I presume you want to customize the tags component front-end layout view, so you may proceed as follows (this procedure is faster then a step-by-step using create directories, etc.):
- Copy the /components/com_tags "com_tags" directory into your /templates/your_template/html directory;
- Check that you have now the following: /templates/your_template/html/com_tags;
- Expand the /templates/your_template/html/com_tags/ directory and delete the directories "controllers", "helpers", "models" and the files "controller.php", "metadata.php", "router.php" and "tags.php";
- Expand the remaining directory /templates/your_template/html/com_tags/views/;
- Inside you have the "tag" and "tags" directories which each of them have a directory "tmpl";
- Delete the files "view.feed.php" and "view.html.php" in each of them (leave the "index.html";
- Now inside each of the "tmpl" directories, move the files (except the index.html and the xml files) to each of its parent directories ("tag" and "tags");
- Delete the "tmpl" directories;
- Now, you have, inside each "tag" and "tags" directories" the files you want/need to customize. Changing these files will override the components' main files.
You should have the structure in your template directory similar to the following:
/templates/
/your_template/
/html/
/com_tags/
/tag/
/* the files you will be able to override are here */
/tags/
/* the files you will be able to override are here */
Hope it helps. For further reference, visit the Joomla docs