Add HTML meta tags for Search Engine Optimization

Add HTML meta tags for Search Engine Optimization
A technique of SEO is to add HTML title and meta tags to the page source. These meta tags are used to define keywords and other metadata that search engines and crawlers can use when creating search indexes and collections. When including content in a page with a web content viewer, we can improve the SEO of the page by adding title and meta tags with values derived from the web content itself.
By default, the HTML title for a page is defined by the page title in the portal. However, when we add a web content viewer to a page to render web content, we can override the value used for the HTML title. Web content viewers that are configured to override the HTML title can also add HTML meta tags as portlet preferences.
With the Page Display Title field in the portlet settings for the viewer, we can define an HTML title that better reflects the content on the page. We can even have the viewer pull the title directly from the rendered content.
Although multiple web content viewers on the same page can set meta tag values, this practice does not necessarily result in improved SEO. This issue can be further complicated when multiple viewers set different values for the same meta tag name. When you have multiple viewers on the same page, select the viewer whose content best represents what the page is about. We can then use that viewer to define a new HTML title and any meta tags.

Override the HTML title for a page and set meta tags

Select one Web Content Viewer to be the primary viewer on the page.
Go to:
Edit Shared Settings | Page Display Title

Select a value other than Use default title.
To have the title value come directly from the web content being rendered by the viewer, select...
Select from content

Save the changes

The page header is updated with the new title value. For example:
<head>
<title>Display title of the rendered web content</title>
</head>

Use portlet preferences to add meta tags to page header

Each meta tag is defined by a pair of portlet preferences:

meta.tag.name.suffix
meta.tag.content.suffix

...where suffix identifies the name of the meta tag. For example...

meta.tag.name.keywords

To define a specific attribute for the meta tag:
meta.tag.attribute.suffix.

The suffix portion of each preference is used to associate a name preference with its related value preference. The suffix can be any value as long as it is unique across the preferences.

Add portlet preferences to a Web Content Viewer

Manage Pages portlet
Locate the instance of the web content viewer to modify, and select...
Configure portlet

xmlaccess.sh
Export the page containing the instance of the web content viewer to modify. Edit the exported XML file with the meta tags to add, and update the page by using the XML file along with the xmlaccess command.

To specify the portal preference for the name of the meta tag.
meta.tag.name.suffix= name

To specify an attribute other than the name attribute:
meta.tag.attribute.suffix=attribute_name

For example, to add the following meta tag with the name keywords:
<meta name="keywords" content=""""/>

...specify the following preference:
meta.tag.name.1=keywords

To add the following meta tag with the http-equiv attribute:
<meta http-equiv=”content-language” content=”en-US”/>

...specify the following preference...
meta.tag.attribute.1=http-equiv

Specify the portal preference for the value of the meta tag

The value of the meta tag can be specified in three ways:

We can explicitly enter text for the meta tag value.

The meta tag value can be derived from the value of a text element in the rendered web content.

The meta tag value can be derived from properties containing information about the rendered web content.

Depending on how to specify the meta tag value, different portlet preferences are required. Only one value can be specified per suffix.

Use preset text

The meta tag value takes the following format:
meta.tag.content.text.suffix=text

The suffix portion must match the suffix value of the associated meta.tag.name.suffix preference. The text portion indicates the text to use for the meta tag value.

Use the value of an element

The meta tag value takes the following format:
meta.tag.content.element.suffix=name_of_element
The suffix portion must match the suffix value of the associated meta.tag.name.suffix preference. The name_of_element portion indicates the name of the element from the web content being rendered.

Element Meta tag value
Text component Text of the element
Date component Date of the element
Image component URL of the image
File component URL of the file

Use a property

The meta tag value takes the following format:
meta.tag.content.property.suffix=property
The suffix portion must match the suffix value of the associated meta.tag.name.suffix preference. The property portion indicates the property containing information about the web content being rendered. The properties are associated with fields on the rendered content.

