[Wordpress] Indexing Tag Pages, A Good Thing?

[Sebastien]

Hiya,

So this is an important subject that I am unsure about....

A tag page is basically a page that lists posts that share a common tag.

Let's take an example...

The blog is iwillfight.com which is by Anik Singal, a very famous PPC affilitiate.

If you do site: iwillfight.com, you will see tons of these tag pages such as: xxxiwillfight.com/tag/calm/

My first impression was => WOW, duplicate content man !

But during a teleseminar, Anik said he *loved* these tag pages because his site seemed bigger in the eyes of Google.

If you run the command "site:" , you will see he has a lot more tag pages than actual posts.

His site doesn't seem to be penalized in any way... and he is first for "i will fight" in google (without quotes)

By default, I select "don't index tag pages" in my wordpress panel. Am I missing out ?

If I used tag pages, I could triple, quadruple the amount of internal links I have.

Please advise

Thanks,

-- Sebastien

[Ozpoker]

I can tell you the big G luvs them and they rate very highly.

I would not be worried at all about duplicate content with tags.

I run a site which as over 1800 individual tags totalling over 25,000 tags and they all rank highly.

One reason is that is someone is looking for say a person or a thing or a name and you tag is exact to that the content is seen as being very specific for that tag.

I would be using your tags as much as you can

Tags are also a good way to get your internal linking going.

On the site in question G has 6,530 indexed pages and shows 1046 internal links

[kaus]

I disagree... why would you want a page indexed twice with the same content on it. It also looks like those tag pages or some of them are supplemental so I cant see them doing the site all that great.

A couple of his articles..the real article also appear to be supplemental while the tagged page is not. I would rather have my main page in the index then the tagged page.

I dont think tags or categories add any value by being indexed.

If you run the command site: , you will see he has a lot more tag pages than actual posts.

I think he overuses the tags a little much

Example would be - one for ego, one for coridal, idea, criticize, and a bunch of others when he could be grouping them better. So if he has 100 posts and none of them have the same tag than yeah he will have more tagged pages indexed than he will regular pages. A better idea would to start tagging them based on relevancy than adding a relevant post plugin and allow your traffic to navigate that way. For me it's a much better way to think about interlinking than simply just tags because your actually allowing readers to see something that might interest them based on topics and you wont have to worry about having things indexed 2 or 3 times. and of course you will be linking internal as well. Tags are important but I dont think they should be indexed.

[Sebastien]

Hiya,

Two very interesting and yet differing point of views...

I must agree with Kaus that the related posts plugin in conjunction with tags is a very solid solution. It does the following:

1/ keeps your visitors reading
2/ Interlinks pages with relevant content which is great for SEO

I can vouch for 1/ having seen videos of my users interacting with my site. It's just amazing how often they will click on a related post.

However, I think the question is : why can't we have this and also index tag pages ? Firstly, the indexed "tag pages" have some value whether they are indexed or not.

Indexing them does nothing from a user perspective, but it will dramatically increase your linking profile and beef up your site in the eyes of Google.

The fact that Google doesn't penalize you for this makes it an attractive proposition to me.

What do you other guys think ?

Thanks,

[kaus]

However, I think the question is : why can't we have this and also index tag pages ? Firstly, the indexed "tag pages" have some value whether they are indexed or not.

Indexing them does nothing from a user perspective, but it will dramatically increase your linking profile and "buff up" your site in the eyes of Google.

The fact that Google doesn't penalize you for this makes it an attractive proposition to me.

What do you other guys think ?

google is not stupid by any means. The site is not beefed up in the eyes of google. A site which has indexed pages and indexed categories and the actual article has multiple pages with the exact same content. There is nothing unique about them and if this was the way to go than why does the site in question have pages in the supplements? If it was a great way to do things then wouldnt these pages be included in the main index?

I dont think indexed tag pages have value because they are not providing anything new to the site. Only regurgitating whats already been posted on the site. Value is providing something for your users and the best way to do this is IMO noindex your tags and archives, install that plugin I mentioned and let your real content do the work for you, not try and fool google by thinking you have more then what you really do

[Sebastien]

We'll if they're all in the supplemental index than that's bad I agree...

I don't think Google is retarded BTW...although I was interviewed by a *fat* dude over there after graduation, and the first thing he said was:

"How do you slice a cake in eight pieces using only three tries"

I was like ? WTF, is this "In and Out" or something ?

True story... but I digress.

OK, so you are firmly opposed.. hummm. I need to think this through I guess.

[kaus]

Ok well that was funny...see what others have to say. but the way I see it duplicate content is duplicate content and two or more pages with the exact same information is duplicate content...

[Ozpoker]

I couldn't disagree more.

I'm talking from experience with regard to a wordpress site not a static html site.

But it depends on your use of the tags - heres an example - you write many different articles on online tourney results etc.

You tag the screen names and real names of the players mentioned.

While you now have maybe have 20-30 articles mentionaing player x, none are specifically about player X, although they maybe of interest to someone researching or looking for info on player X.

There is little likelihood you'll have a page dedeciated to player x and unless you're bluff or cardplayer it probably isn't up to date anyway.

But google will notice that you have xx articles that mention player X and your link www.xxxx.com/tag/player X will rank highly giving you organic search results for player X.

In this instance there is no way your "content" page will do the work for you as your content will dilute the player X name because it will just be one name in amongst many in each article and hence no one article will give you enough SEO rank for player X but your indexed tag will.

[Sebastien]

Originally Posted by Ozpoker

But google will notice that you have xx articles that mention player X and your link www.xxxx.com/tag/player X will rank highly giving you organic search results for player X.

This is dead on. I have seen tag pages ranking *very* highly just as you suggest.

Here is a great example. Type in => "Phil Galfond" (without quotes)

One of the top ranked pages is

wordpress.com/tag/phil-galfond/

Very interesting way to rank imo,

Thanks for the info Ozz.

-- Sebastien