Story Tags

Story tags: How important are they?

When I search for a story there's several ways I go about it. One is by searching by story tags. I'll get my list going with two or three of four of the tags that are relevant to the type of story I want. Sometimes I get to the tags by clicking on a tag from a story that I like, and working from there. Other times I go to the Tags Portal.

When I submit a story I will have tags prepared from a list that I glean from the 'Tags Portal'. I know there's others that aren't listed, but I assume that the portal has the ones most used. I pick the tags for the story that are pertinent and if there are two or more that are similar, I pick the one in the largest/heavies type. If I have room after I've gotten the ones I want, I'll go back and include the smaller type tags.

I've noticed however that some writers prefer to use tags made up of lines within the story, such as "he said" or "Jason lunged" (I made those up, but I'm sure you've seen what I'm describing.)

I would think that those unique tags wouldn't be very good in my type of story search.

So I wonder, how many people search by story tags. Do other people use them? How left out are the unique tags?

How important are tags in getting views once a story has dropped off the new story list?

I try to keep my tags as relevant as possible and also basic. Using "sex with a politician" might not get you much in the way of views.

I stick to what is in the story, being too creative can hurt.

I rarely look at the tags of others. They are at the end of stories, rather than the beginning, so they mean little to me, and I don't look for the stories of others by searching on tags. I make my own tags for my own stories from elements I consider to be major to the story--or needed by readers checking on tags to see if they want to read the story with that element in it.

49greg said:

Story tags: How important are they?

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I've noticed however that some writers prefer to use tags made up of lines within the story, such as "he said" or "Jason lunged" (I made those up, but I'm sure you've seen what I'm describing.)

I would think that those unique tags wouldn't be very good in my type of story search.

So I wonder, how many people search by story tags. Do other people use them? How left out are the unique tags?

How important are tags in getting views once a story has dropped off the new story list?

Click to expand...

Some of the weird tags for older stories were retrospectively generated by a bot when the tag feature was introduced.

I expect that very few people search for my tag "chairman mao".

It and '"nudist" are my only tags on: http://www.literotica.com/s/getting-nude-with-chairman-mao

Those tags that are bits of the story text are artifacts of an old process. The submission form used to generate those tags if you didn't enter any yourself, and existing stories had their tags generated that way as well.

Tags? Aren't they those pieces of skin that kind of protrude from you body a little way? The doctor called them skin tags. Is that them?

Tags are currently the only way of spanning several categories.

If you have a story about a wife who is having an incestuous affair involving non-consentual sex, BDMS and anal with her brother who happens to be a geriatric werewolf, you can put it in "Incest/Taboo" and tag it with "Loving Wife", "NonHuman", "Anal", "BDMS", "NonConsent/Reluctance" and "Mature."

Ive just started a story called "The Politician's Daughter" lol. Woman having an affair with her Congressman father.

lovecraft68 said:

I try to keep my tags as relevant as possible and also basic. Using "sex with a politician" might not get you much in the way of views.

I stick to what is in the story, being too creative can hurt.

Click to expand...

squirrelzo said:

Ive just started a story called "The Politician's Daughter" lol. Woman having an affair with her Congressman father.

Click to expand...

Wow, that was a coincidence. I better go buy a power ball ticket now!

sr71plt said:

I rarely look at the tags of others. They are at the end of stories, rather than the beginning, so they mean little to me, and I don't look for the stories of others by searching on tags. I make my own tags for my own stories from elements I consider to be major to the story--or needed by readers checking on tags to see if they want to read the story with that element in it.

Click to expand...

Ditto. I write tags but don't read them. The current system is about useless but I play that game anyway. Must be masochistic...

From Alexa's list of subdomains for Lit:

literotica.com 84.27%
tags.literotica.com 19.84%
search.literotica.com 7.98%
i.literotica.com 5.57%
german.literotica.com 5.13%

Almost 20% of visitors to Lit use the tags portal. That's not something you want to ignore. If you have unused tag slots, it may even be worth using tags that are redundant to the category to catch those who only look for stories by tag.

You certainly want to highlight any important elements you can to catch those folks.

Zeb_Carter said:

Tags? Aren't they those pieces of skin that kind of protrude from you body a little way? The doctor called them skin tags. Is that them?

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They are not the same Zeb,but I have found those story tags almost as useful as the ones protruding from your body. I have never once found a story I was looking for using the story tags.

I suppose it could be an operator error, but like most operators I place the blame directly on the software.

I use tags to find stories. Usually in categories that are broad or "catch all" types. GM is a place I use tags a lot, Group (mfm, mmf, orgy, etc), mature, LS, things like that. The way I search dictates how I tag as an author. It's important to be as "general as possible. Use the main sexual elements of your story as well as any specifics that point right to your story without being too vague.

