avatarMatthew Royse

Summary

The web content outlines the importance of choosing the right Medium tags to enhance a story's visibility and reach the right audience.

Abstract

Effective use of tags on Medium is crucial for a story's discoverability and can significantly impact its exposure. Authors are recommended to include all five available tags per story, focusing on relevance to the content, exploration of Medium's topic list, alignment with the tags used by the publication the story is submitted to, popularity of the tags, and alignment with search results. By consistently using specific tags and potentially earning "Top Writer" status, authors can increase their stories' views and visibility on the platform.

Opinions

  • Medium suggests that adding relevant tags to posts is key to improving discoverability across the platform.
  • It is suggested that authors fully utilize all five tag slots to maximize their story's potential reach.
  • Tags should be closely related to the story's headline, sub-headline, and content for optimal relevance.
  • Researching popular tags and topics within Medium can guide authors in selecting tags that attract more readers.
  • Observing the tags used by the publication's navigation bar can provide insight into the most effective tags for a story.
  • Following the crowd by choosing tags with a high number of associated stories can be beneficial for visibility.
  • Consistently using the same tag can lead to "Top Writer" status, which is believed to result in more views.
  • Curators may be influenced by the tags selected, although they do not officially base their curation decisions solely on tags.

The Beginner’s Guide to Medium Tags

Grow your Medium audience by picking the right tags.

Photo by Gigi on Unsplash

Your tags are one of the most important things you can do to optimize your story before you publish and gain more exposure on Medium.

It’s important to do your tag research so your story can be found.

According to Medium:

Adding relevant tags to your post will help with its discoverability around the platform.

Let’s dive into why Medium tags are so important.

What is a Medium tag?

When you publish a story on Medium, you are asked to add labels or tags to your post to let readers know what your story is about.

These tags are mostly free form. Medium suggest tags as you type in your tag, similar to what Google does with its predictive search. Authors can write whatever word(s) they think best describes their story.

How many tags can you add?

You can add up to 5 tags in your Medium story. Make sure you add all 5 or you are missing out on a big opportunity to increase your visibility.

How to choose the right ones

These five tips can help you.

1. Make it relevant. Consider tags that are relevant to your story. Look at your headline and sub-headline. What words did you use?

2. Explore topics. Go to Medium’s topic list. Write down the topics most relevant to what you have written.

3. Research your publication. Find out what the top tags the publication you are going to submit your story to uses. Look at their navigation bar. That’s a good way to find out what tags they use.

4. Follow the crowd. When you type in your tag, you’ll see a number next to the tag. That shows how many stories have been published on Medium using that tag. Pick the ones with higher numbers.

5. Do a search. Act like someone looking for a good story. Type in some potential tags in the Medium search button and see what stories show up. Is your story similar?

Top Writer status

If you publish stories often and use the same tag, you’ll start getting more views. You may receive an email from Medium saying you are a “top writer” for a tag. To earn Top Writer status, you should write stories with similar tags.

Bringing it all together

Curators at Medium don’t “officially” choose which stories to curate based on what tags you select. However, they probably influence their selections. Proper tagging is essential to increasing your visibility on Medium.

Tag
Medium
Writing
Blogging
Business
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