Are META key words the same as TAGS?

[Robert222]

When adding TAGS to articles, forums or gallery images, they look aweful from a design point of view. They take up a lot of space (if you add many tags).

So my question is.... If I already add META key words to articles, is there much point adding tags as well?

And is there a way to hide TAGS from showing on the front end? So members can still add tags but the tags wont show up on the front end which would create a more aesthetically looking website.

What is the whole point of tags anyway? Do they provide better Search Engine Optimisation or do they simply just allow users to search the whole website for certain key words or phrases?

[Morrigan]

Tags are a means for people to search for things that use the same tag. Think of them a little like hashtags.

Yes of course easy peasy CSS if you would like I'll post it.

[Robert222]

Yes please post it. 

[bfarber]

Meta keywords are like "tags" but only for search engines - they're embedded in the HTML document, but visitors don't see them visually.

Tags can also be useful for SEO purposes, but are primarily a means to allow end users to cross-link similar content. If your community is about pets, people might use tags like "cat", "dog", "hamster", etc. When reading a topic about a hamster, I could click the tag and see all other topics that also have a "hamster" tag to see content I may be interested in.

You can simply disable tags in the AdminCP if you don't wish to use them. This is a better option IMO than allowing tags to be used but not displaying them to the end user.