1. Facilitating Document Access with Meta Tags
Olivier Serrat
2013
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2. Titles
The keywords in title tags are a powerful means with which to highlight a page's most important search terms.
The most important keywords should be placed at the beginning of a title tag:
Lead with the most important words and phrases for a particular page.
Move from the specific to the more general.
Refrain from using any word more than twice in the title tag.
Example: ADBI Pocket Guide to Asian Economic Think Tanks. This title's "meta" was changed to Asian Economic Think Tanks: ADBI Pocket Guide.

3. Meta Descriptions
Good meta descriptions are written expressly so that search engines will rate the page highly for search strings we want to associate them with.
Meta descriptions appear in search engine results pages.
Abide by the hallmarks of good meta descriptions:
The title of the document should not be repeated
Important words should make up the first 10–12 words.
The mort important words should come first.
Geographical context should be added.

4. The Hallmarks of Good Meta Description
The title of the document should not be repeated.
Do not waste your meta tags.
Search engines review title "tags" automatically.
Important words should make up the first 10–12 words.
Search engines will place more weight on the first words when determining relevance.
Important words should be moved to the beginning.
The first words are "prime real estate".

5. The Hallmarks of Good Meta Description
The most important words should come first.
Even with the 12-word cut-off, search engines tend to ascribe more importance to words that appear earlier.
Prioritize the words in your description.
Geographical context should be added.
Websites compete with one another on the Internet.
Users tend to search for content within specific geographical locations.
Target users who wish to find content about a region.
Put words in meta descriptions that provide geographical context.

6. Examples of Meta Description
Bad: This document is a discussion paper and is part of a cross-country study on corporate governance; it focuses on corporate governance in the Republic of Korea.
Reason: The description places too many vague and unimportant words up front. Key words such as "corporate governance" and "Korea" are introduced after the 15th word.
Good: This is a paper on corporate governance in Korea, and is part of a regional study in corporate governance.
Reason: The important words occur within the first 15 words.
Best: Corporate governance study in Korea; part of an Asia-Pacific study of corporate governance.
Reason: The first words are the most important and the geographical context is more precise.

7. Keywords
Keywords can make or break your website (or blog): Most of the traffic that websites receive come from search engines: keywords are the currency of search engines.
Keywords function in the same way as meta descriptions. But, there are a few important differences:
Keywords are made up of separate phrases, separated by commas.
Keywords do not need to be grammatically correct.
Key words are tallied directly against the search words or strings that users type into search engines.
Good keywords require that you put yourself in the "user's shoes".

8. The Hallmarks of Good Keywords
Use the longest version of words.
Search engines are smart enough to find words such as "govern" within "governance" or "governing".
To have the largest number of words that each keyword will encompass, always choose the longest version.
Use all lower case.
Whether words are proper nouns or not, all keywords must be in lower case.
Lower case keywords will be identified with strings that are capitalized.
However, capitalized keywords may not necessarily be identified with search strings that are in lower case.

9. The Hallmarks of Good Keywords
Use clusters of 3-4 words, with each cluster separated by comma.
Users today tend to type 3-4 words into search engines.
List the most important keywords first.
Do not use single words (e.g. china, poverty, finance, etc.) as they will not facilitate access to your document.
Do not use more than 3 clusters/12 words.
Add geographical context.
Try to make the geographical indicator the first keyword.

10. Examples of Good Keyword Selection
Document: ADB Planning Road Network Expansion in Bhutan
Bad: This document offers no keywords.
Possible Keywords: Bhutan, Road Network Expansion, technical assistance, loan, transportation, Japan Special Fund, grant, agricultural markets, ADB Planning Road Network Expansion in Bhutan, news and events
Good Keywords: bhutanese highways projects, bhutanese roads developments infrastructures, bhutanese roads networks

11. Incorporating Keywords in PDF Files
Incorporate the information in the fields.
Click File> Document Properties > Description.
Open the pdf file.

12. Olivier Serrat Principal Knowledge Management Specialist
Regional and Sustainable Development Department
Asian Development Bank