 Good question. You are correct. Many blog applications will allow you to use the category feature to input pages on Technorati tag category pages. However, this is a very narrow approach and limits you to one tag term per post. Using explicit tags broadens your reach and allows for the use of more specific tag categories for which you might not want to create a whole blog category. For example, I have a blog category called “Usability.” If I used this as my sole tag for posts to this category, I would not be able to add to the Technorati pages for tags such as “Eye Tracking” or “Usability Testing.” I am not going to blog frequently enough on the subject of eye tracking to warrant the creation of a new category for my blog. But using explicit tags allows me to create individual tags for each specific post as appropriate.

2) Is there an easier way to create explicit Technorati tags than hand coding each one?

Yes! I created a simple Technorati Tag Generator (http://www.evilgeniusmarketing.com/ice/tag-generator.cfm UPDATE: Now you can create Social Bookmark links for your blog posts at the same time. This allows your readers to share your work with the world. Check it out!) to make the process of creating explicit tags very easy. Just input a comma separated list of key words and phrases and the application will return full HTML code for the whole set of tags. This can also be used to create tags for other services such as Flickr, Furl, and Del.icio.us.

3) How do I let Technorati know that I have created a new post with tags in it?

We will discuss this further below, but in short, you must “ping” the Technorati service. Many blog applications can be configured to do this automatically every time you post a new article. You can also ping Technorati manually (http://www.technorati.com/ping.html) or with a service such as Ping-o-matic (http://pingomatic.com/).

4) How long does it take for my post to show up in the Technorati tag category pages?

It varies. Sometimes your post will show up within a matter of minutes or hours. Other times, it takes several days. At times, for reasons unknown, your post may not show up at all.

5) Why is tagging important?

In my experience, tags will help to build readership of your site. I had registered my blog with Technorati on the first day I created the site. Technorati was always a Top 25 referrer of traffic. However, within one week of implementing tags, Technorati was a Top 10 referrer. In under two weeks, it was Top 5. In just under 3 weeks, it is now the #1 external referrer to my blog site. This has also had positive effects of my Google rankings, especially in regard to specific terms I have used in tags. The effect has been noted by others as well (http://seo-stats.blogspot.com/2005/04/technorati-effect.html).

Some final thoughts on tagging:

Tagging is a very new phenomenon in the world of blogs. This is both good and bad. It is good because you have the opportunity to be a leader in the adoption of tag categories. Many of my tags are the first and only posts within the Technorati tag category pages. There are very few opportunities to get in on the ground floor of something like this, especially with regard to marketing and the Internet.

It is also bad because tags are poorly understood by many. Most people have never heard of tags or tagging. This situation should improve as more people begin using tags.

Tagging also helps to link the web in a more meaningful way. Some marketers might worry about using Technorati tags on their posts because they link to pages that might be filled with links to their competition. This is very short-sighted and narrow-minded. You have to look at this like Progressive Insurance looks at giving insurance quotes. You are helping your audience find relevant material. This can only build esteem for your brand in their eyes. And it also makes you focus on what you are offering. If a user can be lured away by a mere link, then what you are offering must not be all that remarkable. If what you have to offer is truly valuable, the users will come. Focus on that instead of trying to artificially “trap” users within your site. It is a hard thing for most marketers to do. But as the old saying goes, “If you love something, set it free…”