Advice on tags

[Writer61]

I recently compiled a list of all my published stories including title, short description, and tags.

It was immediately obvious that the latter were a mess of inconsistency from basic and brief (FF, FM) to more informative (public nudity, first time, beach, exhibitionism, pool, blowjob, threesome, FFM). My inner pedant wants to resubmit them with a consistent approach but I am conscious that this would create work for the mods.

Is it worth doing?

If so, what aspects should I cover? My thoughts are:
- number of people involved: couple, threesome, group
- sexual combinations: MF, FF, FFM, etc.
- sexual activity: blowjob, fuck, anal, for example
- key point of story: such as 'first time'
- places: e.g. beach, pool
- locations (if particularly relevant): e.g. Japan, Bangkok

Does it matter if a tag echoes the category, by which I mean would add a tag 'Exhibitionism' to a story in 'Exhibitionism & Voyeur' category?

 

[Trionyx]

I would not resubmit stories for this reason. The moderator(s) is too busy to make it worthwhile. You may want to change your tags going forward.
Different writers have different opinions about using a tag which repeats the category; some do and some don’t. Certainly in an EC story you might add ‘romance’ if there is more of a connection than simple rutting.
For a tag to be useful it should be a term which many people might use. ‘Bangkok’ is unlikely to be included in very many searches. ‘Beach’ and ‘pool’ might be used.
Go to the list of the most popular tags used by authors (admittedly this list is not based on reader searches) for ideas of what terms to consider.

 

[alohadave]

At the moment, it's not worth it to resubmit. If Lit ever implements the change allowing self edits, then yeah go for it.

Does it matter if a tag echoes the category, by which I mean would add a tag 'Exhibitionism' to a story in 'Exhibitionism & Voyeur' category?

I think so. Because if someone does a search, they won't necessarily be doing it from the category page.

 

[SimonDoom]

Just learn from your experience and do it differently next time.

My thoughts:

1. Absolutely yes, it's OK and often desirable to repeat category names in tags, like "Exhibitionism."
2. Use the tag feature and search for commonly used tags within certain categories.
3. Use all 10 tags if you can.
4. Use some distinctive tags, but not so distinctive or specific that it's unlikely anybody would ever actually use them in a search. That's the test: ask yourself how a real person might find your story using tags.
5. Use attention-getting words. If the story features bikinis, then use "bikini" as a tag.
6. Try testing them. Pick a tag and then do a search and see what you turn up. Do the results resemble your story?

 

[Jay142]

Don't overthink it. Use tags that you think will help people find your story if they do a search.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I'm at best uncertain about the value of tags. Oh, I'll always include the ten, for it's little trouble and just might help. The problem, IMHO, is that a large number of very good stories can wind up with the same tags, rendering the tags essentially useless for story selection.

Using an example from above, 'Bangkok' would be pretty rare, so it might draw readers with a Thai interest. 'Oral' or 'handjob' or 'nudity'? Not so much. Virtually every story has those.

 

[THBGato]

I found a great story by following the tag "Whiskey" (as I had used the tag in one of my own and wanted to see if any others had). I try to mix very common tags (e.g. "lesbian love story" and "slow burn") with more unique ones (e.g. "flamenco" or "synesthesia") in the hope of covering both bases: readers searching for popular tags and those with very specific interests.

No idea whether it has had any impact whatsoever.

 

[Bamagan]

I'll add one caveat about using category tags: sometimes they get removed. A few of my stories that are in the Mind Control category also had 'mind control' as a tag, but it was missing by the time it went to publication. There are plenty of stories in the MC category with it as a tag, though, so it doesn't seem to be a systemic thing (unless perhaps there was a change at some point and all the ones with the tag are 'legacy' stories from before that time).
If your story made you ponder which category it should go in, I'd definitely recommend using the alternative choices as tags. I tend to write fetishy stuff, so I usually include those as tags, both to help people searching for niche stuff and to help others avoid it if they're squicked by my offerings. If there are any left over, I might use tags like FF or MFF as filler, rather than things like 'blowjob' or 'oral' and the like.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I recently compiled a list of all my published stories including title, short description, and tags.

It was immediately obvious that the latter were a mess of inconsistency from basic and brief (FF, FM) to more informative (public nudity, first time, beach, exhibitionism, pool, blowjob, threesome, FFM). My inner pedant wants to resubmit them with a consistent approach but I am conscious that this would create work for the mods.

Is it worth doing?

If so, what aspects should I cover? My thoughts are:
- number of people involved: couple, threesome, group
- sexual combinations: MF, FF, FFM, etc.
- sexual activity: blowjob, fuck, anal, for example
- key point of story: such as 'first time'
- places: e.g. beach, pool
- locations (if particularly relevant): e.g. Japan, Bangkok

Does it matter if a tag echoes the category, by which I mean would add a tag 'Exhibitionism' to a story in 'Exhibitionism & Voyeur' category?

You obviously have the right ideas, and you have ten tags to play with. But, yes, as as said below, be concerned about the future; don't change old stories just for the tags.

 

[RejectReality]

There are enough people who do their story selection beginning with tags to make it worthwhile to include as many appropriately descriptive ones as possible. The tag search portal has always managed to rank on the top 5 subdomains, so it's not an insignificant thing. It's a fraction of the overall traffic, but still large enough to pay attention to.

That being said, I wouldn't bother with editing only the tags on existing work. The lag time on edits is long and every one you drop in the queue makes it longer for everyone.

 

[Britva415]

Does it matter if a tag echoes the category, by which I mean would add a tag 'Exhibitionism' to a story in 'Exhibitionism & Voyeur' category?

I don't see any value in doing this.

Tags serve two useful purposes, IMO:
1, I look at tags before reading a story in order to get more info about what I'm going to read. A category tag would be redundant.
2, I use tags as search tools to find stories of interest. Again, a category tag is completely redundant for this because I can already search within a category.

The only value I could see in doing this is if it's one of those stories which could plausibly live in multiple categories and you can only pick one. This informs people in, say, the Mature category that this is going to be an Exhibitionist themed story, or, it can allow people to search for Exhibitionist stories in a category which isn't the Exhibitionist one.

Don't double up, same-category same-tag, though. That's just using up 10% of your available tags for no good reason.