Making best use of story tags

As of this week, story tags take on a more prominent role in Lush so if you wish to improve your story visibility then you, as authors, should choose the best tags that fit your story themes. Doing so will increase your chances of readers finding your work.

Here are the ways tags interplay now:

• On the main stories page or any category story list page (e.g. Seduction), you can use the Search feature to find keywords and refine your searches by clicking one or more tags. The more tags you click of the most popular ones listed, the better the match, as the story must contain ALL of them AND your search term(s) to be considered.

• Clicking any tag or category when reading a story will list all stories containing that tag (e.g. Cunnilingus). You can then click up to 8 tags, adding more popular tags to refine the search to stories that contain all of them. As above, you can twist down the Search box and type keywords or author name or select a genre to narrow it further to find what you want to read.

• Between the end of a story and its comments, a Similar Stories area displays up to three trending stories that either match the top three tags in the current story OR the top three trending stories from the same category (if the current story has no tags). This acts like a "You enjoyed this story, so you might also like..." shortcut.

Since tags are now used to make story suggestions, it pays dividends to carefully choose the best fitting and most popular tags that represent themes in your story. Imagine if a visitor reads an anal, milf, schoolteacher story and your story comes up in the Similar Stories list. If they click on it to discover you've lied and your story doesn't contain those elements, you're going to piss readers off and they won't come back to your work.

Choosing good tags

The art of picking good tags is to use ones that are already there. Avoid creating new ones unless absolutely necessary. So, when you start to type a tag name, browse the list that pops up and click the best fitting tag. Repeat for each theme represented in your story. You can attach up to 10 tags, so it makes sense to list as many as possible to increase your chances of discovery.

Think about how a reader might search for your content. If you create your own tag such as 'nineteen-year-old student teacher' then you'll be the only person with that tag and it is unlikely to ever become popular. So, unless someone else happens to write an identical type of story and uses your tag, your story will never appear on anyone's Similar Stories list. That means you're cutting off your potential exposure.

It would be far better to use three tags here:

• nineteen-year-old

• student

• teacher

Then, anyone who uses those three (fairly common) tags on their story will potentially match your story in their Similar Stories list, and anyone who refines their search to add one or more of these tags because they like nineteen-year-old student teacher stories are more likely to find yours in the results.

Unless the tags are popular age denominators (16, 17, 18, 21, and 30 are common) then it's probably better not to waste a tag for something like 'fifty-one-year-old' because very few people will be looking for someone specifically of that age. It'd be better to use a range like 'mid-fifties' if you think age plays an important part in the enjoyment of your story. If it's incidental, consider not using such a tag.

Think also about the language you use in your story and try to match tags to suit it. If your characters are a bit posher, you might consider the tag 'fellatio'. If your main character is a street hooker, you might choose 'cocksucking' or 'bj' or 'blowjob' instead. Again, the idea is to choose tags that reflect your content as well as possible.

A further note on this: there's not much point using a tag that's exactly the same as the genre/category of your story. Anyone who wants to find stories that are in one of our categories should use the category search filter, as it's a stronger signal and more likely to yield stories that match their interests. Tags are used to refine the search and provide additional context about specific thematic elements in your story. Note that the tag refiner will filter out any tags that exactly match any genre chosen as a category search parameter.

Tagging summary

To increase the chances of exposure and allow readers to find content they will enjoy:

• Choose relevant tags that represent story themes in which you think people might be interested to search.

• Choose from existing tags where possible and do not create your own unless absolutely necessary and you think others will start to use them.

• Choose popular tags where possible.

• Choose appropriately worded tags that fit the narrative style of the story.

• Use as many of the 10 available tag slots as you can, but don't put tags in for the sake of it to fill up empty slots. Relevance is key. Microfiction stories may, for example, employ far fewer due to the limited word count of those stories.

Hopefully the above information will help you select the perfect tags for your story that allow readers to find your work and enjoy it.

Since I haven't seen any announcement of the Similar Stories feature, I'll ask here. I understand you may not have any answer to offer. If it is inappropriate, just send it away and let me know.

