Use of keywords in WordPress
Keywords (tags) can be a powerful tool in WordPress, but few content producers know how to use them effectively. Here is an introduction to the use of keywords from Simen Eriksen, advisor and project manager at Dekode.

The use of keywords, or tags as many call them, is rarely done correctly. The most common misconception is that they work like on Instagram; that tagging a WordPress post with, for example, #Americana will increase relevance in search engines for this word.
When I came across a client with an archive of more than 13,000 keywords based on Instagram logic, I realized it was time to write a post. Unfortunately for the client, they had about 2,000 quality posts, but tagging them hadn't yielded any benefits. They hadn't made archive pages available for the keywords or presented the keywords as navigation points on pages or posts. In short, they had just hammered away with uncritical use of keywords.
The relevance of keywords in SEO
Keywords are not relevant when search engines assess the relevance of a single post, but an archive page based on keywords can* be a good traffic driver. You can easily create such an archive page by collecting many posts, which are correctly tagged, with the same keywords. With a large number of posts on the archive page, you give users good value for their searches. Value for users is what Google really cares about. Next, you need to further optimize the archive page by adding a good description, as well as good meta values (Read: title and meta description). Yoast is a good tool for editing meta values.
- This depends on the competition for the keyword in your market. Archive pages have limitations, but if the competition is low they will have good value.
Ina narrow market, such as Norway, it is not uncommon for archive pages for keywords to rank highly.

Why have a good structure for WordPress keywords?
The main value of keywords in WordPress is not SEO. It's website functionality, marketing opportunities and insights that stem from good data structure. Good data structure is key to getting the most out of your current solution and content, as well as paving the way for "next level" functionality.
Here are some benefits of having well-structured keywords:
- Precise recommendations from "relevant posts"
- Alternative navigation points on pages
- Attractive navigation points on posts that increase engagement on the site
- Improved search results for page searches
- Good filters on content archives or search results pages
- SEO-friendly archive pages
- Finding old, relevant posts that you want to link to in a new post becomes easier
- Basis for personalization, both "in-session" and logged in
- Basis for segmented newsletters
- Basis for content analysis. Why is the content working or not?
- Basis for insights to sell ad spaces at a higher price
What are keywords in WordPress?
Keywords are a non-hierarchical alternative to categories. Think of them as bonds, stretching across all content and categories. If your site is about popular culture, "Americana" may not fit as a main or sub-category, but it serves as a perfect relationship builder between posts that belong to many of your categories.
For example:
Music category: | Posts about The Eagles | Tagged with Americana |
Food category: | Posts about Apple Pie | Tagged with Americana |
Book categories: | Posts about "All the beautiful horses" | Tagged with Americana |
Fashion category: | Posts about Pendleton | Tagged with Americana |
While your categories usually strive to be mutually exclusive for intuitive navigation, this requirement does not exist for tags. If a keyword is visible on the site at all, it is not used for hierarchical navigation.
For the popular culture page above, a book about fashion would belong in the main category "Books". If your content doesn't support a subcategory for books about fashion, you can tag the book with "Fashion" instead. This will ensure that you get:
- Recommendations of other book entries tagged "fashion"
- Navigate to the archive page for "fashion"
- Possible filter option for "fashion" on a book post archive page
How to structure keywords?
Unfortunately, WordPress doesn't make it easy to work in a structured way with keywords. You can create keywords in the Admin keyword archive or create keywords in the post, while editing.

A box with auto-suggested tags pops up when you start typing in the field. There is some help from the link "Select from the most used tags", but this is not sufficient. It's impossible to get a simple overview of all the keywords you have in play. As a result, content producers tend to create new keywords spontaneously. And this is precisely why the problem of too many keywords arises, which in turn reduces the value of each one, since WordPress does not recognize their relationship.
Get an overview
To regain control of your keywords, you should create an overview of all the keywords your website uses. Feel free to group them by theme or purpose. It can be useful to create your own "keyword categories" to get a clearer picture of what they cover.
The structure of the keywords needs to be tailored to each individual site, but a common approach is to think of the keywords as an addition to the category structure. Your regular categories are likely to cover the most important keywords, while the tags can cover a range of relevant topics that fall outside the categories.
If you publish archive pages for keywords, it is important that these do not overlap categories. If they do, they will compete against each other in search, which is not beneficial.
Reduce the number of tags
Content production is much more time-consuming than keyword production. The main guideline is therefore to keep the number of keywords relatively low compared to the number of posts, in order to produce as many relevant links between posts as possible. Don't create a tag for a rare topic, and don't tag a post unless there is real relevance. Remember that the most common problem is overproduction of keywords. Control your keywords so that they serve a purpose, such as user-friendly keyword archive pages or filters on regular archive pages.
Once your structure is in place, you can start deleting synonyms and tags that cover the same topic. Keep the most SEO-friendly options. This process also means you'll need to re-tag many posts. This will take time, but boiling down the number of keywords is important to increase their individual value.
Use of keywords for internal use
Remember that it is possible to have tags for internal use. These can be used for insights, segmentation and personalization. A common purpose is to understand why some posts succeed while others fail. If you're doing content marketing for general insurance, you might have keywords like:
- Happy highlighted image
- Sad highlighted image
- Amount of damages won highlighted in headline
- Damages won not highlighted in headline
- White lace clothing style highlighted image
- Relaxed clothing style highlighted image
- Workwear style highlighted image
Over time, you'll be able to see patterns at the bottom and top of your most popular posts list. If a majority of your top-ranking posts have the tags "happy featured image", "won damages featured in headline" and "casual dress style featured image", consider using more such images and headlines.
A new flow for categorization and structured tagging
To help our clients with tagging and release the benefits of better data structure, have Dekode experimented with a new way to manage both categories and tags in posts. It is a stricter system where tags cannot be created while you are editing the post. Both tags and categories are selected from predefined lists or drop-down menus at the bottom of the post. Tags are categorized, and there are settings to make both tagging and categorization mandatory. Additionally, we have an option to hide tag categories from users, as some tags are only for insight or segmentation.
IN Dekode we believe that this gives our clients an added advantage in their work. We look forward to further developing it and giving customers access to more advanced functionality.
How can we help you?
Would you like to know more about how we can help you with a website based on WordPress and Gutenberg? Then send us an email!