|
|
 |
Computing Service |
|
|
|
|
| University of Cambridge > Computing Service > Web Support |
You can add information to your html files that will be indexed in addition to the content of the rest of the page. The standard model is for description and keywords - the description being used as the summary instead of the start of the file, and the keywords being picked up as search terms. You cannot depend upon the description and keywords metadata tags being used - many of the major search engines now ignore keywords but use description (except Google) - but if they work for your local search facility and make it more valuable, they must be worth pursuing.
For instance;
<HEAD> <TITLE>Stamp Collecting World</TITLE> <META name="description" content="Everything you wanted to know about stamps, from prices to history."> <META name="keywords" content="stamps, stamp collecting, stamp history, prices, stamps for sale"> </HEAD>
Dublin core is another standard for metadata, which in its simplest form consists of 15 terms (see http://webreference.com/xml/column24/index.html). No major web indexers use Dublin Core but specialist search engines do.
Although title is a standard tag, it is the most important piece of information for indexing purposes. There may be a dilution effect (keyword in 6 words ranked higher than keyword in 10 words), so keep the title short and succinct. Remember that this is what goes into bookmark lists, so it also needs to adequately reflect the content of the file.
|
|
|
|