Search engines and social media use
Search engines and social media use
Although our websites are automatically found by the well-known search engines, this can be influenced to a certain extent. This also applies to the appearance of how links to our websites are displayed on social media platforms. And finally, certain settings also affect how the websites are found and displayed as hits in our internal university search.
Some features
Video of the training course on search engines and social media use
In an online training course on search engines and social media use, it was shown which settings can be made to the TYPO3 websites in order to display them as well as possible in search engines (both external and internal university search) and social media portals (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Note: The video is only accessible to members of the university.
Search engine optimisation of page content
If the page is to be found particularly well in search engines under a certain term, experts give these tips on how the term should appear in the page:
- as far forward as possible in the H1 heading (page title)
- in the first 100 words
- in the URL ("URL segment" field)
- in the meta description ("Description" field in the [SEO] tab)
- in the title tag (field "Page title" or "Title for search engines")
- in the file name, title and alt text of the first image
(Tips taken from evergreenmedia.at, where there are many more tips. Otherwise, simply search for "seo tips").
Overview of search engine relevant fields
There are several fields in the page properties that affect the display in search engines (both the internal university search and external search engines such as Google, DuckDuckGo etc.).
Tab [General]
- Page title: This is the visible page title of the website. If no search engine title is entered in the [SEO] tab, the university search uses the page title as the hit title.
SEO] tab
- Title for search engines: If set, this title is added to the page as invisible information for search engines and is used as the title of the search engine hit instead of the normal page title. This also applies to the university search.
- Description: A short description of the page content can be entered here. Some search engines (including the university search) display this text in addition to the title. Others (e.g. Google), however, display a self-generated section of the page content instead to show the context of the hit.
- Index this page: This switch can be deactivated to tell search engines that this page should not be included in their index.
- Follow this page: This switch tells search engines whether the links contained in the page should be followed and their target pages should also be indexed.
- Canonical link: In certain cases, a cross-reference to another website can be defined here if that is considered to be the "actual" or "correct" page, while the current page only contains certain content from that page as a copy, for example. This can prevent two very similar pages from appearing in parallel in the search engines.
- Change frequency: This information tells the search engines (e.g. Google) how often they should check whether the page content of the current page has changed.
Metadata] tab
- Summary: A short summary of the page content can be entered here. This information is added invisibly to the page and can be read and used by search engines, archives etc., for example. If the "Description" field ([SEO] tab) is empty, the summary will be displayed in the university search in addition to the title.
- Keywords: This field is also added invisibly to the page. Keywords that match the page can be entered here, even if they do not appear literally in the page content (e.g. synonymous terms). Search engines can use these keywords. The keyword field is also analysed in the university search!
Tip: "Popular" typo versions of certain terms or proper names of people can also be entered in the keyword field. For example, the university search can also "happily" find misspelled terms.
Behaviour] tab
- Include in index search: If this switch is deactivated, the page is excluded from the university search and is therefore no longer found there.
Settings for the university search (internal search)
Making websites findable in the university search engine
The TYPO3-based websites are also found in the university search engine. However, this is not a full-text search, but web pages are only found on the basis of their title, keywords entered or a description of their content . The search therefore has the character of an editorially maintained search engine.
Special features
- TYPO3-based websites can be found in the central university search engine by their title without any further action and are listed there under Pages found.
- Furthermore, pages are found if additional keywords and/or a content description have been entered for them and the search term entered by the searcher is found.
- Foreign-language pages are also found and labelled as such by means of a flag symbol.
Configuring websites for the university search
All important settings for the search engine are made in the page properties of a particular page.
The university search engine searches these fields
- In the [General] tab, the fields "Page title", "Alternative navigation title" and "Subtitle" are analysed.
- In the [Metadata] tab, the fields "Summary of content" (content summary, abstract), "Keywords" (comma-separated list of search terms) and "Description" (short explanation of what the page contains) are analysed.
Tip: "Popular" misspellings of terms can also be entered in the keyword field so that they can still be found. - In the [SEO] tab, the "Title for search engines" and the "Description" are analysed.
- In the [Behaviour] tab, you can tick the "Deactivate" box under "Other" in the "Include in index search" field. This allows you to explicitly exclude the page in question from the search.
- Please note: Partial terms are always found. For example, if the keyword "documentation" has been set on a page, you can also search for "doku" to find the page.
This is how the hits appear in the university search engine
- The "Title for search engines" (tab [SEO]) is used as the hit title. If this field is empty, the "Page title" (tab [General]) is used instead. If a hit is an English page version, a British flag symbol is also displayed.
- The "Description" field ([SEO] tab) is also displayed as additional information. If this field is empty, the "Summary" field ([Metadata] tab) is used instead.
- The path of the page (part of the web address after the uol.de/) is displayed at the bottom.
Excluding a page from the university search engine
If a page is explicitly not to be found via the university search, even though it is active and accessible, the "Include in index search" switch can be deactivated in the [Behaviour] tab.
Settings for social media use
For the linking of university websites in social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter etc.), some special settings can be made in the page properties in the [Social media] tab:
- Title (Open-Graph/Facebook): If the http address of the current page is entered as a link in Facebook, Facebook (and possibly other social media services) reads this field as the link title to be displayed.
- Description (Open Graph/Facebook): Facebook (and possibly other social media services) read this field as the description to be displayed when the http address of the current page is entered as a link.
- Image: An image (graphic file) can be selected here to be used as the article image/preview image when integrated into Facebook and the like. This image does not necessarily have to be visible on the page.
- Twitter title, Twitter description, Twitter image: Same as the above fields, but used by Twitter instead.
- Card type (Twitter): Allows the selection of whether Twitter should display the article image/preview image normally or extra large.