WILL Website Manual for Content Authors

Most people get our content through search and social media. If we don’t tag our content with good metadata, people can’t find and share it. This quick guide covers the metadata that must be added with each entry in our website CMS.

The most important thing to grasp is the foundation of everything digital:

Title

The Title is a headline for the entry on our web pages, and will appear as the headline when shared on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, and as the title of the content in Google search results. Google ranks Title as the most important part of the content. Therefore, your Title needs to be meaningful.

Good: New Urbana Library Director reflects on book-weeding, library’s future

Bad: June 9, 2014 (This means almost nothing to people or search engines)

Description

This is the bread and butter of the content. Google will index this and return search results based on the relevance of everything in the Description to any given search.

Images

A good image dramatically increases engagement and sharing. When people share the entry on Facebook, Twitter, etc., the image is displayed in the share. If no image is included in the entry, Facebook will display the WILL logo instead and it doesn’t display properly. Every entry should include an image.

Categories

These are pre-determined subject terms based on a list from NPR. We sort entries by category, and people use them to find related content. Categories also help Google, Facebook, and other social media make better sense of the content. Always select between one and five categories for each entry.

Keywords

Can be any word or name that is “key” to the meaning of the content. Keywords are “uncontrolled,” meaning you can make up new terms any time. They add more specific meaning than Categories, and you should add three to seven Keywords for each entry.

Genre

This provides a way to sort by more general types of content, like News, Documentary, Talk, Sports, etc. Always select a single Genre from the drop-down list.

Summary for Search Engines and Social Media

This feeds a very important part of the web page that is hidden to humans, but critically important to Google, Facebook, and Twitter. For search engines to understand what your page is about, you need to write a good Summary of the content. The Summary will display in search engine results, and on Facebook and Twitter when people share the link. A good summary will greatly increase the probability that people will find and share your content, so always spend the time to write one for each entry.

You can also Download the WILL Metadata One-Page Guide for Producers