How to Drive Traffic from Blog Directories and Tags to your Blog

November 20, 2010 - Last Modified: November 20, 2010 by Chadrack Irobogo

Traffic is a topic that bloggers will never overlook any day or any time! And to get that much coveted traffic bloggers turn to various sources, one of which is blog directories. But unfortunately, many bloggers easily overlook one essential element when it comes to generating traffic from blog directories. This essential element is tagging. But why so? Is it because many bloggers do not truly understand the use or significance of tagging? Is that why their value is not readily appreciated?

If that is the case then it is unfortunate as tags can significantly increase blog traffic generated from blog directories. In this article I want to highlight a few ideas on how you can use tags to garner favour with blog directories.

First, What Really Are Tags?

A tag is simply the keyword that better describes the information on your blog. It is easily used in labeling the specific information found on your blog. It’s main function is for classification or identification of the specific articles posted on your blog. Tags are also used by search engines that support tagging to “file” your content. Once this is done the posibility of your blog being found whenever a search is done is then increased.

It is this small piece of identification on your blog that tells the search engine spiders what your blog content is all about and how it should be indexed. It therefore stands to reason that if you’d use the right combination of tags for your blog, you’ll be able to determine the type and quality of traffic that comes to your blog from blog directories.

How To Use Tags To Drive More Traffic

There are specific tactics that will maximize the traffic you generate from blog directories using tags. Here are a few things that will yeild good results:

1. Mind Your Use of Words!

If you’re using an automatic tagging plugin to tag your posts, as I do, then you’ll want to carefully pick the right words when writing your content. Besides, these words which we have come to understand as keywords needs to be in the right places. These are the title, the description and the body content keywords. Ensure that the most essential keywords which are relevant to your content are placed in your blog title. The content body should also be strategically sprinkled with these essential words. Done right this can help in optimizing your blog content making it easier to be found and indexed by the search engines.

Using the right words is therefore important as it will determine what category your blog will be filed under. Unless it is filed under the right tag the chances of visitors finding you in the directory could be slim. And this will ultimately affect the amount of traffic you generate knowing fully well that there are a million and one other blogs out there vying for attention.

2. Never Over Use Tags

Considering the benefits of tagging you may want to go over-board in using tags for your blog. Unfortunately, that can be counter productive! Trying to get your blog to appear in more listings by overusing tags will only water down the relevance of your blog in those listings. This means much of the traffic that will be coming to your blog will not be targeted. The way out therefore is to be careful in the choice of tags. Only use targeted tags which your blog truly needs as they will be much more effective than the generic ones.

3. The Heart Of The Matter, Your Content Do Matter!

One traffic stats that every blogger is concerned about is “bounce rate“. Too much of it is definitely a sign of something that is not right. And most times that something is your content! As the saying goes, content is King. It’s never truer than that.

If you were able to gain some interest in your blog through the correct use of tags but your content is below par, you’ll be doing more harm than good as this will shoot up your blog’s “bounce rate” – a warning sign that your blog is not able to deliver on its promise. So once you’ve stroked the traffic fire with your tags, you should ensure that the content associated with your tags is well worth your visitor’s click. A baited title without the backing of the right or useful content will amount to a cheap trick and won’t earn you a lot of respect – or traffic. You must be ready to deliver on the promise you readily gave in your links. Not doing this with your content will only end in losing a loyal readership or following.

Well I’m sure there is something I have left out or don’t you think so? Let’s get your reactions to these tips. Will be glad to hear from you!

About Chadrack Irobogo

Follow @IncomeMC

Chadrack Irobogo is a freelance content writer , a Blogger, SEO and an evangelist of content marketing. He has worked with various clients to create exceptional start to finish brand marketing and publicity campaigns using innovative content marketing solutions and direct response techniques that work. He runs the Web Income Journal blog.

