Summary

The author of the article discusses their personal strategy for tagging articles on Medium, emphasizing the importance of using appropriate tags rather than those with the highest post count to avoid spam and improve visibility.

Abstract

The author, an experienced Medium writer with a month of consistent publishing and a significant number of followers, shares insights on the strategic use of tags on the platform. They highlight the prevalence of spam in tags with a high volume of posts and advocate for a selective approach to tagging, akin to search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. By choosing tags with less competition, the author ensures their articles are more visible and reach the intended audience. The article underscores the importance of using relevant tags to connect with readers who are genuinely interested in the content, thereby fostering a meaningful writing community.

Opinions

The author believes that using popular tags with a high volume of posts, such as #Life, can lead to one's article being lost among spam content.
They equate the strategy of selecting Medium tags with the principles of SEO, where the quality and relevance of keywords impact a web page's visibility.
The author suggests that readers are more likely to engage with articles that have appropriate tags, as they signal content relevance to the reader's interests.
They emphasize the importance of not being swayed by the number of posts associated with a tag but rather focusing on the relevance to the article's content.
The author values the community aspect of Medium and encourages the use of tags that contribute to knowledge sharing and support within specific interest groups.

Why I Don’t Always Use the Tags with the Most Number of Posts on Medium

Using the appropriate tags

I’m going to start this off with a disclaimer: I am in no means an expert on Medium nor am I one of those who are deemed ‘successful’ on this site.

But what I can tell you is that I have been writing on Medium for almost a month, I have had 12 articles curated, 4 articles were curated in a row, and have 300+ followers in just a little under a month.

In my standards, I think I did a tiny bit more than okay. In fact, I’m quite proud of it.

I’ve set up a goal to write at least one article a day to improve my discipline in writing and so far so good. I even landed a few paid sponsored posts written here on Medium.

I won’t tell you which though, if you’re interested, read my other articles, you can ask me through responding to this or through Facebook. My face is rampant on Medium groups like Medium Magic, Medium Partner Program Friends, and Medium Mastery.

I have learned a few tricks and tips, some I gained with the help of other people and most of them, I had to figure out by myself by using this platform consistently.

I’ve seen what tactics work best and what doesn’t. In this article, it’s all about the tags on Medium and why I don’t use the tags with the most number of posts.

There are a lot of spam posts

When I was just starting out on Medium (I don’t know why I’m writing like I’ve been here longer than a month but it truly seems like a long time when trying to write every day), I used to just pick out the tags with the most number beside it.

#Life is a very popular one with hundreds of thousands of posts but when I tried searching it through the app, most of what I saw were spam posts.

Like this post linking to a movie download:

or some weird ass posts about t-shirts:

I like it better when my articles are not drowning in a sea of spam posts.

I treat it like SEO

I’ve been freelance writing for a few years now and had many clients asking for pieces to contain specific key words that can boost up their rankings on Google.

I recently had the guts to quit my job and become a full-time freelance writer:

I Officially Resigned From My 9–5 Job

Here’s what I’m doing to survive.

medium.com

As per a legit definition on Wikipedia, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine.

When using SEO, you’d have to weigh in how many competitors you have for your title and key words.

Just like in Medium, I would try to weigh if my article would do well on a specific tag or if it would be easily drowned by hundreds of posts within hours.

If there are more competitors, your article would probably be drowned in a few hours.

Interest people who are interested

Please put the correct tags on your articles, just because a tag has many numbers on it that doesn’t mean more people will click on it.

They searched a specific tag to read about specific articles. Your misguided article will most likely be ignored, not unless you have a really awesome title or click bait.

Not to mention that it would help a whole deal of people. If you write about parenting or kids with special needs, it’s better to put the appropriate tags in.

Some readers look under specific tags to gain knowledge, help, or just find peace in knowing they are not alone in what they’re going through.

USE. THE. APPROPRIATE. TAG.

Medium truly is a great find, especially for someone like me who really wanted a good community for writers.

No one can teach you everything about this site, not even after you’ve read all the ‘how to’ articles. It’s one of those things you learn from experience and tons of writing.

Some things work best for you and you alone.