I noticed something when I started building Jottings: most microblogs treat tags like an afterthought.
They exist. You can click them. But they don't feel like part of the site.
So we built tag pages the right way. Not as a side feature, but as a first-class citizen of your site.
What Are Tag Pages?
When you tag a post, Jottings automatically creates a page for that tag. No setup required. No plugin to install.
Visit yoursite.jottings.me/tag/coffee.html and you'll see every post you've tagged with coffee, beautifully paginated and SEO-optimized.
You get:
- Automatic generation - No manual work
- Full pagination - Large collections split across pages
- SEO benefits - Structured data, metadata, sitemaps
- Reader-friendly - Clean, browsable archive by topic
Every tag becomes its own landing page.
Why This Matters for Discovery
Here's the problem with chronological feeds: they only show you what's recent.
If someone visits your site tomorrow and loves your writing, they have to scroll through months of posts to find everything you've written about their specific interest.
Tag pages solve this instantly.
A reader interested in your photography posts doesn't browse your timeline. They jump straight to /tag/photography.html and see your entire visual archive in one place.
The Hidden SEO Value
Google doesn't just index your home page and individual posts. It indexes your tag pages too.
This means:
More entry points: Instead of 3 pages being discoverable (home + 2 posts), now you have home + 50 posts + 15 tag pages = 67 ways for someone to land on your site.
Better keyword targeting: You write about typescript, javascript, and web-development separately. Each tag page targets searches for that specific term. You don't have to choose one keyword per post.
Long-tail opportunities: Posts tagged with debugging-at-3am create a page that ranks for that exact phrase. You get traffic you wouldn't otherwise.
Thematic authority: Tag pages about machine-learning show Google that you write about this topic consistently. The algorithm notices patterns.
Tag Pages Improve Over Time
This is the beautiful part: your tag pages get better as you write more.
When you publish your first post tagged with design-systems, the tag page exists but has minimal content. It's just one post.
After 20 posts tagged with design-systems, that page becomes substantial. It's a mini-archive. A resource.
This is organic growth. You're not building pages; you're growing them through the natural act of writing.
Creating a Tag Cloud
We also auto-generate a /tags.html page that shows every tag on your site.
Tags are sized by frequency—the more you write about something, the larger it appears. It's called a tag cloud.
This page serves three purposes:
- Navigation: Readers can see at a glance what your site is about
- Analytics for you: You can instantly see where your writing focuses
- Breadcrumb SEO: Another indexed page that links to all your tag pages
How to Use Tags Effectively
Be consistent: Use typescript every time, not sometimes ts, sometimes javascript. Tag pages work best when you're disciplined.
Stay specific: typescript beats programming. Specific tags attract specific readers.
Don't overdo it: 2-4 tags per post is the sweet spot. Too many tags dilute the value of each page.
Watch your tag cloud: If you notice a topic you care about barely appears in the cloud, maybe you should write about it more.
Tag Pages Are Evergreen
One more thing I love about tag pages: they're timeless.
A post you wrote two years ago about productivity is still on the /tag/productivity.html page. It doesn't disappear. It doesn't get buried.
This means older posts stay discoverable forever. Your best writing doesn't fade—it becomes part of organized archives that grow more valuable over time.
Chronological platforms (like Twitter) bury everything. Tag-based sites (like yours, with Jottings) make everything findable forever.
Start Building Your Archives
If you're just starting out, tag your posts and watch the tag cloud grow. It's oddly satisfying to see your writing organize itself.
If you already have a site with hundreds of posts, tag pages let you rediscover your own archive. You'll find threads of thought that connect across months of writing.
Your readers will too.
Create your Jottings site today and start organizing your ideas by topic.