Reader’s question: Problem with multiple tags

Ashish Saini from Ashfame asked me a few SEO related questions. I thought the the answers may be of interest to you.

Q 1. What is the SE issue to have a post under multiple categories? please explain in
detail.

Answer: Tagging an article with multiple tags will result in the article appearing in all the categories respectively. In the category pages, if there are to categories say category X and category Y, there will be two entries, while the content being the same. This results in duplicate content and Google pushing your content to supplementary pages eventually. Although this is not guaranteed, a consistent use of multiple tags will increase the number of duplicate content on your site which is not good. 

This is the same as listing your archive pages on the blog. You can read more about this topic here, and here.

2. For a google search of “ashfame”
it shows “do you mean ashfaque”.
How can I get rid of this?

Answer: Don’t worry about it. It’s just because it’s a name. Search for arneld and it will suggest you arnold. Since the name you searched is only present in one site, Google thinks it might be a mistake, and suggests a similar term resent in more websites or in it’s index. This happens for all non-popular terms, particularly names. One way to beat it is to have your name on many websites or as links.

Readers. if you have more inputs on the two questions, do share it. If you want to ask a question, do it here.

Possibly related SEO & Social Media Articles

• Header Tags – What are they ? Where and How to Use Them Effectively
  Most of us already know that header tags H1, H2, H3….H6 are an important SEO element in on-page optimization. But how important ? Can we add more than one H1 header tag on a page ? How often should H1 tags be repeated ? Where on a page should it occur ? More questions than [...]...
• Tags and Categories – SEO and Usability
  In a reply to this article , Krishna asked a doubt in the comments section. (a) What is the difference between category and tag in wordpress? (b) How do we use it effectively for SEO? That’s a very good question(s) there. I believe many of us had it in mind but did not quite [...]...
• Optimize your Wordpress blogs titles and meta tags automatically for Google
  Meta tags and Titles play a significant role in deciding your search engine ranks. Meta tags are normally added manually to a page in it’s head section. But many a times, this becomes a tedious process. Luckily for Wordpress there are plugins that will help you to do this stuff pretty easily. Here is a [...]...
• Is tagging a post in multiple categories bad for your blog?
  Following discussions on the web about reducing duplicate content on wordpress blogs, found out a few interesting things. These are things that you may not notice and may assume is normal on a blog. You may even see probloggers practicing such mistakes on their blogs. Well they are unaware of it..but they sure are mistakes An [...]...
• Optimize your categories – Wordpress SEO Tip
  Photo courtesy fotoluvr Seems like Matt’s White Hat SEO tips presentation is a goldmine. Every time you read through, you get more insights. Here is a new one from Matt’s presentation. - Use keywords in your categories. Matt thinks that using your targeted keywords in your category names will benefit your more. That’s indeed a great idea, why didn’t [...]...