YouTube Makes Tags Private

[abhishekmishra]

Youtube Creators Share at Google Plus

You may have noticed - we made tags private, so you can't see them on the watch page anymore. Viewers weren't using them, and some abused them. Please keep providing tags when you upload, though - they're important tools to help promote and connect your videos!

[goo.gl ]

[tedster]

"Viewers weren't using them, and some abused them." - A good signal to send everyone, I'd say - about the use of tags anywhere, even on their own sites.

[Propools]

tedster

Ditto

[diberry]

I wonder how viewers could have been abusing them? Am I missing something obvious?

[sid786]

"Viewers weren't using them, and some abused them. "

I think "some" refers to those uploaders who were adding irrelevant tags again and again.

[diberry]

@sid786, ooooh, I get it now. Thanks!

[Visit Thailand]

I politely disagree. As this change won't stop that practice.

What it will stop is people who are too lazy (or stupid) to think for themselves, just copying other people's tags.

It is a good thing.

[sunnyujjawal]

Not interested in youtube tags but helps a lot in wordpress sites to increase number of pages in site..may be using tags are negative for Google

[Rosalind]

Not interested in youtube tags but helps a lot in wordpress sites to increase number of pages in site

This is a bad thing. Pages and pages of tag category soup will dilute your crawl budget and clog up the SERPs with useless junk. It encourages duplicate content and probably attracts pandas like spam-filled bamboo.

YouTube probably has a very good idea of what makes SEO sense. Moreover, I don't remember the last time I deliberately visited a tag page.

[sunnyujjawal]

@Rosalind:

This is a bad thing.

that's why I already mentioned it:

may be using tags are negative for Google