Overview

The Stack Overflow for Teams Tags page allows you to view and manage content tags on your site. To access this page, click Tags in your site's left-hand menu.

The Tags table has the following columns: Name, Usage Guidance (description), number of Posts that use the tag, number of Watchers of the tag, number of subject matter experts (SMEs) assigned to the tag, and Date created. You can sort the Tags table by clicking the Name, Posts, or Date created heading.

Use the buttons above the Tags table to select between two different views. Click All to view all tags, or No SME assigned to view those tags with no SME. To search for tags, enter your search term into the Filter tags by name box and press Enter on your keyboard.

NOTE: Viewing tags with no SMEs and sorting by Posts is an effective way to identify tags that have high usage but no subject matter experts. Finding and assigning SMEs for those tags will help drive engagement and improve the quality of your content.

To manage a tag, click the three dots button on the right side of the tag row.

The menu that appears has the following options for site admins:

View tag info Shows the tag's usage guidance (description), also lets you set the programming language of the tag for syntax highlighting.
View top users Shows tag usage information for questions, top askers, and top answerers.
View synonyms Allows you to view and suggest synonyms for the tag.
Edit tag description Allows you to add or update the tag's usage guidance like a "wiki" entry, with a short excerpt and full description.
Manage SMEs Allows you to assign and remove SMEs for the tag. You can also manage SMEs clicking SMEs in any tag row of the table. Only admins and moderators can add or remove SMEs.
Merge tag Allows you to merge similar tags to clean up your tag list. You can turn a merged tag into a synonym at the same time.
Delete Permanently removes the tag.

NOTE: Moderators and regular users can also access the tag pull-down menu, though with reduced options appropriate for their role.

Merge or rename a tag

Users often create multiple, similar tags. This can make searching for questions, answers, and articles a challenge. There may be ten questions tagged "coffee" and ten tagged "espresso", for example, when the users are better served by a single "caffeine" tag. By merging multiple similar tags together, you can eliminate redundancy and improve the effectiveness of searches.

Stack Overflow for Teams merges one tag into another by rewriting all instances of the source tag with the destination tag. You can also use this tool to rename tags, by specifying a new tag as the destination tag. When the destination tag doesn't exist, Stack Overflow for Teams will create it as a part of the merge.

Tag synonyms

Tag synonyms allow you to point similar tags to a main tag users should enter instead. You can make "coffee" and "espresso" synonyms for the "caffeine" tag, for example. If a user starts to type a tag synonym, Stack Overflow for Teams will suggest the synonym's destination tag. If the user types the tag synonym out in full, the site will automatically substitute the destination tag.

When performing a merge, you can have Stack Overflow for Teams turn the source tag into a synonym for the destination tag. If you don't select this option, the site will delete the source tag entirely. Users can then enter the source tag again.

Delete a tag

When you delete a tag, Stack Overflow for Teams permanently and completely removes it from all questions and all history. You can't undo this operation, so use the delete function with caution. After you delete a tag, users can create it again. To avoid this, consider merging the tag and turning it into a synonym of a more appropriate tag instead.

Removing a tag from all questions and articles also effectively deletes it. Stack Overflow for Teams locates and deletes unused tags as a part of its regular automated maintenance. If you remove a tag from all posts, it may take a few days to completely disappear.

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