Tag, You're It!
Tagging content on social sites is serious business.
A "tag" is a keyword that's associated with a piece of content. The content can be a photo, an article, or an audio or video clip, for example. You can use tags to get greater visibility on the web.
First, you need to post your content on social networking sites that support tagging, such as Flickr (photo sharing) or Metacafe (video sharing). When you post content, you'll see a "tag" field where you can enter keywords that describe what you've just submitted. It's that simple.
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With tags, your content can pop up at the top of a results page when consumers do a keyword search on a social site. Another benefit? Content is hyperlinked to other content tagged with the same keywords, so you can leverage popular content to drive more consumers to yours by using their keywords. To find popular content, browse the "popular tags" section on social sites or do a keyword search.
Although consumers often have the option of tagging content, don't wait for them--optimize your own content. Choose relevant keywords that you want associated with your business. Because you can often link your content to a profile page within that social site (which links to your website) or directly to your website, you can increase your site's link popularity by tagging your content on social sites. And link popularity is a key factor in improving your search engine rankings.
Be sure not to use tag spam--high-traffic but irrelevant keywords. It might tempo-rarily improve your site's link popularity, but tag spam won't win you new customers.
Catherine Seda, a 12-year internet marketing strategist, is author of How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders and dean of LA College International. Get her free "Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes" report at catherineseda.com.