I finally got around to updating my website to version 2.2.1. The feature I was most looking forward to built-in tagging. I was a previous user of Ultimate Tag Warrior, but I had to stop using it because it broke the WordPress search feature (posts with no tags were not included in search results.)

To my surprise, I couldn’t find the tag feature or the Ultimate Tag Warrior importer. After a great deal of Google searching, I found that tagging was removed at the last minute from WordPress 2.2.x and will be delayed until 2.3. Additionally, I found that Christine Davis release a new (actually the final) version of Ultimate Tag Warrior, , Arne Brachhold released a new version of Google Sitemap Generator, and Stewart Farquhar released a new version of Google Sitemaps – Append UTW Tags. I re-installed all three, activated them, and I’m pleased to say that everything is now working properly again.

For those who don’t know these plug-ins do or why they are important, let me explain. Tags are great because they identify the keywords within a post and help link related posts together; this can help generate additional site traffic. Sitemaps are indexes for for websites; they contain a list of every page on the site so that search engines do not have to crawl through the site and look for new content. For example, here is a link to the sitemap.xml file for CarltonBale.com. The third plug-in appends the tags into the sitemap, so search engines can find the tags more easily. When they work together properly, these three plug-ins can help create additional traffic. It’s called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and there have been volumes written about it. If you’re interested in learning more about WordPress SEO, Google is your friend.