Improve findability of GSA sites/content

[RachelF]

Recommend a standard set of meta tags and/or JSON schema that should be present in all site web headers to aid search.

[ryanwoldatwork]

Recommend a standard set of meta tags and/or JSON schema that should be present in all site web headers to aid search.

• [ ] What is in the standard set? How do we identify those?
• Provide clear guidance on how this metadata is used for search
  • Provide an example of good working tags. eg: One tag, like OpenSchema

Story

As a Website Manager I want to use a standard set of meta tags or JSON schema So that I can have good SEO and findability

Other ways to improve findability:

• better page titles
• better content
• general SEO and copywriting
• market research

[ryanwoldatwork]

• [ ] ensure all websites have description metadata tags

[chrisarrr]

With respect to HTML, I think the tags listed on https://search.gov/manual/metadata.html should be considered standard, or at least best practice.

title and description should be mandatory. keywords, og tags for social (at least title and description, and image where possible) time of publication, time of last modification, and main body content -- these are near universal elements of any public-facing page and should be strongly recommended.

Ya'll know I'm a big proponent of microdata markup to augment internal and external search, but given the scope of this recommendation, I think that's an advanced topic. Not every page needs microdata, like the schema.org markup seen here on whitehouse.gov. It all depends on user expectations, the type of content being searched, and the ability of the site owner to templatize or otherwise implement the markup code efficiently.

Implementation is the last step that I'm still pondering. Do we email a bunch of site owners? Host webinars, workshops, hackathons? Could the DAP javascript be modified to scan for and generate metatags automatically on sites that lack them? Whatever we decide, it all needs to fit with Search.gov's existing outreach strategies. I have not engaged them in a while. I think it's past due.

[ryanwoldatwork]

The meta tags should be a clear ask and some of the scanning can be automated to help inform/assess. Think "dependabot" for these meta tags, for example.

I agree more semantic descriptions and disciplined use of schema are more advanced topics and practices.

Great thoughts overall and good questions regarding implementation.