You Might Not Know How Useful Substack Post Tags Are

They're not just sitting in your settings looking pretty. Post tags can change the entire look and functionality of your publication!

If there’s one thing about Substack I can never stress enough, it’s this:

We don’t know what we don’t know until someone tells us that we don’t know it.

I’m sending this tip out today because I’ve met with two clients in the last 24 hours who had no clue what post tags can do for them. I figured if 100% of two people didn’t know (😁), there’s a strong possibility LOTS of you don’t.

First things first…

Post tags are located in your post settings. That’s the area you’re automatically taken to before you publish any Subtack post:

How to add tags to your posts:

A tag is ANY word or short phrase related to the content of specific posts. You can enter as many tags as you like for any post but you only need one to be effective.

For example, if you’re a travel writer you could tag specific posts with the destination you’re writing about. Or, if you’re a food writer you could use a “recipes” tag. Even better, if you have a dedicated day of the week where you send out recipes, you could use a tag like, “Monday Recipes.”

Here’s a screenshot of several tags I use in one of my publications, Dog Snobs.

WHY you should add tags to your posts:

If each of your posts is tagged appropriately, you can now use them to organize how your home page looks.

Let’s say I wanted a “Dog Behavior” link on the navigation bar of Dog Snobs so that readers wishing to learn about dog behavior can easily find posts about it.

All I have to do is go into my dashboard » settings » website, and then scroll down to the TAG section. Click the three little dots to the right of the tag I want displayed, and PRESTO…it’s added to the navigation bar.

You can also use tags to arrange groupings on your homepage. The Habit Hub by

Cindy McDonough

is a fantastic example of how a homepage can be used to its full potential. She’s got several different groupings such as Monday recipes, Sunday snippets, Friday reflections, etc.

To customize your homepage, just go into your dashboard » settings » basics…

Of course, none of this is brand new information but as I keep saying, all of us are at different places in our Substack journey and we can’t assume that all the information hits everyone at the same time.

This is my information hitting you, today. I hope it helps! 😊

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