Tags for better search

How to use tags to make pages easy to find

Use these instructions to add good tags to your page or file that make it easier to find. Tags are basically search keywords and good use of tags can help a page show up in search results exactly when it needs to.

Adding tags requires a little extra time and effort beyond simply creating a page or uploading a file. But if it's an important page, take 30 seconds to add tags for the sake of posterity.

"What words would I use to search for this?" 

The easiest way to think up good tags is to ask yourself this question: "What words would I use to search for this page six months from now?"

When you add a tag it becomes associated with the page and the search engine adds that word to the index for that page. Search for that word and the page will show up in the results. The easiest way to think of tags is to brainstorm the words you would use to search for the page or file in question.

Example: For a page with the meeting agenda for an executive team retreat, add these tags:

• meeting agendas
• Executive team
• October
• retreats

Think synonyms  

People use the weirdest words to search for stuff and may not know the official or correct terms for something. You can use multiple tags to account for variations in how people might search for a page.

Example: For the "US Holiday Calendar" page, people might use any of the following terms to try to find the page: 

• holidays
• time off
• vacation
• calendar
• schedule 
• dates
• list  

Five universally useful tag types 

• Dates (write full month & year): People often remember the time frame related to events and articles. If you add a tag with the full month written out then they'll be able to find it by either searching for the whole month or the month abbreviation.  
• Topics: What is the core topic that the page or file deals with?
• Content type: Meeting agenda? Sales report? Memo? Strategic plan? Presentation?
• Team: Who? If the page refers to a specific group or that group's work, add a tag for the group.
• Event type: Meeting? Retreat? Sales conference? White House dinner?

Make presentations findable with 1 tag 

PowerPoint presentations are flying all over the place. Everybody uses them and you're always trying to reuse them. So increase your chances of finding that PowerPoint with this tag: 

• "PowerPoint (PPT) presentation"

Add this tag to every PowerPoint you attach to the intranet. With this tag added, people will be able to search for "PowerPoint," "PPT," "presentation" or any combination and see the file in search results.
 

Hot intranet tip!

Add tags for people's names

Just wrote an intranet news article about a super employee's video that went viral and earned the company tons of free press? Add that employee's name as a tag on the news article. Once you add a tag, it'll be available for future tagging.

People often remember things in a very social way, based on who was involved. So by adding tags of people involved you can increase the chances of that blog post being found later on down the line.