Understanding Tags In Craft CMS

Creating and Managing Tags in Craft CMS

Setting up New Tag Groups

When creating a new Craft CMS website, one of the first steps is setting up tag groups to organise your content tagging. Tag groups allow you to separate tags into logical collections like 'News Topics', 'Product Categories' or 'Team Members'.

To add a new tag group, go to Settings > Tags and click the 'New tag group' button. Give your group a name like 'News Categories' and set the handle to something SEO-friendly like 'newsCategories'. The handle creates the URL segment for the tag group.

In the settings, you can select whether to make the group's tags restricted. Restricted tags can only be assigned to entries by admins, preventing other authors from using them improperly. For an open tag group like 'News Categories', leave it unrestricted.

You can also choose whether the tag group should be enabled for propagation. Propagated tags automatically get assigned to related entries. For something broad like 'News Categories', enable propagation.

Adding, Editing and Deleting Tags

Once your tag groups are created, it's easy to add, edit and remove tags within them. Go to the group and click the 'New tag' button to create a new tag. Give it a title like 'Local News' and a handle like 'localNews'.

The handle creates the URL segment, so make it web-friendly. You can add a description that gives authors usage guidance.

To later edit a tag, hover over it and click the gear icon. You can change the name, handle, or description here. If you need to delete an outdated tag, click the trash can icon.

When adding tags, focus on creating a comprehensive taxonomy relevant to your content. For news categories, tags like Politics, Business, Sports and Lifestyle work well. Avoid overly narrow tags that have few uses.

Managing Tag Organization

With lots of tags, organization becomes important. Craft lets you create tag hierarchies with parent and child tags for more structure. Go to a tag and set its parent tag in the settings to nest it.

You can also drag and drop tags to reorder them within a group. Keep your most-used tags on top for easy access when tagging entries. Tag organization helps authors use the correct tags consistently.

As your tag library grows, look for opportunities to merge duplicates. If two tags like 'Football' and 'Soccer' actually mean the same thing, merge them by turning one into an alias. This keeps usage consistent.

For widely used tags, enable propagation to automatically apply them to related entries, based on factors like entry type or channel. This saves authors time without sacrificing tagging accuracy.

With robust tag group creation and ongoing tag management, you can build a clean taxonomy that enhances your Craft CMS site's organization and search effectiveness.

Tags for SEO and Metadata in Craft

Enabling Tag Archive Pages

One easy SEO win in Craft is enabling tag archive pages. This creates standalone pages that list entries associated with a specific tag.

To turn on, go to Settings > Sections. Choose a section like Blog or News that has tagged entries. Expand the Entry URL Format and select 'Tags' to archive entries by tag.

This will generate URLs like /news/business that display all news articles tagged 'Business'. It provides readers with a targeted landing page for relevant content.

Tweak the template to optimize these pages. Showpage title and meta descriptions should dynamically change based on the tag so each is unique. Improve discoverability by listing related tags too.

For better indexing, use Permalink Settings to remove .html extensions from tag archive URLs. Check they are loading successfully in Google Search Console.

Using Tags in URLs and Slugs

In addition to archives, directly integrate tags into your entry URLs/slugs for keyword targeting.

In your section's Entry URL Format, choose 'Entry slug' as the first segment then insert {postDate.year}/{tags} to dynamically add tags based on the entry's tags.

This appends the tags creating more URL-specific keywords, like /news/2023/business/finance-report. The tags help search engines quickly grasp the content's topic.

When adding tags to URLs, limit it to 1-2 important tags so they are legible. More can dilute the URL focus. Ensure your slugs remain concise as well.

Tagging for Voice Search

Voice search usage is soaring. Optimize tags to maximize discoverability and engagement for voice queries.

Observe how users naturally speak voice commands. Tag using conversational language that matches these natural voice requests.

For example, rather than a 'Recipes' tag, use 'Dinner ideas' or 'Weeknight meal inspiration' which mirrors how users may ask for recipes.

Use full natural phrases and questions as tags when feasible, instead of single generic keywords. Tags like 'How can I save money?' and 'What causes back pain?' directly answer voice queries.

Review voice search reports in Google Search Console to see the actual questions your content could rank for. Turn these into highly relevant corresponding tags.

With strategic tagging for SEO and voice search, Craft CMS content will surface prominently across the modern search landscape.

Managing Tags Across Multi-Site Setups

Shared Tag Groups

For publishers managing multiple Craft CMS sites, sharing tag groups between them provides consistency.

Rather than recreating the same tag groups separately everywhere, define certain groups as "shared" to make them available network-wide.

In the Craft admin, visit Settings > Tags. Choose your globally relevant groups like 'News Categories', 'Product Types' or 'Locations'. Check the Site Settings box and select the sites to share each with.

Now when editors visit these sites, those shared tag groups appear in addition to any local unshared groups. Authors can use the same shared tags on different sites.

To make edits, change the shared tag group on one site and it syncs across the others. New sites automatically get access to existing shared groups too.

Propagating Tags Across Sites

Along with shared access, propagate key tags across all sites to maintain unified content tagging.

For example, you likely want your 'Breaking News' tag applied consistently across sites. Set up propagation rules for it on one site.

Check the "Propagate to other sites" box when saving the tag. Choose which sites it should propagate to. Now when used on one site, it gets added everywhere.

Do this selectively for important universal tags to prevent irrelevant tags from spraying everywhere. Some tag uses are better left localized.

Regularly review propagation to ensure tags aren't being over-applied. Adjust the rules if some sites need more granular control.

Keeping Tags Synced

With shared tags flowing across sites, keep things in sync by limiting where edits occur.