Will we, as authors, have any say in what type of stories ours are associated with by the AI doing the match ups? Or will it simply be a blind read of the tags used? I know that it is the Lush bot making the list, but it is also reads as a tacit endorsement by me. And will we be able to see which of our stories are being recommended to others? If at all, since some of us have never been considered "trending" whatever that means.
I have only found the suggestion on one of my stories so far, a micro, and none of them had any bearing on mine. I really do not want to commingle with HARDCORE or CHEATING or BSDM, to name a few.

Oh, and just a thought. Ten tags is a tenth of a whole micro. If I see that many, I'll probably just skip it altogether.

There's no AI involved, haha. It just looks at the tags and looks at the popular stories du jour and picks the first three it comes to (assuming there are three: there may be fewer, or none). An hour later the situation may have changed and you might see a different set.

At the moment, matches will probably be weak because, frankly, tag use is a little haphazard. Hopefully over time, as authors choose better tags and we weed out the more obscure ones, matches will improve.

There's no implication of endorsement whatsoever. Why would there be? Amazon sellers don't endorse "Products you might like" at the bottom of their pages. People who write a health blog don't have any say if a link to a web page about suppositories pops up in the Google search results. It's based purely on matching tags and what others are reading.

What you're saying is that if someone writes a story on oral sex in a bar bathroom, you don't want your story Don't judge a book... to be suggested, so someone who enjoyed that type of story could try yours?

Quote by kistinspencil
Ten tags is a tenth of a whole micro. If I see that many, I'll probably just skip it altogether.

I've made a note for you about Microfiction specifically in the Summary section of the OP, but it stands to reason not to force tags if they don't fit. A few well-chosen, relevant tags are better than a glut of loosely coupled tags for the sake of filling the available slots.

It's a judgement call and entirely up to you. The tools are merely there if you wish to improve the chances of people discovering your work on the back of similar stories they enjoyed.

a Similar Stories area displays up to three trending stories that either match the top three tags in the current story

"Top three" meaning "the three most popular" or "the first three"?

Quote by pinkysurprise

"Top three" meaning "the three most popular" or "the first three"?

I don't know yet. I'm awaiting clarification. I presume the most popular but don't quote me.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

I don't know yet. I'm awaiting clarification. I presume the most popular but don't quote me.

If it is the first three in the list, how are we to control that? The order of the tags is not always maintained when a story is posted.

Quote by kistinspencil

If it is the first three in the list, how are we to control that? The order of the tags is not always maintained when a story is posted.

I don't think it'll be the first three in the list. And I've asked if we can control the order of the tags. They're considering it.

Quote by kistinspencil

Since I haven't seen any announcement of the Similar Stories feature, I'll ask here. I understand you may not have any answer to offer. If it is inappropriate, just send it away and let me know.

Will we, as authors, have any say in what type of stories ours are associated with by the AI doing the match ups? Or will it simply be a blind read of the tags used? I know that it is the Lush bot making the list, but it is also reads as a tacit endorsement by me. And will we be able to see which of our stories are being recommended to others? If at all, since some of us have never been considered "trending" whatever that means.
I have only found the suggestion on one of my stories so far, a micro, and none of them had any bearing on mine. I really do not want to commingle with HARDCORE or CHEATING or BSDM, to name a few.

We had this on v1 for a decade. It's nice to see some old features coming back. The interminable to-do list is slowly getting done. The more we can keep people engaged, the better, I say.

Cool!

Although, I’ve never spent more than a few seconds on tags, so I may start considering them more now. I like the site suggesting other stories, too.

Interesting suggestions coming up.

I read a lesbian story and it suggested a gay male as a similar story.

To be honest, if ive just enjoyed a lesbian tale of submission and pussy worship, a story full of hard cocks isn’t the first thing I'd consider as a read in a similar vein.

Quote by Jen

We had this on v1 for a decade. It's nice to see some old features coming back. The interminable to-do list is slowly getting done. The more we can keep people engaged, the better, I say.

This screenshot made me homesick for the old site. And Oceanrunner! Good writer! Hope he's doing well.

