In the first part of this series, I explained the importance and advantages of using Tags in WordPress posts.  In this next part, I’m going to give you a tool to help track down and correct tagless posts on your blog.  Untagged posts are not an uncommon situation and you’re probably not alone among WordPress users:

• Site builders who are migrating from older Content Management Systems that didn’t support Tagging
• Importing content from offline sources and data stores that was not initially intended for Posts.
• Site maintainers who were unaware of the advantages of Tagging and want to get up to speed.

Going back through hundreds, possibly thousands of Posts and finding the ones that are untagged is enough to discourage even the most ardent site owner (or their unfortunate interns).

Luckily, there is a way to craft a custom Page that will create a list of all/only untagged articles complete with an “Edit” link to each so you can Tag them at your convenience. As you save each, it will automatically be removed this “To Tag” list with a simple page refresh.

The following file may be dropped into your active Theme directory.  Afterwards, you can create a Page using WordPress and select the Template “Tagless Posts” from the drop down box in the right column.  There is no need to add any content to this page.  When you visit this new page, it will list no more than 25 random, tagless posts it finds from your blog.  This limit is arbitrary and serves to limit impact on your server and database.  Additionally, there is no styling on this page is it is only intended as a diagnostic and corrective tool.

Download Tagless Finder

This file is a PHP file (zipped for downloading), like most WordPress resources. The source code is unencrypted and may be examined in full detail with any text reader.

Disclaimer: This tool is provided without any support. Please review the included disclaimer. By using this tool you agree to all conditions, restrictions and disclaimers without exception.