I am a digital marketer and blogger based in Denver, Colorado. When I started my blog in 2011, I knew very little about SEO, content strategy, or paid media. Now, as I look back on those days, I can’t believe I made it this far without learning at least a little bit about each of these topics. As you might imagine, this blog has evolved with the industry over the years. I currently specialize in SEO for real estate platforms, but I’ve worked with clients from all industries.

If you’re interested in exploring the world of SEO, tag management is a useful tool for marketers. To help you get up to speed, this post will cover the essentials: what is tag management, how does it work, and the core terms you need to know.

What is Tag Management?

Generally speaking, tag management is a process of associating keywords with ads, email signups, social media shares, and other online marketing material (e.g., blog posts, product reviews, etc.). In other words, you can think of it as a way to categorize and organize your content so that it can be more easily found by online marketers (such as myself).

Why is it useful? Think about this for a second: if you’re trying to pitch a business blog to a travel website, you’re going to want to ensure that your blog posts are tagged appropriately. For example, suppose you have a blog post on the benefits of veganism for travellers. You might tag that post with the keywords “veganism,” “travel,” and “blogging.” Now, if a consumer goes to that travel website and types in the keywords “veganism,” they’re going to find your post – assuming it’s been assigned the correct tags. This is a useful tool for online marketers because it gives them a glimpse into the content on your site as well as the keywords you’re using to describe it. If you’re doing SEO for a website, this type of analysis is vital because it allows the company to see how various online content projects perform – from the perspective of the user.

How Does Tag Management Work?

When you use this platform, a few things will happen. First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Adsense account and click on the hamburger icon (as shown below) to get to the dashboard. 

Once you’re in the dashboard, you’ll see a list of all the sites where you’ve placed ads. Beneath this list, you’ll see a small orange box with the word “Cards” in it (as you can see below). To the right of these cards, you’ll see a small box that says “Organic Traffic.”

If you click on the orange box with the word “Cards” in it, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this:

Here, you can see a list of all the keywords associated with the ads you’ve placed on this website. To the right of these keywords, you’ll see a small box that says “Performance.” If you click on this box, you’ll be taken to a page that shows you how your keywords are performing (such as by how many people clicked on them compared to how many people typed them into Google). In the screenshot below, you can see that my keywords are performing relatively well compared to the average Google keyword (based on the location of my computer).

If you click on the small orange box with the word “Organic Traffic” in it, you’ll be taken to a page that shows you the keywords contributing to the rise of your site’s organic traffic.

These are all the keywords that, when typed into Google, point to your site rather than a competitors’. The more you know about your keywords the better – this will help you find the right words to describe your content and the campaigns you run.

Key Terms You Need to Know

To fully understand tag management, you need to know some key terms. Let’s start with the most basic:

Keyword: A keyword is a word or phrase that someone might type into Google to find content related to their interests.

Keywords can be anything from a couple of words to a phrase. They can even be a question – such as “What is SEO?” When someone uses keywords in a google search, they’re usually looking for specific content. For this reason, it’s very important to include the keywords in your content as much as possible.

According to Google Adwords, you’ll need to have around 500 – 1,000 words for every $1,000 you spend on an ad campaign. Having more words in your ads will result in more clicks.

Include the keywords in your headlines, descriptions, and body copy. The more you put in there, the better. When someone is on the brink of making a purchase, they will often read your headlines and descriptions. Therefore, you want to make sure that these are filled with the right keywords.

In the screenshot below, you can see that this business’s web page is heavily optimized for the keyword “scheduling”. When someone types this keyword into Google, they’re going to see this business’s web page (because it has the most relevant content for their needs).

Association: This is when a keyword is associated with another term. To create an association, simply put the keyword in quotes. For example, “scheduling” is associated with “daycare,” “babysitting,” “parental leave” – all of which are relevant terms to this business’s product or service.

You can also create an association between two keywords. For example, “parental leave” is associated with “scheduling” because they both have something to do with child care. Associations make it easier for someone to find content relating to their needs through a simple search.