Is there an SEO benefit to using tags in WordPress for my blog posts?

[Smart_Start]

We have locations across the US and are trying to develop content so that we rank well for specific keywords on a local level. For instance, "long tail keyword search in state" or "long tail keyword search near 76244", etc. The goal is to develop those content pages via blogs to rank for those keywords. We are using Yoast and will be optimizing each post using that tool. My questions are:

1. Are there any benefits to adding a long list of tags to each post?
2. If yes, do I need to limit the number of tags?
3. Do we need to block the indexing of yoast to those tags and categories for duplicate content issues?

Any insight on the best way to optimize these blog posts with the use of tags or other avenues would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris_Hickman]

You will want to be selective with the categories and tags that you use. If you have multiple tag index pages with the exact same content you may be at some risk of serving nearly identical pages. It's still not a huge SEO issue as Google will likely just prefer one over the other.

If it does become an issue where multiple tags or categories are identical you can block indexing as you described.

Tags are primarily a feature for users to navigate subjects on your blog rather than a method to improve SEO.

The content quality and title of your posts is much more important in terms of optimization. We recently discussed ways to optimize content for search rankings just yesterday on our blog. I would recommend you focus on your content and keyword targeting as described there.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

[Smart_Start]

I appreciate the response Chris. It makes sense that the tags would be more an of internal IA piece. I have come across some blogs that mention SEO in association with Tags so I wanted to make sure. In my mind it would seem conflicting to have Yoast providing meta and the tags providing the same.

Do others of you out there agree with all of this as well?

[BlueprintMarketing]

I agree with what Chris said tags are primarily there for users. They should not be indexed they are there to allow people to navigate your site more easily if you index them you will get  duplicate content issues.