itchio has two separate systems for discovering content based around how people try to discover content:
- Search: Someone is looking for something specific by the title of a project
- Browse: Someone wants to filter all games by topic to find something new to play
Tags are for people that browse by category. Please do not insert tags into the title of your project. When people are searching for categories we suggest the respective tag page. If you insert a bunch of extra text in the title of your project that it will reduce the relevancy score of your title when people are searching for the game by title. Inserted extra text into the title may also be seen as spammy and may result in a staff member unlisting your page.
Learn more about search and browse on the https://itch.io/docs/creators/getting-indexed#limitations-of-text-search
I also want to note that we do experiment with changes to the search algorithm, which may include using tags to influence search results. Regardless, my recommendation is still the same: do not keyword stuff the title of your project page. It is detrimental to the user experience. Don’t try to “game” any of our systems to make your page appear above others.
Hope that helps