HiSoftware Web Site Quality Report - Searchability
The HiSoftware Searchability Report allows AccVerify or AccMonitor users to validate content for proper quality as related to searchability based on practical and accepted indexing guidelines. Indexed Internet, Extranet, Intranet or any other location of content determines content relevance when requested by a search mechanism:
- Search Engine
- Product Finder
- Standard Site Search
- or any other search mechanism
This Custom Report can be downloaded for use with AccVerify, AccRepair, and AccMonitor. Simply Extract the files into the C:\Program Files\HISC\AccVerify Pro\crbide or C:\Program Files\HISC\AccMonitor\crbide directories to use. For those using the Custom Check Development Environment you can store in any folder as long as all files are in the same folder.
- Download the Searchability Report (ZIP file)
- Download other Custom Reports
The indexed data determines relevance for Public and Private search engine results. the following guidelines will allow you to determine the proper index capability of your of content design and development. Check Points and detail of this report follow:
- 1. Keyword meta tag validation
- 2. Description meta tag validation
- 3. Use author meta tag validation
- 4. Spam Detection - Bad Practices
- 5. Use Key Elements
Specific Quality Checks for Searchability - Descriptions
The following section describes what checkpoints are being run with this content quality assurance checklist for your content management needs. The checkpoints are described as well as information on why these checks are important.
1- Keyword meta tag validation
One of the most important items in proper search engine indexing is the proper use of meta keywords. The checkpoints listed in this section for keyword validation assure that you are using keywords and that your usage does not break any key usage policies.
1.1 Validate Minimum Keywords Length
Your keywords meta tag should not be less then 200 Characters. When you use less then 200 Characters you are most likely not taking advantage of a search engines indexing capabilities.
1.2 Validate Maximum Keywords Length
Your keywords meta tag should not exceed 1055 Characters. When you exceed 1055 Characters some search engines may consider that you are trying to spam the engine. Additionally if the search engine mechanism uses keywords to index your page properly, you may be decreasing the accuracy of the search.
2 - Description meta tag validation
Another important item in proper search engine indexing is the proper use of meta description. The checkpoints listed in this section for description validation assure that you are using description and that your usage does not break any key usage policies.
2.1 Validate Minimum Description Length
Your description meta tag should not be less then 55 Characters. When you use less then 55 Characters you are most likely not taking advantage of a search engines indexing capabilities.
2.2 Validate Maximum Description Length
Your description meta tag should not exceed 255 Characters. When you exceed 255 Characters some search engines may consider that you are trying to spam the engine. Additionally if the search engine mechanism uses description to index your page properly, you may be decreasing the accuracy of the search.
3 - Use of Author meta tag validation
Another important item in proper search engine indexing is the proper use of meta author. The checkpoint listed in this section for author validation assure that you are using the meta tag author.
3.1 Validate the Author Tag is used
Both Public and Private search engines allow you to search for content based on the author of the content. When developing content the author tag should be used. This checkpoint validates that the author tag exists and its value is not blank.
4 - Spam Detection - Bad Practices
In an effort to increase the relevance of ones content on public search engines content authors may be incorrectly advised to use specific practices that claim to increase a sites relevance by being repetitive, or by misusing specific elements in a web page to "Hide" search terms. These practices can hurt your relevance or even get the content barred from public search engines.
4.1 Validate that http-equiv Keywords tag is NOT used
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to use the http-equiv="keywords" to perform keyword stuffing, this check validates that this practice is not used.
4.2 Validate that http-equiv description tag is NOT used
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to use the http-equiv="Description" to perform keyword stuffing, this check validates that this practice is not used.
4.3 Validate that http-equiv refresh tag is NOT used
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to use doorway pages which are pages that list nothing but keywords/search terms. with the hopes that it will score high relevance. When the user finds this page they are automatically brought to another page, this check validates that this practice is not used.
4.4 Validate that Alternative text is not being used for keyword stuffing
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to use alt tags to use keywords to increase a pages relevance, this check validates that this practice is not used.
4.5 Validate that keywords are not repeated more then 5 time
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to repeat keywords within the keywords tag to increase a pages relevance, this check validates that this practice is not used.
4.6 Validate that description does not repeat words more then 5 times
In an effort to trick public search engines people have tried to stuff pages with keywords repeatedly trick the search engine into giving a page a false high relevance ranking. This type of "Spam" could cause your page NOT to be indexed in a public search engine. A common searchability error is to repeat keywords within the keywords tag to increase a pages relevance, this check validates that this practice is not used.
5 - Use Key Elements
Indexing Servers/Search Engines will take advantage of key meta tags to better define a page or to provide specific related pages. This section validates that these key elements exist.
5.1 Validate that the title element exists and has a valid value
Additionally search engines will use the title element to determine relevance. This check validates that the element title exists and that it has a value >15 and <80 characters in length.
5.2 Validate that image alt text for images is being used
Pages that are rich in graphics may not be indexed properly if you do not provide a text representation for the images used. This is also important for accessibility. This check validates that alt text is used.