Content types that use Meta tag

The Meta tags feature can be accessed when creating or editing these content types:

• Articles
• Basic Pages
• Channels Events
• Channels News
• Galleries
• Profiles
• Webforms

Some meta tag fields will already be configured with default tokens. A token automatically inserts existing information from the page into the tag. However, Site Administrators or Site Managers can customize these configurations to meet their needs. For instance, when sharing a page to Facebook, a meta tag can be used to specify the URL of the image that should be displayed as the featured image in the Facebook post.

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Updating Meta tags

The example below will use a Basic Page.

1. Click the New draft tab
2. Scroll towards the bottom of the page and click the Meta tags tab
3. There are four main sets of meta tags:

   Basic Tags

   
   
   • Standard meta tags, e.g., <meta name="description" content="This is a brief meta description of this website." />

   Advanced Tags

   
   
   • Further specialized meta tags and settings

   Open Graph

   
   
   • Meta tags developed for content shared through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn) and identifiable by og: property attributes, e.g., <meta property="og:site_name" content="Desautels Faculty of Management" />

   Twitter Card

   
   
   • Meta tags developed for content shared through Twitter and identifiable by twitter: name attributes, e.g., <meta name="twitter:title" content="Desautels Faculty of Management" />
   • A Twitter Card is a preview of a URL that has been tweeted; different Twitter Card type meta tags can be used to generate different types of Twitter Cards (e.g., Summary Card, Summary Card with Large Image, Photo Card, etc.)
   • Note: Twitter will use Open Graph tags instead if there are no Twitter Card meta tags provided for the page

4. Click on the heading of each set of tags to expand the section and see the corresponding fields or options. For example, clicking on Basic Tags exposes the fields associated with basic tags.
   
   Note: Below each field is a brief explanation of its purpose.

5. Some meta tag fields will be pre-populated by tokens. Click Browse available tokens to see the token descriptions. The tokens can be replaced with any desired custom text.
   
   Note: If there is no need to customize, the default tokens should be sufficient.

6. Click Save after making any updates to the meta tags.

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Best practices and recommendations

Numerous fields are available for the Meta tags feature but many may be too specialized for the needs of most pages in the WMS. Therefore, below are high-level recommendations for the various types of tags and the ones that should be of most interest to the average Site Administrator or Site Manager.

Basic Tags

• Page title:
  
  • Avoid keyword "stuffing" which consists of inserting as many keywords as possible onto a page in an attempt to rank higher on search engine results; this technique is frowned-upon as it causes poor user experience and will result in Google or other search engines penalizing the site by filtering out these pages (See also: What are Keywords?)
  • Use distinct, descriptive titles for each page
  • Limit between 30–65 characters, including spaces (Note: "- McGill University" will automatically be added after the title)
  • Verify the title tag by searching for it in the source code, e.g., <title>IT Services - McGill University</title>

• Description
  
  • Ensure that every page includes a meta description (especially pages with minimal or no text entered directly in the Body such as those consisting primarily of blocks)
  • Differentiate the descriptions for different pages
  • Be concise and use the best keywords for the page
  • Limit between 50–160 characters for optimum effectiveness (check if descriptions captured by the default tokens exceed the recommended limit and replace with edited text if needed)
  • Verify the description tag by searching for it in the source code, e.g., <meta name="description" content="The official thought leadership publication of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, Delve offers the latest in management thinking to inform and inspire decision-makers across sectors.

Advanced Tags

• Optional — Tags in this section require a higher level of expertise with meta tags and SEO
• Do not update the Canonical URL or Content language tags  unless there are specific content needs (e.g., to handle duplicated or foreign language pages)

Open Graph

• Use for shared content such as articles, press releases, and marketing pages
• Ensure that there is a Content description tag (1–2 sentences) as this will be the snippet displayed in the Facebook or Twitter post
• Prioritize Open Graph over Twitter Card if short on time and resources since Twitter will fall back on Open Graph when no Twitter Card meta tags are found
• Verify the description tag by searching for it in the source code, e.g., <meta property="og:description" content="The official thought leadership publication of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, Delve offers the latest in management thinking to inform and inspire decision-makers across sectors." /> 

Twitter Card

• Use for shared content such as articles, press releases, and marketing pages
• Verify the description tag by searching for it in the source code, e.g., <meta name="twitter:description" content="The official thought leadership publication of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, Delve offers the latest in management thinking to inform and inspire decision-makers across sectors." />

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Testing meta tags

Online tools are available to preview how information on publicly accessible pages will look on Google or social media platforms using applicable meta tags:

• https://metatags.io
• Facebook: Sharing Debugger
• Twitter: Card Validator

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