Metadata
Metadata includes all sorts of information that is connected to a page, which describes the page and its contents, without necessarily displaying on that page. It may, however, be visible on other pages that are in some way connected to the page in question.
The following are some types of metadata used on the Visitnorway site (but not all), and how each is used:
Title
This is the title that will display when the page is referenced elsewhere, both locally and off-site. It should be more or less the same as the H1 in the page's header slide (if any).
Meta title
This is the title that displays in the browser's title field and in the title field for search engine results. It is very important in terms of search results, so pay attention and follow the guidelines in the meta page.
Description and meta description
These fields are used in search engine results and when linking internally to other pages. They should be descriptive, and follow the site's tone of voice. Normally, these fields should contain text that is copied from the page's intro text.
Geographic coordinates
These are important for placing page subjects on a map. It is frequently used in automatically generated feeds, so take care to get the coordinates correct, and make sure these are only used on relevant pages. For instance, a page about a certain place or area may have these coordinates, but a generic subject page which mentions one or more places in passing should not. Also, if an area is too big or spread out to be accurately and representatively tagged by coordinates, you should consider not adding these. This may be the case with counties, long fjords, country parts and large regions or areas.
CMS tags
CMS tags are used on both pages and assets such as images and videos. They are for backend use only, and are not visible to the users. Careful use of CMS tags is essential to maintaining their usefulness. These are important things to keep in mind:
- If you need a CMS tag, make sure it does not already exist before you make a new one.
- CMS tags are always written in lowercase and in English, for all languages.
- Use the Norwegian name, as written in Norwegian. Some exceptions: western norway, eastern norway, northern norway, southern norway, eastern finnmark, bergen aquarium, bryggen in bergen, etc.
- Do not be afraid to use many tags, but make sure they are highly relevant for each page. Do not use a tag just because it is casually mentioned on the page, or is somewhat relevant.
- Tags are used to auto-generate lists by filtering search results, so incorrect tagging is essential. For instance, only destinations that are cities (as opposed to towns) should receive the "city"-tag, the "arctic norway" tag is only for destinations north of the Arctic Circle, and so on.
- An image should be tagged according to its content and subject - not according to the subject of the page it is used on. When tagging an image (or a video), keep in mind that it might be used on other pages in the future, ideally without needing changes to the tagging.
- When making a new page, try to find out how an existing equivalent page is tagged, and use that as a guide.
Locale and locale tag
These are extremely important, as they tell the system how pages are linked across language versions. Follow this rule of thumb:
Locale:
This should be the same as the language you are working on, ie "Norwegian" for the Norwegian version of a page, and so on.
Locale tag:
This should be the same as the locale tag in the primary version of the page you are working on, and in the same language (most often English). If the locale tag does not exist, make a new one by copying the page folder URL into this field. You will be given a warning if it already exists in the system.
For instance, for the Viking page, the Locale and Locale Tag fields should look like this for the Primary page:
Alt-text
Alt-text is used for when the content itself can not be found or displayed, or when the reader is not able to see it. A good alt-text should describe the content it replaces, as if for a blind person. An image caption (if any) should as a rule not be used as an alt-text.
For instance, a bad alt-text for an image of the Danish flag would be "The Danish flag is one of the oldest still in use". This alt-text would be irrelevant for this context. A much better alt-text would be "In the sky flies a red flag with a white cross whose vertical bar is shifted toward the flagpole". If you consider the design of the Danish flag to be common knowledge, however, an alt-text of "the Danish flag" is a perfectly usable alternative too.
Keep the context in mind, though. An alt-text should not always describe the image but instead have the same purpose. For example, an image of a warning sign should not have alt text "a triangle with a yellow background, black border and an exclamation mark", but simply "Warning!" — unless, of course, the alt text's purpose is to show what the warning symbol actually looks like.
(This example is shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia, where you will find more information about alt-text.)
Additional information
For more detailed information on this topic: