It seems like most people don’t understand tags very well. I’m not the best at tagging content effectively, but below are some great principles.

• The goals of effective content tagging:
  • Allow users to see the subject matter of the post before reading the body (Right Intel doesn’t facilitate this)
  • Allow users and editors to browse and search for content (In Right Intel you can search on the intel tab, email edit screen and story edit screen)
  • Allow search engines to properly index content (Not applicable in Right Intel)
  • Function like an index in the back of a book
• Some principles of effective tagging
  • A tag should be specific yet likely to be used again
  • A good tag should be short, usually a word or two
  • Use between 2 and 4 tags per article
  • Consider that a tag may be a word that does not appear in the content
  • Use plurals only when appropriate
  • Use only letters, numbers, and spaces
  • Think about what text people might search for
  • Revise and merge your tags periodically
  • Codify tagging guidelines for all editors

Sources: The Next Web, Zemanta, NPR

And ironically, this post is not a great example of tagging because the subject matter is unusual for my blog. :)