Tip Tuesday | Tagging
Hello! This is a tip I have both been dreading and excited for. Tagging is essential to make sure people can find and see your stories. But as we all know Tumblr’s tagging system is often messed up. So here we go.
1. The first 20 tags are the most important. Tumblr will only make your first twenty tags searchable. This means you put you most relevant tags first and work your way down. If you want to do sassy and fun tags, put them at the end. The way I do it is: post type (such a Tip Tuesday, Weekend Reading), topic/character (Tom Hiddleston, Editing, steve rogers fanfic), relationships (Loki x OFC, x reader), other tags
2. Use similar tags to increase exposure. Not everyone searches for the same thing. So it is important to tag with variety. For an example, I tag a Tom Hiddleston fic like this: tom hiddleston tom Hiddleston fanfiction tom hiddleston fanfic tom hiddleston fanfic tom hiddleston imagine hiddlesfic hiddlestoners tom hiddleston x reader tom hiddleston x you tom hiddleston fluff/smut/angst (as applicable) british actor rpf That is a lot tags but it helps people find it.
3. Don’t use punctuation besides an apostrophe. Tags don’t like punctuation. So don’t use anything outside of an apostrophe, otherwise it is not searchable. So no slahes, no cute little emoticons. Use “x” instead of a slash.
4. Don’t tag hate or unrelated items This should go without saying, but don’t tag hate. So if your post is anti a particular ship, don’ t use that tag. It is disrespectful and kind of dick move. Less so is tagging things that have nothing to do with the story. If Steve and Bucky are nowhere in your story, don’t tag it as Stucky. I personally feel when I see this it is a writer/poster looking for notes and is just looking at what they think are popular tags for attention. To me, it is off-putting and makes me less likely to read that person’s work. Sorry but that is completely honest. Pro Tip: I generally only tag the main characters unless a side character has a large role in the story.
5. Controversial Opinion: Don’t cross tag. This is my personal opinion, I know people feel differently, that’s cool if you do. Cross-tagging is related to tagging unrelated items up in #4. What I often see given the fandoms I am in is some writers tagging the actor in fics involving their characters and vice versa. This is often true when it may be lesser known characters (Yeah I’m looking at you Magnus!) To me, it feels disingenuous. You know that actor/character is not in the story but you are using the popularity and the connection to gain more attention. One of the sad facts that when you write for lesser known characters, it will get less attention than the bigger fandoms. But if people who follow the bigger tags wanted to read those character’s stories, they would also follow those tags. But again, if you choose to do so, I’m not going to call you out, I’m not going to unfollow or block, it is just a difference of opinion.
And there you go.