How Changing Tags Affects SEO & Google Indexing (My Experience)

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🔍 What Happened?

Without realizing the impact, I changed my WordPress tag from Digital Marketing to Online Growth.
After the change, Google Search Console flagged my old tag page (/tag/digital-marketing/) as a Soft 404 error (meaning Google couldn’t find relevant content).
My new tag (/tag/online-growth/) has not yet been indexed, meaning it hasn’t appeared in Google Search.

⚠️ Key SEO Issues I Faced

✅ Loss of Indexed Pages – The old tag was already indexed, and the new one had to start from zero.

✅ Soft 404 Errors – Google treated the old tag as a missing page, which can harm SEO.

✅ Internal Link Problems – Posts tagged under "Digital Marketing" were no longer linked properly.

💡 Lessons Learned

✔️ If a tag is already indexed, changing it requires proper redirects (301 Redirects).

✔️ Google doesn’t immediately recognize the new tag, so manual re-indexing is needed.

✔️ SEO rankings can drop if changes aren’t managed properly.

🚀 My Fix & Best Practices

1️⃣ I decided to switch back to "Digital Marketing" to keep my SEO value.

2️⃣ If you must change a tag, redirect the old tag URL to the new one using a WordPress plugin like Redirection.

3️⃣ Always check Google Search Console for errors after making changes.

4️⃣ Update internal links and sitemap to reflect the new tag.

🔗 Share Your Thoughts!

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