Metadata Guidelines
What is Meta data?
Meta data is information about information. When search engine robots catalogue the World Wide Web (WWW), they extract meta data from web pages by various means. If you understand a little about meta data then you can influence how your web pages are presented to the rest of the world. This helps you to reach your target audience and it helps users find what they want more efficiently. Meta data is also discussed in the Guidelines for Content Writers.
To enable search engines to find your page easily and display the results, make sure you fill out the meta tags within the header of your page. For all pages within the UNEweb Content Management System (CMS), the addition of meta data is a required step in the page submission process. For more information about this aspect of meta data, see the guidelines on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Search engines collect information in two ways:
- By scanning the text on your page and identifying important keywords from which it determines the subject of your page. Therefore, on your main page, it pays to be very clear about what you are saying.
- By looking at the meta data in the header of your page within the source code. The two most important are the 'Title' and the 'Description' meta tags.
This page sets out a recommended approach for UNE webwriters, based on principles that are widely used.
The industry standards for meta data are the Education Network Australia (EDNA) http://standards.edna.edu.au/metadata/ and Dublin Core (DC) http://www.au.dublincore.org/
Meta tags
Meta data is usually added to web pages in the form of meta tags, hidden in the HEAD section of a page. Most users are consequently unaware of these tags, even though the tags might well have helped them to find the page in the first place.
What does a meta tag look like?
Each meta tag has a name and some associated content.
You can look at a web page's meta tags by viewing the document's source HTML (usually under the View menu, depending on the web browser).
Required meta data for UNE web writers
Required meta tags explained
Not all search engines recognise meta tags, and those that do may use them in different ways. Even so, it's good practice to provide useful meta data about your web pages and meta data will be increasingly important in the future.
The University website's search engine does make use of meta tags (which, alone, is an excellent reason for using them). The meta tags required for use on University web pages are explained below. You will not be able to submit a page in the UNEweb CMS until this is supplied.
"Title"
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consists of: |
The title of the page or a variation of the title. This will appear in the Title Bar of the browser window (http://www.une.edu.au/uneweb/resources/browser-parts.php). |
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example: UNE Home Page |
The University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia |
"Description"
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consists of: |
One or two lines to describe the page (it should be more detailed than the page title and must not include HTML tags).
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example: UNE Home Page |
The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia is located high in the beautiful New England region of northern NSW and is committed to high-quality education across a broad range of disciplines and attracts international respect. |
The Description text will appear in many search engine results pages as a brief summary of your site. In the absence of the Description meta tag, the search engine will show the first one or two lines of text from the web page as a description. This is not ideal, as many people have scripts, images, lists of hyperlinks, etc at the top of their pages.
"Keywords"
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consists of: |
A few keywords and terms that might be used when looking for pages but do not necessarily appear in the body of the page. A good use of this tag is for common mis-spellings and synonyms. This tag has been widely abused and so is ignored by most search engines; it is, however, very useful in more controlled environments and so is used by the University's search engine. Words and terms should be separated by commas.
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example: UNE Home Page |
une, uni, college, colleges, Armidale, Australia, education, online teaching, rural science, university, Australian universities, teaching, research, technology, faculty, NSW, study, studying, International Students, higher education, une, uni, college, colleges, Armidale, Australia, education, online teaching, rural science, university, Australian universities, teaching, research, technology, faculty, NSW, study, studying, International Students, higher education, University of New England, UNE |
Some search engines are case sensitive, so use capitals selectively. Don't repeat words, but do include variations of key terms; in the example above, there are 'meta data', 'meta data' and 'meta tag'.
Related issues
Meta tags are not a 'secret ingredient' that will ensure your web pages show up prominently in search engines' results pages: they are just one of the many ways of improving the way your pages are presented to the rest of the world. In brief, as well as using appropriate meta tags, you should:
- be particularly careful about your choice of page title (defined by the tag - incorrect page titles might result in search engines listing your page as 'No Title' or simply by its URL);
- ensure that relevant keywords crop up in your body text and in headings and subheadings (all of which will be catalogued by search engine robots);
Note
Meta data can be used inaccurately and illegally: USA-based websites using misleading meta data have been successfully sued. Searchenginewatch has more information on the legal issues surrounding the use of false meta data: http://searchenginewatch.com/2165521