Tagging everything, for a reason
Since the inception of this site, I’ve taken to the task of tagging every post with a stunning amount of tags. I tag the posts (and links) with as much information as possible in the hopes that it will add relational value when you’re searching in this site’s search application, or using some other search appliance (e.g. Bing, Google).
Running WordPress, I’m able to add tags to posts without working at it through a function of Simple Tags. It uses comment phrases to try and add tags based on simple keywords. If I use the word ‘WordPress’, for example, it will add a WordPress tag, even if I forgot to explicitly add it.
Also, the All in One SEO Pack adds post tags to the page META tags. While this isn’t apparent to the user just looking on the page, it helps search engines to figure out what the page is about. Additionally, like I wrote before, it also helps the built–in WordPress search appliance.
One application of all the tagging (besides search) is the use of the Similar Posts plugin on the reference links page. Their function is sort of, “I’m done with this page, now what do I do?” The use of tags helps figure out what will be relevant. Granted, this is done with a combination of human tagging, computer guessing, and dumb luck, but it seems to work fairly well so far.
But the big reason I am doing all this tagging isn’t just to tag everything. It really isn’t important that I’m tagging all this stuff, but why I’m tagging all this stuff. I tag all this stuff because, at some point, somebody will try and build upon an idea I write. Or will be looking for something completely different. Or looking for just this thing.
The main reason I tag everything is because I have no idea what anyone wants to know. Think of these tags as writer’s notes when translating languages. It’s a way to translate from my mind to the reader.