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I have been seeing a disturbing number of blogs with some creepy tagclouds. Some have no CSS spacing implemented and others, well, they really are a ‘drag’ on the layout’s load time. I am not going to draw this article out, as I would like feedback from you all on your tagcloud practices.

I get a lot of times questions if people should use tagclouds on their site. I usually ask them if they tried one on their site and made an opinion of its look and whether it fit with their site. Then, I would ask them if they had categories and if it was necessary that they have the tags when they also offer a search form. These are just a few factors I have always considered.

However, I want to focus on the aesthetics of the tagcloud. Out of respect, I have pulled one example of a ‘do’ and one of a dont’. Then I will give you my best advice. Our of respect of the webmasters the screenshots of these tagclouds belong to, I am not naming them.

Tagcloud Don’t
This tagcloud was actually rotating the tag words. This slowed the load time of the site down and it was annoying as I tried to play catch to click on the tag word. It looked like the big bang theory happened in the sidebar of this person’s page. It was definitely a do not. The tagcloud had no real value except to look like a nifty tool. In fact, the webmaster used it on a Compositio WordPress layout by Design Disease and it severely detracted from the original layout. Also, as a note, the small screenshot was cut down in length from the actual size.

What can be learned from this Don’t:
There is no reason to make a tagcloud look like it is a blog all on its own or something you tossed cookies on. Keep your tagclouds simple and relevant to your site.

Tagcloud Do

This tagcloud is much better than the previous. The tags are spaced well and they are in alphabetical order. Another great example, although the webmaster does not have the tagcloud up anymore. It is a shame as I thought it was one of the best yet. What they did was instead of alphabetical order, they specified the parameter of their tagcloud as largest count to smallest and from their adjusted the CSS to have a pleasant rainbow type color effect.

The WordPress Codex talks about customizing your tagcloud template by changing the parameters like excluding certain tags, specifying how many should be listed and even the tag order. I recommend taking a look at it and finding out what is best for your blog if you do like to use tagclouds. You may just want to create a tagcloud archive page instead of listing your tags in your sidebar. In fact, it might be a nice addition to your 404 page.

Do you use a tagcloud? Why and what are your suggestions on improving how a tagcloud should be displayed? Any tricks to share?

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