Quote by deviantsusie

Interesting suggestions coming up.

I read a lesbian story and it suggested a gay male as a similar story.

To be honest, if ive just enjoyed a lesbian tale of submission and pussy worship, a story full of hard cocks isn’t the first thing I'd consider as a read in a similar vein.

Some might appreciate the contrast

Read a few stories this week I wouldn't have if not for the reintroduction of this feature. Thank goodness it's back.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

A further note on this: there's not much point using a tag that's exactly the same as the genre/category of your story.

I am enjoying having the suggested stories come up. Yes, it did bring back memories. 😊

However, because of the possible demise of the novel genre, I have slowly been adding a novel tag to my many novel genre chapters. As previously suggested to me.

With the above quote in mind... How can I be assured the novel tag appears in the searches? Could it be a super tag overriding others?

BTW: There doesn't seem to be a way to orderly arrange tags (I have tried many times).

Quote by wxt55uk
I have slowly been adding a novel tag to my many novel genre chapters.

That's fine. If you want to duplicate tags and category, nobody is going to stop you. All I meant was that it's usually redundant because people will tend to search for stuff in that category anyway so you can use one of the 10 slots for other tags instead. But if you want to use both, by all means do so, which allows people who are maybe not specifically interested in that genre alone to find your work when browsing tags.

In the case of "novel", it makes total sense to add it as a tag in case the category ever gets axed.

Quote by wxt55uk
There doesn't seem to be a way to orderly arrange tags

No, sadly not at present. It's system-determined. The dev team are aware of it and are seeing if there's a way to let us set the order.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
That's fine. If you want to duplicate tags and category, nobody is going to stop you. All I meant was that it's usually redundant because people will tend to search for stuff in that category anyway so you can use one of the 10 slots for other tags instead. But if you want to use both, by all means do so, which allows people who are maybe not specifically interested in that genre alone to find your work when browsing tags.

I love this conversation. My two krona: I put a lot of thought into my tag choices, and I occasionally use the redundant tags because of the functionality of the site. If a reader is on the Home page https://www.lushstories.com/, they see "top categories" (which are always the same five categories with those same five stock photos), then "browse categories" with seventeen clickable cartouches (including IF and watersports), then ten "new erotic stories", then "popular tags" with ten clickable cartouches.

If a reader is on the Erotic Stories page https://www.lushstories.com/stories, however, they might not notice the "search" and "categories" buttons flanking the bright red "write your own story" button. Then there's "refine by tag" with a list of eight clickable cartouches (with no indication of why those particular tags are listed), but the page is dominated by the "trending stories" section and then fifteen "all stories" (which maybe should be called "new erotic stories"?). My point is, the searching options are at the top of the page, yes, but they're pretty small and I suspect that readers' eyes skip over them.

So if I have a story that could be categorized in either, say, First Time or Oral Sex, I will for sure use the redundant, popular tags "first time" and "oral sex" just in case a reader is approaching through tags instead of categories.

Yeah that's all good. Entirely up to you how you use them. I'd love the site to have some UX love one day with regards navigation hierarchy, content positioning and, most importantly, a few colour accents that aren't bloody red!

With regards the Refine By Tag functionality, as it stands, the unfiltered tag set is fairly static because the 8 offered are the top, most popular tags for that category. And for the home page it's the 8 most popular tags across the site. The tags are filtered based on other search criteria you type as well, so if you type more options, you get a different list.

When you select one, you then get a list of tags based on the most popular tags used in the stories that feature the first tag you clicked on (plus your other search criteria). And so on for each one you click as it narrows the filter to a smaller pool of stories that feature all the ones you select.

So, unless there's a glut of people writing stories about Bon Jovi lyrics who also use your tag, it's highly unlikely to pop up in the Refine By Tag set.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
So, unless there's a glut of people writing stories about Bon Jovi lyrics who also use your tag, it's highly unlikely to pop up in the Refine By Tag set.

🤣 Ok, go ahead and delete "bon jovi quotes" but I want to keep "triple titfuck" in play so it can give other authors something to aspire to.

Triple titfuck, ftw.