If you haven't heard about tagging yet, you're missing out on a wealth of targeted traffic to your website. That traffic can be translated into newsletter sign ups, customers, contextual advert revenue, or straight sales. What you do with the traffic is really up to you, but my goal is to tell you how to get it using tags.
Let's back up a minute and review what tags and tagging are. Tags are a way for you to label your pages and websites which will make it easy for people looking for that specific information to find it, much like a filing cabinet system. Tags differ from categories in that they are *more specific* than categories. As an example, you may have a category called 'Cars' on your blog, but you blog about a Honda Accord. Instead of creating a whole new category just for a Honda Accord (which you may only blog about once), you simply tag the page with Honda Accord. Starting to get the idea? Good.
In order to translate those tags into traffic, you need to get those pages and tags into the right places -- the places where people are searching. One of the main sources of free traffic to your blog is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/) because it is the most well known blog search engine. Technorati uses a tagging system to file away the indexed pages, then people type in a tag and all the pages using that tag is returned. If your page is in the list, then you'll be reaping some major benefits and you can be sure those people will be ready to read what you're saying.
Other websites that use the tagging system are called bookmarking services, like Delicious (http://www.del.icio.us/), and allow their members to bookmark a page and add their own tags. The more people who bookmark a specific page, the higher in the ranking (or popularity scale) a page becomes. But, having a super popular page isn't the only way to grab some great traffic from the bookmarking services. You can add relevant pages with appropriate tags to your bookmarks, then make them public. Those searching for that specific information will find your pages listed in the results and click through to the website. It's important that you're very careful with these services because spam is frowned upon and may have the opposite of your desired effect.
Tags and tagging can open a whole new door for traffic to your website, and as a bonus, it will be targeted traffic -- people actually looking for the information or products on your website. All in all, these services can be a great way to build traffic to your website, when used properly. Make sure to learn and play by their rules in order to get the best benefits from it.
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With the guidance provided from Tagging Secrets - http://www.taggingsecret.com/ - Charles Winter has been using tags to successfully drive traffic to and earn money from his blog.