{ 42 Responses }

Asia says:

Great tip! Thank you for sharing! Quick question, you mentioned that you use an automatic tagging plugin - which one?
Paul Tech says:

If you aren't ranked too highly or totally new site, I guess blog directories help as the links will appear higher in serps and bring in more traffic.
Chadrack says:

After trying to answer many of the comments, I've thought it wise to add this one. I observed that, though many people agree with the idea of tagging and writing good content, a majority do not agree that blog directories could really drive traffic to your blog. I've tried to put in a word or two on this but let me add here that one blog directory that has really driven traffic to my blog is the Do-Follow Blog Directory @ followlist.com. If your blog is a dofollow blog then adding it to this directory will do you some good.
- TJ McDowell says:
  
  Chadrack, That makes sense. Here's a question for you guys. Is a blog with CommentLuv installed considered a do-follow blog? It gives out do-follow links, so if I were looking for do-follow blogs, I'd be happy I found it, but I'm not sure if they're expecting that all links will be do-follow.
Peter from Blogging Mechanics says:

Very informative post. I think that the tags are important for search engine purposes as well. Sometimes the specific tag gets ranked high, so it brings traffic. Regarding to blogging directories, I think that this is the old way of doing things. Directories are not where the real, targeted audience is hanging out.
TJ McDowell says:

Honestly, I'd never really thought of blog directories as a great traffic source. Good for SEO, sure, but traffic? I never go to blog directories myself to find information on a topic. For me, it's always straight to the search engine. Are other people out there going to the blog directory to search for blogs?
- Chadrack says:
  
  Good, you've just made a point here. This is what I've tried to point out in many of the replies. Not many people really go the directories to search for info like they do with search engines. But frankly directories do bring traffic. What you need is choose right the ones. Thanks for this clarification.
Chadrack says:

First, I must apologise for not answering your comments before now. I've been away for sometime and only discovered this article has been published for the past few days. Please accept my apology. I'll try and put in a word concerning the issues raised in the comments as I response to each. Bear with me please.
Jasmine says:

Oh yes, just like some of the commenters have said. You won't get good traffic from directories. Unless perhaps you are on dmoz.
The Bad Blogger says:

I'm not good at doing keyword and search engine stuff, the only thing I do is just putting keyword in my SEO Plugin, I really doesn't know much, as I put a lot of my time in writing good content, but by reading this post you read especially the last paragraph, it shows knowing how to use keywords and search engine stuff is still not enough, as in order to gain readers... content is still coming out first... well, thanks for sharing this detail post on tagging...
- Chadrack says:
  
  Glad to know the article is useful in one or two ways. Thanks for putting in your word.
Dennis Edell says:

What plugin are you referring to and how does it work?
- Chadrack says:
  
  Hi Dennis, I use "Strictly Auto Tags." I've found it more better than other plugins I've tried before. With this one you can simply set the number of tags you desire for every post and whenever you publish a new post, the plugin automatically post the tags based on your content. Thanks for the comment.
  - Dennis Edell says:
    
    Do you double/triple check for correct matches? Some of those auto-matching plugins are all over the place Example: Most of the "related posts" plugins are horrible.
Alex says:

Great post Chadrack, I have seen lots of bloggers stuffing their blogs with tags they don't really relate to. And other big mistakes is the use lonely tags, I mean those tags that are only used for one post only. Having such a tag means it is not really related to your blog and those who land on that tag's page will bounce faster then a ball hitting the pavement.
Biodun says:

I don't get direct traffic from blog directories but the are good for backlink purpose
Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:

Tags are very crucial. You need to insert the right tags to ensure optimum benefits.
Icechen1 says:

I tried Blog Directories, it drove almost no traffic to my blog. :S
Ardorm says:

Hey, Chadrack! I liked your article, because it is informative, especially for the beginners. I mean, you've given a very accurate definition for keywords. If I had no idea about them, it would be enough for me to read your post and understand what they are and what there efficiency is. I think you should also add some ways of learning how to choose the best keywords. I personally use for this Adwords tool and also define categories of my blog with keywords. Best regards, Ardorm
- Chadrack says:
  
  Oh thanks Ardorm, most times I simply try as much as possible to make myself clear as not to create undue misunderstanding. And about choosing keywords I think there is so much about that in this blog already. But any way, that can always form another article idea :)
Jan Husdal says:

As others have said, I too think that blog directories are overrated as a traffic driver. Only 0.5% of my traffic comes from directories, and it's not because I'm not registered with any. Seriously, I don't think tagging is important in driving traffic to your blog. It is very important in keeping traffic on your blog and providing ways to navigate your blog looking for posts with similar content. Here, in my experience less tags is better than more tags, so you're right in saying that it is important to chose the right (few) keywords for your tags. The only exception where tags are a traffic driver is if your blog is on wordpress.com. Just my 2c.
- Chadrack says:
  
