Generally speaking, there's two types of tags. Marketing tags, and content tags. Marketing tags are used to draw the reader into your story: #enemiestolovers, #aliens, #virtualreality. Content tags are used to describe the content that's in the story. #historicalfiction, #lgbtq, #christianfantasy.

You want to have a good balance of both. Besides that, here's some other things to consider...

🗸 When I click my tag, what competitors are showing up?

I see this a lot. Say you've written a great story about an alien invasion set in a small town, so you add the tag, #smalltown. Seems reasonable, right? The problem arises when we search #smalltown in the search bar and see all the other stories being shown. Notice how they're all romance titles, or teen fiction, or cowboy tales? Suddenly your alien invasion epic just isn't going to fly.

When we look at other competitors using our tags, it gives us a strong indication of what readers are actually searching for. Most people searching #smalltown are really looking for that cute, small town romance. When those people open your alien invasion novel and find it's not to their liking, your ranking will slide, backwards.

🗸 Is your story complete?

Above all else, Wattpad hot lists (tag rankings) favor completed stories over ongoing. If you want to beat the competitors to the top, where your story will actually be visible to those browsing the site, you'll have to actually finish the book.

🗸 What are my readers are actually searching for?

This seems like a no-brainer, but you'll be surprised at how many writers don't try thinking from the reader's perspective. They toss out random tags like: #happiness #heartbreaker #bashandslash and expect results. Pretend you are a reader, looking on your phone, trying to find something to read similar to your book. What search terms would that reader use?