Choose one primary site as the "source of truth" for each shared group. Clearly indicate in admin notes that this site owns tag management for the group across the network.

When tag changes are required, have admins from other sites request them from the owner rather than haphazardly making direct edits.

Monitor tag activity in the Craft audit log across sites. Watch for anomalies like deleted or merged tags on one site that don't sync correctly elsewhere. Quickly identify and fix discrepancies.

Use Craft's built-in tools like requiring admin changes or enabling version control on shared tag groups to prevent unauthorized local meddling too.

With robust tag sharing and monitoring, you can scale Craft CMS sites globally while providing a unified tagging experience.

Tag APIs and Headless Craft CMS

Fetching Tags via API

Craft's REST API enables headless delivery by letting you retrieve tag data through API calls.

To fetch all existing tags, make a GET request to /tags. This returns JSON for every tag across all groups. Filter by adding ?group=newsTags to get just that group's tags.

You can manipulate the response fields using parameters like ?fields=title,id to only return each tag's title and ID. _links adds URLs to related content with that tag.

For a single tag, use /tags/{id} passing the tag ID. Add ?status=enabled to only get enabled tags. Useful for syncing active tags to your headless implementation.

For integration with a JS framework, look into the Element API for optimized tag queries. The /elements endpoint has native support for tags as element types.

Modifying Tags via API

To modify tags in a headless environment, Craft offers Post API endpoints.

Create a new tag by POSTing to /tags with the tag title and group in the request body. The response returns the new tag ID.

To update a tag, make a PUT request to /tags/{id} with the updated properties in the request body. Want to delete a tag? Use DELETE at the same endpoint.

You can even reorder tags within a group using the /tags/order endpoint. The request body contains an array of tag IDs in the new order.

All write operations are available for headless systems to remotely manage tags without needing the Craft control panel.

JavaScript and Vue APIs

Alongside REST, Craft offers first-party JS and Vue APIs for frontend implementations.

Import craft.tags to interact with tags directly from your JavaScript code. Get all tags in a group with craft.tags.getAllTags('groupHandle')

Listen for tag events like tag creation using craft.tags.on('saveTag', callback) to trigger frontend updates.

For Vue, install the @craftjs/vue package. Now you can query tags through this.$craft.tags and hook into events via this.$craft.tags.on().

These friendly JS APIs eliminate the need for custom API wrappers. use the first-party methods to fetch, modify and listen for tag changes from your JavaScript code.

No matter your headless approach, Craft CMS offers multiple APIs to securely access and manage tags from anywhere.

Localization and Translating Tags

Tag Translation

For global, multi-language Craft CMS sites, translating tags creates localized experiences.

Craft lets you define tag translations so their names display in the proper locale language.

From a tag's settings, open Translation Key Management. Here you can add translations for each language your site supports.

For example, translate an 'Announcements' tag into Spanish, French and German versions. Authors will see the translated tag names in their locale.

Use localization tools to help with translation work rather than doing it manually. SYNC these translations back into Craft for a complete localized taxonomy.

For languages sharing characters, translate tag slugs/handles too so URLs localize properly. Keep SEO and localization intertwined.

Managing Tags Across Locales

When operating multi-language sites, strategically manage tags across locales.

Avoid creating duplicate tags in each language. Instead, translate a single tag to cover all languages for consistency.

For example, consolidate 'Announcements' and 'Ankündigungen' into one tag with translations rather than two separate tags.

Alternatively, have locale-specific tag groups for local concepts that don't translate globally. Merge these groups into a unified menu in the control panel to simplify management.

Plan shared and locale-specific tags upfront based on content needs. Audit existing tags to identify consolidation and translation opportunities.

Localize URLs for locale-specific tags by using translated slugs or locale prefixes like /en/business and /de/business.

With robust translation workflows and strategic localization, Craft's tags gracefully cross borders, languages and cultures. Your content will feel native for audiences everywhere.

Tag Security, Validation and Optimization

Securing Tag Permissions

Like all user-generated content, keep tags secure by limiting permissions.

By default, authors can create and manage tags freely. This lack of oversight leads to improper tagging and clutter.

Instead, create a dedicated "Tag Manager" role. Assign it permissions like 'Create tags', 'Edit tags' and 'Delete tags'. Standard authors get read-only access.

Now only specially permissioned users can add, modify or remove tags. They should proactively manage the taxonomy rather than reactively cleaning up author mistakes.

For further security, make certain sensitive tags like 'Customer Data' restricted. This requires admin approval before assigning them to content.

Regularly review tag permissions as your team and workflows evolve. Keep access aligned to tagging needs without being overly open.

Validating and Sanitizing Tags

Validate tags on the frontend to prevent malformed data from being introduced.

When users create tags, sanitize the values before saving them. Remove unwanted HTML, encode special characters, truncate lengths and prevent duplicate naming.

Customize the validation rules per tag group. Restrict news tags to ASCII characters while allowing wider Unicode support for global location tags.

On the backend, add Craft validation rules to enforce limits like maximum tag length or regex patterns tags must match. This provides server-side checking too.

Good validation eliminates inconsistencies and formatting issues that could break things like tag URLs down the road.

Optimizing Tag Performance

For large tag libraries, optimize performance with caching, eager loading and indexes.

Enable DB caching to avoid hitting the database for every tag query. Index commonly queried tag columns like handles and titles.

Eager load commonly associated relations like entry counts alongside tags. Optimize complex tag element queries at the template level to reduce load

Delete unused tags regularly to keep lookup tables lean. Archive old content with outdated niche tags rather than leaving it live.

With security, validation and performance best practices, you can smoothly scale your Craft CMS taxonomy as your content needs evolve.