The 43 biggest tags on Medium — and tips on how to use them

Medium uses a tagging system to help readers discover the types of content they might be interested in. Tagging also helps them connect and promote your work to other writers and publishers who share similar readers. They recently added a bunch of new tags.

Why tags are critical

Choosing the correct tags is important for making sure your articles get discovered by the right people, so take a few minutes to choose the tags that best fit your work. You’ll need to consider factors like the audience you’re trying to reach, the topics explored in your post, and other tags that are relevant.

Remember there is no “perfect” set of tags, and tagging can be subjective, but here are some suggested tags to consider.

A quick guide to choosing the right tags on Medium

First, figure out what your story is about. Jot down a few words or short phrases that accurately describe it.

Next, think of the types of people who might be interested in reading it. Who would like this article? What kind of person would benefit from reading it?

Now consider which tags best match those aspects of your work (and maybe a few that are directly related to your post), and include those on your story.

You’ll want to include tags that match the largest possible audience but don’t feel compelled to choose tags that are very popular if they aren’t really the best fit.

Instead, find some less common tags that might be more specific to your post, and narrow down your selection to those. This will help you reach the right readers on Medium.

The top tags in 2021 (by follower volume) were as follows

This data is according to FindingTom.com:

1. Life (520,000 followers)
2. Startup (487,000 followers)
3. Blockchain (473,000 followers)
4. Poetry (455,000 followers)
5. Life Lessons (452,000 followers)
6. Politics (396,000 followers)
7. Health (374,000 followers)
8. Love (350,000 followers)
9. Travel (334,000 followers)
10. Technology (334,000 followers)
11. Entrepreneurship (333,000 followers)
12. Self Improvement (332,000 followers)
13. Education (330,000 followers)
14. Writing (324,000 followers)
15. Business (320,000 followers)
16. Cryptocurrency (314,000 followers)
17. Design (267,000 followers)
18. Social Media (241,000 followers)
19. Music (228,000 followers)
20. Relationships (214,000 followers)
21. Social Media (214,000 followers)
22. Sports (209,000 followers)
23. Mental Health (202,000 followers)
24. Productivity (187,000 followers)
25. Programming (186,000 followers)
26. Food (167,000 followers)
27. Leadership (166,000 followers)
28. Javascript (160,000 followers)
29. Art (152,000 followers)
30. Fiction (143,000 followers)
31. Humor (143,000 followers)
32. Artificial Intelligence (143,000 followers)
33. UX (138,000 followers)
34. Culture (136,000 followers)
35. Books (135,00 followers)
36. Photography (128,000 followers)
37. Creativity (126,000 followers)
38. Data Science (123,000 followers)
39. Psychology (119,000 followers)
40. Software Development (117,000 followers)
41. Coronavirus (115,000 followers)
42. Self (104,000 followers)
43. Family (103,000 followers)

The volume of a tag is important because you don’t want to tag your stories with tags that only a few readers care about. You also don’t want to mis-tag your stories and have readers bail instantly. Instead, you want high-volume tags that fit your content.

Other tag considerations:

Be brief but descriptive. You want to describe what your post is about, but you don’t need full sentences.

Don’t duplicate tags. If several of your tags are exactly the same (like Life and LIfe), Medium will only use one of them when they display.

Don’t make up tags. You want to use words that people might search for, not ones you made up.

When choosing your top set of tags, look at how often they are used in articles and blogs on Medium (see the “Tags” tab when viewing an article).

Got any more tips for using tags? Leave them in the comments below!