Metadata and tags you should include in your website

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<article class="usa-layout-docs__main desktop:grid-col-9 usa-prose article"> <main id="main-content"> <h1 class="title">Metadata and tags you should include in your website</h1> <p>Search.gov, like other search engines, relies on structured data to help inform how we index your content and how it is presented in search results. You should also read up on the metadata and structured data used by <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en">Google</a> and <a href="https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/marking-up-your-site-with-structured-data-3a93e731">Bing</a>.</p> <p>Including the following tags and metadata in each of your pages will improve the quality of your content’s indexing, as well as results ranking. We also encourage you to read about more <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/semantic-html5-guide/">HTML5 semantic markup</a> you can include in your websites.</p> <p>This page will be updated over time as we add more tag-based indexing functions and ranking factors to our service.</p> <p>Details on what we index for PDFs can be found in our <a href="/indexing/pdf-metadata.html">PDF Metadata documentation</a>.</p> <div class="usa-summary-box" role="region" aria-labelledby="summary-box-key-information"> <div class="usa-summary-box__body"> <h3 class="usa-summary-box__heading" id="summary-box-key-information"> Supported Metadata </h3> <div class="usa-summary-box__text"> <ul class="usa-list"> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#main-page-content">Main Content</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#title">Title</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#description">Description</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#tags--keywords">Tags</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#created-date">Created Date</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#changed-date">Changed Date</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#crawling-metadata">Crawling Metadata</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#thumbnail-image">Thumbnail Image</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#audience">Audience</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#content-type">Content Type</a> </li> <li> <a class="usa-summary-box__link" href="#searchgov-custom-fields">Search.gov Custom Fields</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <h3 id="fields-by-type">Fields by Type</h3> <table class="usa-table usa-table--compact"> <thead> <tr> <th style="text-align: left"><a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/meta/name">Standard Fields</a></th> <th style="text-align: left"><a href="https://ogp.me/">OpenGraph Fields</a></th> <th style="text-align: left"><a href="https://www.dublincore.org/">DublinCore Fields</a></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#main-page-content"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><main></code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#title"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">og:title</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dcterms.keywords</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#title"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><title></code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#description"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">og:description</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dc.subject</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#description"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">description</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">article:section</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dcterms.subject</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">keywords</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#tags--keywords"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">article:tag</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#audience"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dcterms.audience</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#crawling-metadata"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">robots</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#created-date"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">article:published_time</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#content-type"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dc.type</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#changed-date"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">article:modified_time</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#content-type"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dcterms.type</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#thumbnail-image"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">og:image</code></a></td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#created-date"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dc.date</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#created-date"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dc.date.created</code></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"> </td> <td style="text-align: left"><a href="#created-date"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dcterms.created</code></a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h3 id="main-page-content">Main Page Content</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><main> <div role="main"> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> Allows the search engine to target the actual content of the page and avoid headers, sidebars and other page content not useful to search. Read more about the <a href="/indexing/how-search-engines-index-content-better-discoverability.html#main-element"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><main></code> element</a>.