Property Meta tag value
AdditionalViewers Name of additional viewers
Authors Display names of the authors of the rendered content
authtemplatename Name of the authoring template of the rendered content
authtemplatetitle Display title of the authoring template of the rendered content
Categories Titles of any categories associated with the rendered content
CreationDate Creation date of the rendered content
Creator Display name of the user who created the rendered content
CurrentStage Name of the current workflow stage of the rendered content
Description Localized description of the rendered content
ExpiryDate Expiration date of the rendered content
ID ID of the rendered content
GeneralDateOne Date from the general date one field
GeneralDateTwo Date from the general date two field
Keywords Keywords associated with the rendered content
LastModifiedDate Date that the rendered content was last modified
LastModifier Display name of the user who made the last change to the rendered content
Name Name of the rendered content
Owners Display names of the owners of the rendered content
PublishDate Date the rendered content was published
SitePath Site path of the rendered content
Status Workflow status of the rendered content
Title Localized title of the rendered content
Workflow Name of the workflow of the rendered content

For several of the most common meta tags, default values are predefined. For these meta tags, we can create the portlet preference for only the meta tag name. The meta tag value is provided automatically, without the need for a corresponding name preference. The following meta tags have default values:

Author

The default value is a list of the authors of the rendered content.

Keywords

The default value is list of any keywords associated with the rendered content.

Description

The default value is the localized description of the rendered content.

If you do not want to use the default value, we can set the value using one of the methods previously described.

Optional: If the value of the meta tag requires a scheme attribute, specify the scheme attribute with the meta.tag.scheme.suffix preference. The meta tag scheme attribute takes the following format:
meta.tag.scheme.suffix=attribute_value
For example, to add the following scheme attribute with the value W3CDTF:
<meta name="DC.date" content="2000-01-01T12:00+00:00" scheme="W3CDTF"/>
Specify the following preference:
meta.tag.scheme.1=W3CDTF

The format and scheme that are used to write date elements and content properties related to date and time information, such as the LastModifiedDate property, depends on the meta tag attribute name. By default, all date and time information is formatted according to the date format defined by the HTTP specification. The format used to write date and time information in other meta tags is the data and time format recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) under the scheme named W3CDTF.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate the different ways of specifying portlet preferences and the resulting meta tags in the output.

Set the meta tag value with the user who created the rendered content:
meta.tag.name.1=DC.creator
meta.tag.content.property.1=Creator
Result:
<meta name=”DC.creator” content=”content admin”/>

Set the meta tag value with preset text:
meta.tag.name.1=DC.publisher
meta.tag.content.text.1=IBM
Result:
<meta name=”DC.publisher” content=”IBM”/>

Set multiple meta tag values with the default value for the author and the value of the text element descelement in the rendered content:
meta.tag.name.1=author
meta.tag.name.2=description
meta.tag.content.element.2=descelement
Result:
<meta name=”author” content=”content author”/>
<meta name=”description” content=”Information about IBM”/>

Set the meta tag with an http-equiv attribute and a value of the date that the rendered content was last modified.
meta.tag.name.1=last-modified
meta.tag.attribute.1=http-equiv
meta.tag.content.property.1=LastModifiedDate
Result:
<meta http-equiv=”last-modified” content=”Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:45:57 GMT”/>

Set the meta tag and with a scheme attribute and a value of the date that the rendered content was published.
meta.tag.name.1=DC.date
meta.tag.scheme.1=W3CDTF
meta.tag.content.property.1=PublishDate
Result:
<meta name=”DC.date” content=”2011-08-01T08:15:30+02:00” scheme="W3CDTF"/>

Parent: Customize web content delivery

Element	Meta tag value
Text component	Text of the element
Date component	Date of the element
Image component	URL of the image
File component	URL of the file

Property	Meta tag value
AdditionalViewers	Name of additional viewers
Authors	Display names of the authors of the rendered content
authtemplatename	Name of the authoring template of the rendered content
authtemplatetitle	Display title of the authoring template of the rendered content
Categories	Titles of any categories associated with the rendered content
CreationDate	Creation date of the rendered content
Creator	Display name of the user who created the rendered content
CurrentStage	Name of the current workflow stage of the rendered content
Description	Localized description of the rendered content
ExpiryDate	Expiration date of the rendered content
ID	ID of the rendered content
GeneralDateOne	Date from the general date one field
GeneralDateTwo	Date from the general date two field
Keywords	Keywords associated with the rendered content
LastModifiedDate	Date that the rendered content was last modified
LastModifier	Display name of the user who made the last change to the rendered content
Name	Name of the rendered content
Owners	Display names of the owners of the rendered content
PublishDate	Date the rendered content was published
SitePath	Site path of the rendered content
Status	Workflow status of the rendered content
Title	Localized title of the rendered content
Workflow	Name of the workflow of the rendered content