I've also noticed some of the more prolific authors, those with fanbases, sometimes use two or three tags for an element that is VERY specific to one of their story series. manyeyedhydra for instance has several stories revolving around his theme of "hellspace" and that's a beacon to his fans to find his stories that follow that theme.

The tags ain't perfect and certainly aren't beautifully handled, but there are those of us who seek you out by what goes on in your story. I'd suggest making use of every line of those tag fields when submitting a story. It definitely doesn't hurt. Not everyone uses them, but people DO use them. Throw em out there, and use them smartly.

RejectReality said:

Almost 20% of visitors to Lit use the tags portal. That's not something you want to ignore. If you have unused tag slots, it may even be worth using tags that are redundant to the category to catch those who only look for stories by tag.

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Don't overlook the power of the tags with Google also. Prudent selections can maximize SEO there and you can easily end up with your stories in the top three, four, or five results.

Rule number one should always be to never, ever leave a tag space empty because what may not be searched for on Lit, may well be searched on Google.

sr71plt said:

I rarely look at the tags of others. They are at the end of stories, rather than the beginning, so they mean little to me,....

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Good point. A few stories ago I started putting the tags I use for that story at the beginning just after my 'all characters are over 18' litany. Just to warn readers what to expect.

RejectReality said:

Those tags that are bits of the story text are artifacts of an old process. The submission form used to generate those tags if you didn't enter any yourself, and existing stories had their tags generated that way as well.

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That explains it - I had a difficult time reconciling how someone could write a story but put such weird tags in them. Thanks to you and Ogg for explaining it.

Zeb_Carter said:

Tags? Aren't they those pieces of skin that kind of protrude from you body a little way? The doctor called them skin tags. Is that them?

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yeah, I've got a doozie near my waistline that sometimes gets rubbed and sore. Need to get it seen to.

RejectReality said:

From Alexa's list of subdomains for Lit:

literotica.com 84.27%
tags.literotica.com 19.84%
search.literotica.com 7.98%
i.literotica.com 5.57%
german.literotica.com 5.13%

Almost 20% of visitors to Lit use the tags portal. That's not something you want to ignore. If you have unused tag slots, it may even be worth using tags that are redundant to the category to catch those who only look for stories by tag.

You certainly want to highlight any important elements you can to catch those folks.

Click to expand...

Nice to know that I'm not the only one. I actually read more than I write. I think of myself as a reader who sometimes writes.

I just figured out how to multi quote the other day!!

Story tags: How important are they?

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For searching a story, I don't think story tags are all that important. My reasoning is that Literotica's search engine can find any word in your story. As an example, I went to "Search Stories" and entered a word which isn't common. I chose, "Duluth."

There were a number of stories returned, and I picked two of them at random. One titled "Nude Softball," by Boxlicker101, had "Duluth" in the story, but not in the story tags. The other story I chose, "Dress Code," by biskit7801, also had "Duluth" in the story, but not in the story tags.

Given that story tags aren't all that important for finding particular words in a story, I still add them to my stories, only because I'm hoping there may be other search engines which might pick them up.

You can choose words/phrases which aren't in your story as story tags to help readers find the 'needle in the haystack' in the massive Literotica story list.

Privates1stClass said:

For searching a story, I don't think story tags are all that important. My reasoning is that Literotica's search engine can find any word in your story. As an example, I went to "Search Stories" and entered a word which isn't common. I chose, "Duluth."

There were a number of stories returned, and I picked two of them at random. One titled "Nude Softball," by Boxlicker101, had "Duluth" in the story, but not in the story tags. The other story I chose, "Dress Code," by biskit7801, also had "Duluth" in the story, but not in the story tags.

Given that story tags aren't all that important for finding particular words in a story, I still add them to my stories, only because I'm hoping there may be other search engines which might pick them up.

You can choose words/phrases which aren't in your story as story tags to help readers find the 'needle in the haystack' in the massive Literotica story list.

Click to expand...

I don't usually get that specific. Usually a search will start out in the tags portal with something like: "Mature", then if I don't chose one of the stories listed I'll add another say, "Older Woman", That give me over 200 stories. If I want to narrow it further, I might add the word "Seduction" which will narrow it to just 12 stories. Then the top story listed is "Having Patience" - A young man beds his milf. Hmm, sounds interesting - if that floats your boat.

That's my method.

RejectReality said:

Almost 20% of visitors to Lit use the tags portal. That's not something you want to ignore. If you have unused tag slots, it may even be worth using tags that are redundant to the category to catch those who only look for stories by tag.

You certainly want to highlight any important elements you can to catch those folks.

Click to expand...

This. I had a few stories with so-so tags. Changed a few to category specific and added the same tag to multi part stories. 'After New List' hits and comments and reads clearly went up.