</li> <li><strong>Data Gathering Logic:</strong> If the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><main></code> tag is present, we will use that field. If not, we will take the first HTML element with a <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">role="main"</code>. If neither <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><main></code> nor <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">role="main"</code> are present, we will capture all content in the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><body></code> tag. If none of those tags are present, we index everything in the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><html></code> tag.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching, term frequency scoring</li> </ul> <h3 id="title">Title</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><title> <meta property="og:title" content="Example" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> Unique title of the page. If you want to include the agency or section name, place that after the actual page title. We use the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">og:title</code> property as the result title if it appears to be more substantive than the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><title></code> tag. Note, Open Graph elements are used to display previews of your content in FaceBook and some other social media platforms.</li> <li><strong>Data Gathering Logic:</strong> We collect both fields, and use whichever is longer in search results. If both are blank, we will use the URL as the title of the document.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching, term frequency scoring</li> </ul> <h3 id="description">Description</h3> <p>We look for the first instance of the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta property="og:description" content="Example" /> <meta name="description" content="Example" /> <meta name="dc.description" content="Example" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> Your well crafted, plain language summary of the page content. This will often be used by search engines in place of a page snippet. Be sure to include the keywords you want the page to rank well for. Best to limit to 160 characters, so it will not be truncated. Read more technical <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/meta-description">background and guidance</a>. Note, Open Graph elements are used to display previews of your content in FaceBook and some other social media platforms.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching, term frequency scoring</li> </ul> <h3 id="tags--keywords">Tags & Keywords</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta name="keywords" content="example, example 2, example 3" /> <meta name="dcterms.keywords" content="example" /> <meta name="dc.subject" content="example" />` <meta name="dcterms.subject" content="example" /> <meta name="article:tag" content="example" /> <meta name="article:section" content="example" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> While not often used by commercial search engines due to <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en">keyword stuffing</a>, Search.gov indexes your keywords, if you have added them.</li> <li><strong>Data Gathering Logic:</strong> We pull all fields listed into one “Tags” field for searching and faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering). We also dedupe keywords so that our <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Tags</code> field only contains unique terms. Each keyword will be treated as a unique term when searching and filtering content.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching, term frequency scoring, faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="created-date">Created Date</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta property="article:published_time" content="YYYY-MM-DD" /> <meta name="dc.date" content="YYYY-MM-DD" /> <meta name="dc.date.created" content="YYYY-MM-DD" />` <meta name="dcterms.created" content="YYYY-MM-DD" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> The date fields are listed in order of preference. We only accept one <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">created</code> date, and use this list to determine the fallback options. Exact time is optional; read more technical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">background and guidance</a>.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Page freshness scoring, faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="changed-date">Changed Date</h3> <p>We look for the following field:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta property="article:modified_time" content="YYYY-MM-DD" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> Exact time is optional; read more technical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">background and guidance</a>. </li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Page freshness scoring, faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="robots-meta-tag---crawling-directive">Robots meta tag - Crawling directive</h3> <p>We look for the following field:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta name="robots" content="..., ..." /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> Use the <a href="/indexing/how-search-engines-index-content-better-discoverability.html#robots">meta robots tag</a> to block the search engine from indexing a particular page.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Used during indexing, does not affect relevance ranking.</li> </ul> <h3 id="thumbnail-image">Thumbnail Image</h3> <p>We look for the following field:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta property="og:image" content="https://example.gov/my-image-url.jpg" /> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> An image associated to the content. Ideally, this image serves well as a thumbnail on both our search results page and on social media platforms.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Results page display (upcoming feature for hosted results, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="audience">Audience</h3> <p>We look for the following field:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta name="dcterms.audience" content="example"> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> The intended audience of the page.