---
title: Best Practices for Using Tagging
description: Compilations of all Community tags related settings
---

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# Best Practices for Using Tagging

## Compilations of all Community tags related settings

| What are Tags? |
| --- |
| Tags are labels applied to ideas that organize them by theme, topic, or category, making related ideas easier to search for, discover, and follow across a community. |

This article guides Moderators through the settings and practices that support Community Tags, also referred to as General Tags. It does not cover Moderator Tags, which are used for private communication about ideas between Moderators and Reviewers and, because they are private, are not suited to the crowdsourced tagging that Community Tags support.

---

**TABLE OF CONTENTS**

[Use of Predefined Tags](https://help.ideascale.com/best-practices-using-tag#UseofPredefinedtags)  
[Modifying and Merging Tags](https://help.ideascale.com/best-practices-using-tag#ModifyingandMergingTags)  
[Bulk Application of Tags](https://help.ideascale.com/best-practices-using-tag#BulkApplicationTags)  
[Tag Suggestions](https://help.ideascale.com/best-practices-using-tag#TagSuggestions)  
[Discovering and Following Tags](https://help.ideascale.com/best-practices-using-tag#DiscoveringandFollowingTags)

---

### Use of Predefined Tags

Predefined tags seed a community with a standardized set of tags before Contributors begin submitting ideas. Once seeded, predefined tags appear as auto-completion suggestions as a Contributor types a tag, which also supports standardized terminology aligned with specific business processes, products, or services.

**Note:** Tagging a few ideas with the initial predefined tag set helps prime the system — the more ideas that are tagged, the better the resulting tag suggestions become.

[**Help Article on Predefined Tags**](https://help.ideascale.com/predefined-user-tags?hsLang=en)

---

### Modifying and Merging Tags

Tag maintenance is an important Community Moderator function. Because tag creation is open to all members, synonyms and misspellings are common. These can be cleaned up using the Merge Tags feature, found at **Settings >> Community >> Community Configuration >> Tags.**

**Note:** Regular review and merging of tags is recommended to keep the tag set clean and usable.

 

[**Help Article on Modify & Merge Tags**](https://help.ideascale.com/tags#merge-delete)

---

### Bulk Application of Tags

The recommended way to apply a tag to a collection of ideas at once is through Idea Portfolio. A search is performed and the result list reviewed, then the Tag menu operation is used to enter the tag to be applied across all results in the list.

[**Help Article on Bulk Import Tags**](https://help.ideascale.com/import-tags?hsLang=en)

---

### Tag Suggestions

Tag suggestions encourage additional tagging by surfacing relevant tags based on an idea's description and previously tagged ideas. When an idea is composed or edited, an idea similarity search identifies previously used tags most relevant to that idea. The more a tag is used across a community, the stronger its suggestions become — a tag may not be suggested at all until it has been used on several of the most relevant ideas.

**Note:** Moderators can seed this process by tagging a few ideas and then checking whether the suggestion for that tag improves during later idea composition.

---

### Discovering and Following Tags

Tags display on every idea where they are applied. Beyond that, Members can browse all tags from the Tags tab, select a tag to view every idea carrying it, and follow a tag to receive a notification whenever a new idea is tagged with it.

[**Help Article on Follow Tags**](https://help.ideascale.com/follow-tag?hsLang=en)

Last Updated: September 4, 2026

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