This page is part of the California Department of Education (CDE) Web Design Standards, which only apply to specific CDE Web sites. Visit the CDE Web Standards to determine if these standards apply to a specific Web product (Web site, Web page, Web document, or Web application) that has been developed by or for the CDE.
Most Web pages (not including Web applications) on all CDE Web sites are created using Adobe's Contribute software templates. WebNETS, which is a custom software application that was created by CDE staff, is also necessary in order to create and process most Web pages on the CDE's public Internet site. Portions of these standards, where noted, apply only to CDE users of Contribute or WebNETS software; or to Web application developers.
Keywords are used by search engines to help classify and rank Web pages and documents. Keywords are hidden in the HTML metadata for Web pages and in the properties area for Web documents. In the past, keywords were misused on many Web sites, so search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo!) have taken steps to lessen the importance of keywords in the results the search engines generate and they block some pages and sites from their results altogether when keyword misuse is apparent.
Definition
A "keyword" is a single word or phrase included in the metadata of a Web page or Web document and is used to help search engines catalog the content of the page or document.
Requirements
- All Web pages and documents that might be indexed by search engines (including the California Department of Education's (CDE) internal search engines) must have at least one keyword.
- Keywords must be separated by a comma and a space.
- Do not exceed 1,024 total characters for all keywords including the keywords and the commas and spaces that separate them.
- Keywords must be individually selected for each page or document. Simply copying a single keyword over and over or copying a portion of the title or description is not allowed.
- A single word may not appear in a page or document's keywords section more than three times.
- Never use techniques that are designed to fool or confuse any search engine. For example, hidden text or keywords that are not related to the content.
Recommendations
- Generally there should be three to nine keywords.
- Anything beyond 300 characters may be ignored by search engines, so the value of keyword content beyond 300 characters is questionable.
- Keywords listed at the beginning of the keywords section are considered more important by some search engines.
- Keywords should not repeat words or phrases that are in the title or description/subject within metadata for Web pages or the properties for Web Documents.
- Keywords can be used whether they are included in the document's content or not. Authors should strongly consider editing the page or document content to include any keywords that are not in the content.
- There is no reason to capitalize keywords because they are read by search engines as non-case sensitive.
- Consider adding keywords for common misspellings of the most important words associated with the content.
For the Intranet
Contribute must be used to enter keywords into Web pages for the Intranet. After creating a new page or when editing an existing page, the keywords may be accessed while in "edit" mode by choosing Format and then Keywords and Description from the main menu in Contribute.
For the Internet
WebNETS is used to enter the keywords metadata into CDE Internet Web pages. Once entered into WebNETS, the keywords will be included in the background HTML code of the Web page.For Web Applications
HTML metadata descriptions and keywords must be specified for main or login pages and for others if the page will be indexed by search engines. Use <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"> if the page is not a main or login page and should not be indexed.
Additional Information
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Page Titles | The Page Titles section of the Design Standards Guide contains information about the proper use of metadata titles in Web pages and Web applications. |
| Page Descriptions | The Page Descriptions section of the Design Standards Guide contains information about the proper use of metadata titles in Web pages and Web applications. |
| Web Document Metadata | The Web Document Metadata section of the Design Standards Guide is important because Web documents (e.g., Word, Excel, and PDF) are required to have metadata titles, descriptions, and keywords. |
| State Board Web Pages and Documents | The State Board Web Pages and Documents section of the Design Standards Guide contains information about the proper use of metadata titles and file naming format for all Web pages and documents posted for the State Board of Education. |
