[FAQ]

Hey everyone,

When I upload my YouTube videos, I’m never quite sure what to do with the ‘tags’ section. I hear so much conflicting advice on this. Some people say tags are crucial for YouTube SEO, while others claim YouTube’s algorithm barely pays attention to them anymore.

So, for mid-2025, do tags still actually matter for helping a video get discovered and rack up views? And if they do, what’s the best practice for how many to use? Should I be trying to fill up the character limit, or is it better to just use a few highly relevant ones?

Curious to know what the current thinking is on this. Thanks!

[Jeff Bullas]

The role that tags play on YouTube has evolved significantly over the years. While they are no longer the critical ranking factor they were in the past, they do still have a purpose and are worth using correctly, though they should be a lower priority than other elements of your video optimisation.

First, it is important to understand YouTube’s official position, which is that tags play a minimal role in video discovery. The algorithm now places far more weight on your video’s title, thumbnail, and description, as well as crucial engagement metrics like audience retention and watch time. These elements provide stronger signals about your video’s content and its quality.

The primary function of tags today is to help YouTube understand the context of your video, particularly when your topic might be commonly misspelled by searchers. Think of tags as a way to account for spelling variations or to add a bit more context that does not naturally fit into your main title or description. For example, if your main keyword has a common misspelling, you can include that in your tags.

Regarding how many tags you should use, there is no magic number. The best practice is not to “stuff” the tag section with as many keywords as possible. Quality and relevance are far more important than quantity.

A sensible approach is to use a moderate number of tags, perhaps somewhere between 5 and 15. Your first tag should almost always be your main, target keyword. Following that, you can add a few variations or more specific, long-tail keywords. Finally, you can include one or two broader tags that describe the general category of your video.

Filling the entire 500-character limit is not necessary and can sometimes be counterproductive if you are adding irrelevant tags just for the sake of it. Adding misleading tags that are not related to your video’s content is also a violation of YouTube’s policies.

Your time and effort are much better spent crafting a compelling, keyword-optimised title, designing a clickable, high-quality thumbnail, and writing a detailed, helpful description. These three elements have a far greater impact on your video’s performance than the tag section does.

In summary, you should still use tags, but view them as having a minor, supporting role. Use a handful of highly relevant tags to help with context and potential misspellings, but put the vast majority of your optimisation efforts into your title, thumbnail, and description.

Cheers,

Jeff

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