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching and faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="content-type">Content Type</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta name="dc.type" content="example"> <meta name="dcterms.type" content="example"> <meta name="og:type" content="example"> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> The content type of the page. We combine these fields into one “Content Type” field for searching and filtering.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Faceted search (metadata-driven results filtering, currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> <h3 id="searchgov-custom-fields">Search.gov Custom Fields</h3> <p>We look for the following fields:</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><meta name="searchgov_custom1" content="..., ..., ..."> <meta name="searchgov_custom2" content="..., ..., ..."> <meta name="searchgov_custom3" content="..., ..., ..."> </code></pre></div></div> <ul> <li><strong>Detail:</strong> These fields can support any text content that you want to offer in your faceted search options (metadata-driven results filtering). The fields accept single values or list-type content. Each listed value will be treated as a unique term when searching and filtering content.</li> <li><strong>Used In:</strong> Query matching, faceted search (currently available via the Results API)</li> </ul> </main> </div> </div> </div> </div> <footer> <div id="survey-goes-here"></div> <section class="usa-section site-links"> <div class="grid-container"> <div class="grid-row flex-row flex-justify"> <div class="tablet:grid-col-3"> <h2>Our Service</h2> <ul> <li><a href="/about/">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="/about/customers.html">Customers</a></li> <li><a href="/about/policy/">Search.gov in Policy</a></li> <li><a href="/about/feedback.html">Submit Feature Requests</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="tablet:grid-col-3"> <h2>Our System</h2> <ul> <li><a href="/about/updates/releases/">Release Notes</a></li> <li><a href="/about/updates/roadmap/">Product Roadmap</a></li> <li><a href="/about/security.html">Security and Compliance</a></li> <li><a href="/developer/">For Developers</a></li> <li><a href="/about/policy/tos.html">Terms of Service</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="tablet:grid-col-3"> <h2>Contact Us</h2> <ul> <li><a href="mailto:search@gsa.gov">Email</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="tablet:grid-col-3"> <h2>More TTS Services</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://digital.gov/guides/dap/">Digital Analytics Program</a></li> <li><a href="https://cloud.gov/pages/">Cloud.gov Pages</a></li> <li><a href="https://cloud.gov/">Cloud.gov</a></li> <li><a href="https://login.gov/">Login.gov</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/technology-transformation-services/tts-solutions">More TTS Solutions</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </section> <div class="usa-identifier"> <section class="usa-identifier__section usa-identifier__section--masthead" aria-label="Agency identifier"> <div class="usa-identifier__container"> <div class="usa-identifier__logos"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov" class="usa-identifier__logo"> <img src="/assets/images/gsa-logo.svg" class="usa-identifier__logo-img" alt="GSA logo" role="img" />  </a> </div> <div class="usa-identifier__identity" aria-label="Agency description"> <p class="usa-identifier__identity-domain">search.gov</p> <p class="usa-identifier__identity-disclaimer"> An official website of the GSA's <a href="https://gsa.gov/tts">Technology Transformation Services</a> </p> </div> </div> </section> <nav class="usa-identifier__section usa-identifier__section--required-links" aria-label="Important links"> <div class="usa-identifier__container"> <ul class="usa-identifier__required-links-list"> <li class="usa-identifier__required-links-item"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/about-us" class="usa-identifier__required-link"> About GSA </a> </li> <li class="usa-identifier__required-links-item"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/website-information/website-policies#accessibility" class="usa-identifier__required-link"> Accessibility </a> </li> <li class="usa-identifier__required-links-item"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/reference/freedom-of-information-act-foia" class="usa-identifier__required-link usa-link"> FOIA requests </a> </li> <li class="usa-identifier__required-links-item"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/website-information/website-policies#privacy" class="usa-identifier__required-link usa-link"> Privacy policy </a> </li> <li class="usa-identifier__required-links-item"> <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/website-information/website-policies" class="usa-identifier__required-link usa-link"> Website policies </a> </li> </ul> </div> </nav> <section class="usa-identifier__section usa-identifier__section--usagov" aria-label="Government information and services"> <div class="usa-identifier__container"> <div class="usa-identifier__usagov-description">Have a question about government services?</div> <a href="https://www.usa.gov/" class="usa-link">Contact USA.gov</a> </div> </section> </div> </footer>  <script id="_fed_an_ua_tag" src="https://dap.digitalgov.gov/Universal-Federated-Analytics-Min.js?agency=GSA&subagency=TTS" ></script> <script src="/assets/js/app.js"></script> <script src="/assets/js/uswds-init.js"></script> <script src="/assets/js/uswds.js"></script> <script> var usasearch_config = { siteHandle: "usasearch" }; </script> <script async src="https://search.usa.gov/javascripts/remote.loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="https://touchpoints.app.cloud.gov/touchpoints/b5daa2ee/js" async></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="//script.crazyegg.com/pages/scripts/0007/9651.js" async="async"></script> </body> </html>

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