You can effectively streamline your site with auto-linking tags in WordPress to improve your SEO ranking and enhance User Experience (UX). In this article, we’ll show you how to achieve this goal to save time and effort, especially in backlinking.
Video of auto-linking tags in WordPress
Auto-linking tags in WordPress
WordPress tags help organize your content and improve navigation. But manually adding links to each tag can be tedious. This is where auto-linking tags comes in – a feature or plugin that automatically converts tags within your posts into clickable links. Here’s why you should consider enabling it:
- Enhanced User Experience: Auto-linked tags make it easier for readers to delve deeper into related posts and content. Clicking a tag instantly takes them to a page showcasing all posts with that specific tag. This fosters exploration and keeps visitors engaged on your site.
- Improved SEO: Search engines favor well-structured websites with strong internal linking. Auto-linked tags create a network of interconnected pages, which signals relevance to search engines and potentially boosts your search ranking.
- Saved Time and Effort: Auto-linking eliminates the repetitive task of manually adding links to every tag. This frees up valuable time for you to focus on creating high-quality content.
- Consistency: Auto-linking ensures all tags are linked uniformly throughout your site. This maintains a professional look and feel for your readers.
Remember: While auto-linking offers advantages, it’s wise to avoid over-tagging your posts. Stick to relevant tags to maintain a clean and focused reading experience. While search engines don’t necessarily index tags the same way they do categories, relevant keywords can still be helpful. Use keyword research tools, such as Moz Keyword Explorer, or the “most used tags” feature in WordPress to get ideas for relevant tags. But remember, choose tags that describe your content accurately, not just because they’re popular.
Tags vs. categories on WordPress
WordPress categories and tags both help organize your content, but in different ways. Categories are like broad filing cabinets, for main topics on your site. You can even have subcategories for further organization. Tags are more like keywords, describing specific aspects of a post. They’re non-hierarchical, so you can add several to a single post, helping users find content through more granular search terms.
How to automatically link tags in WordPress?
Add the following php code to the functions.php file of your currently active WordPress theme:
add_filter('the_content', 'auto_link_tags');
function auto_link_tags($content){
$post_tags = get_the_tags();
if ($post_tags) {
$i = 0;
foreach($post_tags as $tag) {
$tags[$i] = "~<(?:a\\s.*?</a>|[^>]+>)(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|\\b(?:\\b(" . $tag->name . ")\\b(?=[^>]*(<|$)))\\b~i";
$tag_url = get_tag_link($tag->term_id);
$tag_html[$i] = '<a href="' . $tag_url . '" title="$1">$1</a>';
$i++;
}
$content = preg_replace($tags, $tag_html, $content);
}
return $content;
}This code defines a function called auto_link_tags that is used to automatically link tags in a WordPress post content. The function works by first retrieving the tags for the current post using the get_the_tags function. If there are any tags found, the function then iterates over each tag and performs the following steps:
- Constructs a regular expression pattern to match the tag name within the post content.
- Constructs the HTML code for the linked tag, which includes an anchor tag (<a>) with the appropriate href and title attributes.
- Replaces all occurrences of the tag name in the post content with the corresponding HTML code for the linked tag using the preg_replace function.
How to add topic tags in bbPress
Adding topic tags in bbPress is straightforward, but requires enabling the feature first. Here’s how:
- Enable Topic Tags: Navigate to Settings > Forums in your WordPress dashboard. In the Forum Features section, ensure “Allow topics to have tags” is checked.
- Adding Tags During Topic Creation: When creating a new topic, look for the Topic Tags box towards the bottom. Here, you can enter comma-separated keywords relevant to the topic.
- Viewing Tags: Once a topic is published, the tags will appear as a list above the topic content. Clicking a tag will display other topics with that same tag.
Popular tags at LELB Society
Being a bilingual academy of English and Persian with over 4,300 video-based lessons, LELB Society meticulously organizes its educational materials with the following built-in taxonomies in WordPress:
- Categories of English and Persian lessons
- Popular tags in lessons with post counts
- Archives of lessons from August 2015 to present
- LELB Society’s team of authors, teachers, and marketers
Why not use a plugin to auto-link tags?
While WordPress plugins offer great customization, relying on too many can lead to conflicts, slowdowns, and security vulnerabilities. To minimize this risk, focus on multifunctional plugins that address several needs at once. Research plugins thoroughly, prioritizing those with a proven track record and active development to ensure compatibility with future WordPress updates. By strategically choosing a lean plugin suite, you can streamline your website’s functionality and maintenance.
Dr. Mohammad Hossein Hariri Asl, the founder and developer of LELB Society, has written the following six articles on how to add useful functionalities to WordPress, such as showing related posts, without using any plugin:
- Display related posts or topics in bbPress without plugin
- Show related posts in WordPress without plugin
- Best lightweight social share buttons without plugin
- Best social share buttons WordPress without plugin
- How to create a WordPress membership site without plugin
- Add WhatsApp button to website WordPress without plugin
Content-based instruction on LELB Society
LELB Society promotes a teaching approach called content-based instruction (CBI) for second language learning. This method integrates language acquisition with interesting subject matter. Learners aren’t just memorizing grammar rules; they’re using the target language to explore topics they find engaging. This makes learning more natural and motivating, while also providing valuable context for using new vocabulary and grammatical structures. LELB Society even offers English and Persian resources on implementing CBI effectively in language classrooms, making it a valuable tool for educators.
Conclusion
In conclusion, auto-linking tags in WordPress offers a convenient way to improve user experience, SEO, and overall site management. Consider giving it a try to streamline your content and enhance your website’s functionality.
