Tags make it easier for visitors to discover content on your WordPress site. However, manually tagging each post can be tedious, especially if you have a large volume of previously published content without tags.
That’s why we suggest implementing automatic tagging for your WordPress posts. This is one of our top time-saving strategies for bloggers and website owners.
In this article, we will guide you on how to automatically tag your WordPress posts.
Why Should You Automatically Tag Your WordPress Posts?
Tags are among the simplest methods to organize posts on your WordPress site.
While categories are designed to group your posts broadly, tags allow you to highlight the specific details of each post.
For instance, your WordPress blog may feature a ‘Sports’ category. You can enhance it with detailed tags like ‘football,’ ‘UEFA Champions League,’ and ‘European Cup’ to help users locate specific topics within that category.
To explore further, check out our comprehensive comparison of categories versus tags.
Adding tags to your posts can be time-consuming, particularly if you utilize a wide variety of tags on your website.
You may also overlook the chance to add a relevant tag, which could prevent visitors from finding what they are searching for on your site.
With that in mind, let’s explore how you can automatically tag your posts.
Automatically Tag Your WordPress Posts to Save Time and Enhance Productivity
The simplest method to automatically tag your WordPress posts is by utilizing the free TaxoPress plugin.
TaxoPress will automatically add a tag to your post if a word or phrase in the title or content matches one of your existing tags.
For instance, suppose your website features several tags such as recipe, chocolate, and pasta.
When you publish a new post titled ‘Best Chocolate Cake Recipe,’ TaxoPress will identify two matches in the title and automatically apply the tags ‘recipe’ and ‘chocolate.’
To begin automatically tagging your posts, you need to install and activate the TaxoPress plugin. For further assistance, please refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
In this tutorial, we are using the free version of TaxoPress, which allows you to set up a single tagging rule. This is sufficient for automatically tagging all your WordPress posts. However, if you wish to create multiple tagging rules for various purposes, you will need to upgrade to TaxoPress Pro.
For more information about the plugin, check out our comprehensive TaxoPress review.
Your first step after activating the plugin is to set up a rule that will automatically tag your WordPress posts. This rule is known as an ‘Auto Term.’
To begin, navigate toTaxoPress » Auto Termsin your WordPress admin dashboard. Then, click the ‘Add New Auto Terms’ button.
Next, enter a title for your new auto term.
The title is for your reference, so feel free to choose any name you like.
TaxoPress can automatically tag not only posts but also images and pages.
For the purpose of this article, we will focus on automatically tagging WordPress posts, so make sure to check the ‘Posts’ box.
Next, open the ‘Taxonomy’ dropdown menu.
From the list that appears, select ‘Tags (post_tag).’
By default, TaxoPress will look for content to tag by scanning both the post’s title and content. You can modify this in the ‘Find term in:’ dropdown by selecting either ‘Post Content’ or ‘Post Title’ only.
Once you have made your selections, click on the ‘Sources’ tab.
Here, you will choose the tags that you want to include in this auto term.
By default, TaxoPress will pull from all the tags you have created on your site, which may be excessive for some websites.
You can specify which taxonomies the plugin can access by selecting the ‘Use only some terms in the selected taxonomy’ option.
In the ‘Choose the terms to use’ field, begin typing the name of a tag.
When the desired tag appears, click on it. Repeat this process for all the tags you wish to include in the automatic tagging.
After completing that, navigate to the ‘Options’ tab.
This section allows you to customize the automatic tagging settings.
By default, TaxoPress adds tags for partial matches. For example, if you have a post titled ‘The Best Chocolate Cake Recipes’, the ‘recipe’ tag will be added even though ‘recipes’ isn’t an exact match.
If you prefer TaxoPress to only add tags for exact matches, check the ‘Whole words’ option.
Once you are satisfied with your settings, click the ‘Save Auto Terms’ button.
Now, every time you publish a new post in WordPress, TaxoPress will analyze the content and title. If it detects a match, it will automatically assign one or more tags to the post.
Guide to Automatically Tagging Your Published WordPress Posts
By default, TaxoPress will tag new posts as you publish them. Additionally, the plugin will attempt to add any missing tags when you update an existing post.
TaxoPress can automatically tag your previously published posts using the same auto terms you created earlier.
To begin, navigate to TaxoPress » Auto Terms. Next, click on the auto term you created previously.
After that, select the ‘Existing Content’ tab.
You will now see all the settings and rules you established earlier.
If your site has a large amount of content, TaxoPress may take some time to process everything. During this tagging process, your site might experience slower performance.
To enhance WordPress performance, it’s advisable to configure TaxoPress to scan your posts in smaller batches with longer intervals between each batch.
By default, TaxoPress scans your content in groups of 20 posts every 10 seconds. You can reduce the number of posts per batch by entering a lower number in the ‘Limit per batches’ field.
You can also extend the time between batches by entering a higher number in the ‘Batches wait time’ field.
Another option is to limit the scan to posts published within a specific timeframe.
To tag only the posts published in the last 6 months, open the ‘Limit Auto Terms, based on published date’ dropdown and choose ‘6 months ago.’
Once you’re satisfied with these settings, you’re set to scan the content currently live on your website.
To initiate the process, simply click the ‘Add Auto Terms to existing content’ button.
After the plugin completes the automatic tagging of existing content, an ‘All done’ message will appear on your screen. Additionally, TaxoPress will display the number of posts it reviewed and the total tags added to your WordPress posts.
We hope this article has helped you learn how to automatically tag your WordPress posts and save valuable time. You can also check out our guide on creating automated workflows with Uncanny Automator, as well as how to add product tags, attributes, and categories in WooCommerce.
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