Tags provide a useful way to group related posts together and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. Tags also make it easier for people to find your content.
In this guide
Tags are similar to categories, but they are generally used to describe your post in more detail. The use of tags is completely optional.
You can assign multiple tags to each post or page. Depending on the theme and widgets you have activated, tags can be displayed at the top or bottom of posts or pages, on the individual post view, and/or in the sidebar. Some themes use tags to create featured content on home pages.
Some themes allow adding tags to Pages. However, in most cases tags can only be used on Posts.
You can assign or add new tags to posts before you publish them under Tags in the right sidebar of the Editor:
Add a new tag by typing the text for the tag, then hitting the Enter or Return key on your keyboard.
If the tag has already been created for a previous post or page, the Tags box will begin to auto-populate with matching tags.
To remove a tag, click on the X to the right of the tag.
You can view and manage your tags from Posts → Tags in the left sidebar of your site dashboard.
In the default view of the Tags screen (available by clicking the View tab in the upper right corner and selecting Default view), you can see which tags are being used and filter to the specific posts the tags are used on.
You can add a new tag by clicking the Add New Tag button in the upper right corner. This will bring up the Add New Tag screen. You can fill out fields for the tag name and (optional) description, then click Add to save.
To edit a tag, click the ellipsis (three dots) to the right of the tag name and select Edit from the menu.
This will bring up the Edit Tag screen, where you can modify the tag name and description, then click Update to save your changes.
These instructions are referring to the WP Admin interface. To view this interface, click the View tab in the upper right corner and select Classic view.
You can also add new tags and edit or delete existing tags from the Classic view of the Tags screen.
You will be presented with a list of your existing tags and a method of adding new tags.
You can add a new tag by filling out the fields:
- Name: The text of your tag.
- Description: Describes what the tag is for. This may be displayed in certain themes; for example, as a tooltip shown when you hover over the tag.
If you move your mouse over a tag on the Tags page, a set of options will appear below the tag allowing you to edit, quick edit, delete, and view that tag:
If you click Quick Edit the tag will change into an edit box and you can rename the tag quickly:
If you click on Edit, you will be taken to a separate page where you can edit the name and description. This functions exactly the same as in Adding Tags above.
Clicking on Delete will delete the tag.
Clicking on View will take you to an automatically generated page on your site displaying all of your posts with that tag.
If you have a lot of tags that you want to delete, you can use the bulk actions feature. Select each tag you want to delete using the checkbox to the left of the tag name.
If you want to select all tags click the checkbox at the top.
From the bulk actions menu select Delete and then click Apply. The tags will be deleted.
Your posts will appear in the topic listings of any tags or categories you use. Therefore, assigning tags and categories to your post increases the chance that other WordPress.com users will see your content.
However, you don’t want irrelevant content showing up on the topic listings or search, and neither do we. That’s why we limit the number of tags and categories that can be used on a public tag listing. As a general rule, 5 to 15 tags (or categories, or a combination of the two) is a good number to add to each of your posts.
The more tags and/or categories you use, the less likely it is that your post will be selected for inclusion in the topic listings. You can read more about tags for topics in the Reader here.
If you change your mind about using tags and instead want to convert them to categories, you can do so using the tag to category converter. At the bottom of the Classic view of the Manage Tags screen is a link to the tag to category converter.
Clicking this will take you to the import page, Look for the Categories and Tags Converter in the list of import methods, then click Run Importer:
Clicking this will take you to a screen where you can select which tags to convert to categories. Make your selection(s), then click on Convert Tags to Categories.
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Note: Your tags will be removed and categories will be assigned to the posts that used to be in those tags. If you want to convert your categories back to tags, please check out converting categories to tags.
Please visit this page for tips on tagging your posts.
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What’s the difference between WordPress tags and social media hashtags? Read more in What Are Hashtags and How Do You Use Them?