  Jan, it's great to know that you have experience with directories. But as I mentioned in reply to @Henway, this article is not about the pros and cons of blog directories. It's guide if you want to submit your blog to the directories. Of course there are various ways out there for generating traffic. The good thing is, if any one of them is not working well for you, there are alternatives. Concentrate on the ones that are working for you. It's glad to note that you agree less tags is better than too many. Doing it right is really the focus. Thanks for your comment.
Andreas says:

I think tags refer to keywords. I still prefer to use the name of the blog in the title field when submitting blogs to blog directories for branding purposes and most blog directories are use nofollow anyway so there would not be much value from using keywords in the title field.
Daniel Sharkov says:

Hey Chadrack, Can't really say that blog directories have been a good traffic source for my blog. It was quite some time ago when I was into submitting my blog in such. Now it happens really occasionally. Maybe my biggest problem was tagging. Who knows? Although I know that choosing appropriate tags can make a big difference, I wasn't aware that they hold such importance. Your second points is a good one and it goes to show that overdoing something often leads to the opposite result.
- Chadrack says:
  
  Thanks Daniel, for the comment. I must say there is so much to learn online. And most of this happens everyday through testing and adopting the ones that work for you. Ok, maybe blog directories may have not worked in the past for you that's fine. Simply concentrate on the ones are working for you. However, you can also consider blog directories as way of getting your blog name out there. Remember the search engines also indexes these directories. Your blog out there will also find some favor with the search engines when it is found on the directories. So all in all, you still win! :)
Devesh - WordPress Hacks says:

Great Post. I like the idea of not over using tags. Actually in the earlier days of my blogging. I use to add 6-10 tags for a post, but now i've limit 3-5 tags. Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great Post.
Mani Viswanathan says:

Tags need to be put in with utmost care. Because they are one's which help in determining the SE ranking of that particular post. If you put in a unique tag then you'll get awesome traffic for a long time from that keyword.
- Chadrack says:
  
  That, Mani, is exactly what I'm talking about in this post. The ability to determine the right tag and putting it to use is very important.
Henway says:

I dun think blog directories are a good source of traffic, and even if they are I doubt they're high converting ones - most likely visitors who visit your blog once and go away. If I were a blogger, it'd make more sense to focus on areas with high ROI such as SEO or Adwords.
- Chadrack says:
  
  Hi Henway, It depends on what you define as good source. However, understand that this article is not about the pros and cons of directory submission but guide if you want to use directories. Though people may may not directly search on directories for info as they do with search engines, you will observe that when you use the search engines most of the results are directories. So putting your blog on such directories is a good way of getting part of the traffic. Simply count it as "getting your blog name out there!" Thanks for the comment.
Sujith says:

Hi Chadrack, Thanks for the nice article. Without good content doing SEO can't fetch fruitful results. Bounce rate is mainly depends on the quality of content and other factors like site layout, Easy navigation, Page load time, Good category tree, authority of writer etc
Patricia says:

Hi Chadrack Thanks for such an informative post. I have't tried directories yet but do use tags. Will take special note when publishing my posts not to over do it! Thanks for sharing Chadrack. Definitely worth a RT. Patricia Perth Australia
Robert says:

I think im one of those people going overboard on the whole tags thing, i have a habit of adding nearly every tag I can think of to my posts, and it probably doesn't do them much justice
- Chadrack says:
  
  Ok Robert , I'm sure you have something to take away from this article, right?
Murlu says:

That's one of those big mistakes that people keep messing up on - going overboard with tagging everything; literally stuffing each listing with every possible keyword - much better just to select a few that act as an overview otherwise you'll just have too much information overload.
- Chadrack says:
  
  Murlu, that's just the problem with too many bloggers who thinks the more the better. But frankly that is doing a diservice to your blog. As mentioned in the post, go for only the right tags if you want to win with tagging. Thanks for the comment.
Fran Aslam says:

Hi Chadrack: You have a good article, informative and well formatted. The definition about tags is very exact that explains the value of tags. Fresh contents and importance of readership is also important points to take into consideration. Fran A
- Chadrack says:
  
  Just want to say thanks for your kind comments. And being the first person to comment on this post my special thanks goes to you! :)

How to Drive Traffic from Blog Directories and Tags to your Blog

First, What Really Are Tags?