WSU - Search Engine Information

The WSU Web servers are re-indexed every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at 1:30 a.m. Search engine results won't change until the pages are re-indexed. So, if you make a change to the meta tags, title or description on your Web page on Monday, the results of a search for that page won't change until after 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Hints for making the most of WSU's Web search engine (examples follow descriptions):

Hint 1 - Keywords Meta Tag

Improve the results of a keyword search by adding a "keywords" meta tag within the <head></head> portion of your HTML page. If the keywords exist in a meta tag, the site should be returned at the top of the search results list (that Web page is given more "weight"). If the keywords aren't found within the meta tag, the search engine searches the text on the page for a match to the keywords.

Use very specific keywords in your meta tag, and use words that are specific to each page. Don't use the same words on every page, and don't use general terms including "Wright State University," "WSU." People using our search engine will use more specific words such as "biology" or "financial aid" to search for information.

Keywords should be lowercase and separated by commas with no spaces after the commas. Keywords can include phrases such as "financial aid." Phrases of two or more words, when appropriate, may bring better success, since the phrase may be more specific than a single word.

Use the same word(s) in your <title> tag, description and keywords as well as in the first few lines following the <body> tag to raise your score within search engines.

The maximum length of your meta tags (both keywords and description) should be kept under 1,024 characters, but this includes all the coding including <meta name="keywords" content=" ...>, so you actually have about 989 characters or enough for approximately 100 words. Spaces and commas count as characters.

Don't repeat words over and over -- some search engines will demote or delete your entry in such instances.

Hint 2 - Title Tag

Include a descriptive title for your page. Web pages that are returned in a search are listed by their <title></title>. The title is a hyperlink to your Web page.

Hint 3 - Description Meta Tag

Include a "description" meta tag. Web pages that are returned in a search are listed by their title and then followed by the description given in the meta tag. If no description meta tag is used, the title is followed by the first 40-50 words on the Web page. These are oftentimes links to other pages, and they don't create an easily understood description of your page.

Hint 4 - Robots Meta Tag

If you don't want your page searched, you may use the "robots" meta tag. The options are as follows:

NOTE: Even though you include this meta tag on your page, it may still be searched by various other search engines on the Internet. Never assume that your page won't be found by anyone.

Hint 5 - Keep Up To Date

Keep your pages updated. On the search return list, the description of your page is followed by a hyperlink to the Web page, the date the file was last updated, and the size of the file.

<html>
<head>
<title>Wright State University Admissions & Registration Information</title>