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How to Edit an Isawiki Search Result
Use the Alexa Information for Home Pages
For all home pages, a link is displayed at the bottom of the page under the "Web Page Tools" bar which says "Web Site Info for:" and the web site URL. For most sites, this provides useful information for the Title, the Description, and the Query Strings.
For example, for www.acclaimsoftware.com :-
- The Title is "Cashbook Complete"
- The Description is "A shareware accounting software package for small business that runs ..."
General Notes About the Title and Description
The Title and Description should be free from marketing hype and should contain text that is objective and should generally be free from superlatives such as (best, biggest, widest range, most popular, etc).
Fixing the Title
If the web page is a home page, then have a look at the Alexa title for ideas.
The Title should start with a domain or web site name followed by a hyphen
For example:-
- Homes.com - Real Estate in Juneau or
- NZIE - New Zealand Institute of Education or
- Time2Dine - Restaurants in Auckland are OK
The domain name or web site name should NOT be at the end. If the domain or web site name is really long, and can be shortened, then shorten it.
For example:-
- Events.IRM-Systems.com - Events in Tuscaloosa would be better as
- IRM-Systems.com - Events in Tuscaloosa
and
- Hamner Real Estate, Inc - Tuscaloosa, Alabama would be better as
- Hamner Real Estate - Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Please be sure to put a space on each side of the Hyphen.
For example:-
- Homes.com-Real Estate in Juneau should be
- Homes.com - Real Estate in Juneau
Wikipedia or TravelWiki articles should not have the web site name at the start because they automatically have their name displayed on the right of the Title.
For example:
- Wikipedia - Automobile - Wikipedia should be
- Automobile - Wikipedia
The Title should NOT have All-Caps text unless it is for a relevant acronym
For example:-
- REAL ESTATE IN JUNEAU, ALASKA should be
- Real Estate in Juneau, Alaska
It is of course OK to have acronyms such as "USA" or "AOL", or an abbreviation of a company name.
If the Title has a City (place) name, then it should be at the end, not the start
This is because:-
- Usually the user already knows which region they are looking at, so the region is secondary
- The region is often followed by a comma and the larger region
For example:-
- Juneau, Alaska Real Estate should be
- Real Estate in Juneau, Alaska
Get rid of welcome messages, greetings, etc.
For example:-
is NOT OK. The users would rather know what they will get when they click on the link.
Get rid of Exclamation Marks
If a page has been pre-spidered, then the Title will have !!! on the end. It may also be that the actual web page had an exclamation mark in the Title. We don't want any exclamation marks in the Title. An article will remain on the Attention Required list while it has an exclamation mark on the end of the title.
Keep the Title on One Line
Please shorten the Title so that it fits on one line (with about half an inch spare on the right to allow for slight variations in different browsers). If a Title is really long it might be worth moving it into the Description.
Vary the Title
If there are a whole list of search results on a page for something, please don't make all the Titles the same. It just looks silly.
Fixing the Description
Where the Title gives the headline, the Description should in essence contain a simple description in plain text of what the web page contains. The Description should not be a simple list of key words. It needs to be a proper sentence or paragraph. The Description can contain two or three lines. One line is OK, but two lines is better. If it has three lines then leave a bit of space (about an inch) on the end of the last line so that it won't wrap onto a fourth line in a different browser. Please don't have more than three lines.
Some places to find a good description are:-
- If the web page is a home page, then have a look at the Alexa description for ideas. Please do not copy the description exactly.
- For a home page, look for the About page for the site
- For all other pages, you could try looking at the page source and look at the <title> or <meta name='description' ... > tags.
Some of the rules for Titles also apply to the Description. That means:-
- No inappropriate All-Caps text
- No welcome messages
- No exclamation marks
Setting the Region
The Region defaults to "World". If the URL ends with a two letter country code, then add the region as follows:-
- Region=Australia (if .au)
- Region=Canada (if .ca)
- Region=India (if .in)
- Region=New Zealand (if .nz)
- Region=United Kindom (if .uk)
- Region=United States (if .us)
- Region=South Africa (if .za)
See the example for www.acclaim.co.nz.
Have a look at the web site. If it is obviously targeting a particular country (which is one of the above), then insert the country as above.
If the web site is for a particular city, and the city has a page in Isawiki, then enter the city name. Note that the city's name must be spelled exactly the same way as it is in Isawiki.
Setting the Query Strings
If the page is for a "Home Page", then add "branding" query strings. Branding query strings are things such as the company name, web-site name, product name, etc. The Craigs List home page could for example have:-
Q=www.craigslist.org/craigslist.org
Q=Craigslist/Craigs_List
[/Web_Site/Website/Site/Home_Page/Homepage]
In this example the first Q= command is used to find matches for users who type the URL into the search box. The second Q= command is for users who type the web site name into the search box (followed by optional words such as "web site"). Notice how a Query String can span more than one line as shown in the second example.
Once the branding Query Strings are done, then the general query strings need to be added. If the page is a home page, then go to the Alexa page (as described above), and click on the Keywords tab. Keywords might also have been provided by the web page (displayed after the "C=The following keywords were ..." message). Make the web page searchable using the most appropriate query strings.
Removing Superfluous Comments
If the page has just been created, then it will have some comments which can be deleted once the page has been fixed up. The QUERY STRINGS section will have a comment something like:-
- C=The following keywords were provided in the web page. You can use them as a starting point for making the Query Strings. Once the Query Strings have been inserted, you can then delete this message.
- C=fix blurry picture, photo enhancement software, restoring old photo, photo sharpening software, photo restoration software, focus photo
These comments can be deleted
Fixing "Unknown" Search Results
When a search result shows "Unknown" in the Title or Description, then the spider could not get that information. To fix these "Unknown" URLs you can either:-
- Fix the search result if the URL exists
- Find the correct URL and fix it
- Delete the URL if it no longer exists
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