Information to help us decide how we'll handle HTML titles and meta descriptions for postgraduate pages.

Note: These are only needed on the About tab 

Existing guidance

Writing metadata - web team training guidance

Metadata - web team training guidance

Metadata descriptions and page intros - WIP guidance

Proposed approach

HTML title

Recommended length: 55-60 characters including spaces (longer than 55 makes it more likely Google will chop off the end in search results) 

We should confirm that we want to keep the same formula we're using for UG. I think this is:

Page title from Gather | Victoria University

e.g. Master of Professional Accounting | Victoria University

Note that this is different to what is done on the current site:

e.g. Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) - School of Accounting and Commercial Law - Victoria University of Wellington

I don't think the school or "of Wellington" is key information users need to see in the search results but the programme code might be useful and won't eat into the character limit much.

Meta description

Based on the existing guidance the meta descriptions should be:

• A clear, concise and unique description of what users will find on the page, showing the key benefit.
• Under 160 characters including spaces

PG programmes

The elements the description should have are:

• Key benefit, ideally as direct address/imperative – the banner intro should be a good starting point
• Programme name
• Key words/synonyms that are commonly used, e.g. 'MBA' for the 'Master of Business Administration'
• The kind of content users will find, the tasks they allow users to complete (optional of there's room)

Why use these elements?

Key benefit: For recruitment.

Programme name: Google wants to include the search term in the description so sometimes truncates the description to stuff the search term into the snippet, or uses other content on the page for the snippet. The most common search term that will bring people to a programme page is the programme name, so to avoid having Google chop off important parts of our description we should include the programme name in the description. The name can be scattered amongst other words, e.g. “This Master’s degree will make you an expert in Public Policy”

Key words: Findability, as these synonyms will be common search terms.

Kind of content: Give users an idea what the content covers making it more likely they click through. This is optional because postgraduate students should have a reasonable idea the kind of content a page about a PG programme would cover and they already know the subject of the page from the title. Providing it when the other elements leave enough characters spare should make click through more likely.

See Notes on the "kind of content" element.

Examples

Thinking of doing a Master of Tourism Management? Build on your Bachelor's degree with advanced study and research into the dynamic world of tourism.

Study the Master of Business Administration and boost your performance as a manager and a leader with a broad-based, globally-recognised MBA programme.

Master the skills in digital information management you need to advance your IT career. Get requirements, study planning, contact and application information.

PG Subjects

These should contain:

• Key benefit, ideally as direct address/imperative – the banner intro should be a good starting point
• Kind of content (in order of priority):
  1. Postgraduate qualifications/programmes/degrees (must mention that this is what the page covers, don’t need to list them though)
  2. Contacts and staff
  3. Stories

Examples

Choose from a range of postgraduate qualifications giving you deeper insight into the latest management thinking. Get staff contacts and read graduate stories.

Develop advanced theoretical knowledge, independent research skills and technical ability in economics. Find the postgraduate degree to achieve your goals.

Elements I don't think the description needs

The description is for telling people what’s on the page, rather than general info about the university. I reckon this means the descriptions don’t need:

• ‘Victoria University’ as it’s in the HTML title and ‘Victoria’ is in the URL
• ‘Vic Uni’, as Google treats it as synonymous with Victoria University.
• ‘Wellington’ or ‘New Zealand’. We’re not really competing with the other Vic Unis. For NZ students, Google will give priority to us. For internationals it’s not like they’re going, “I want to go to a Victoria University, I don’t care which country”, they know which Vic they’re after. Most will probably add NZ or Wellington to their searches. Even if Wellington’s not going to be used in the HTML title, the URL shows it’s an NZ site. They’ll be able to find out soon enough which country it’s in and using scarce characters for disambiguation is a waste of characters.

I don’t think we should talk about the PG dips and certs in the description of nested families. When these are the search terms Google will choose a chunk of text from the body of the page that includes these terms and this chunk should explain them well. Trying to stuff them into the description will make it unwieldy because they’re so long [“postgraduate diploma and certificate” = 37 chars]. Possible exceptions: if they are more important/popular then the Masters. Or if there’s just a PG dip not a cert or vice versa.

Notes on the "kind of content" element

Ideally we’d find a bunch of short formulae we can use, when we've room, to convey the kind of information the pages provide.

My thinking about these and some ropey examples are below.

What you’ll find on these pages are the reasons you should study the programmes and the basic information to help you make a decision and plan your study. We could tell users that by phrases like “Thinking of studying...”, “Find out how everything you need to know about studying...”, “Learn why and how you should study...” or “Decide if and plan how you...”, or “Get requirements, study planning, contact and application information...” etc, as in:

• Thinking of/Looking for/Planning on doing /Choosing a/Deciding on a [programme]? Get [key benefit] at Vic.
• Learn why and how you should [key benefit] by doing a [programme]
• Decide if and plan how you [key benefit] by enrolling in [programme]
• Plan your study in [programme] and get [key benefit]
• Find out how everything you need to know about how studying the [programme] gives you the [key benefit]
• Get requirements, subject, study planning, contact and application information about [programme] and [key benefit]

OK, these last two use a lot of chars. So maybe only use them when the [key benefit] and [programme] are very short.

Background

How Google treats our new UG pages

Search “bachelor of tourism management”:

 1.Bachelor of Tourism Management | Victoria University
www.victoria.ac.nz/btm
The Bachelor of Tourism Management (BTM) is a three-year undergraduate degree designed to set you on the path to a senior role in the tourism industry.

 2. Tourism Management | Victoria University
www.victoria.ac.nz/explore/study-areas/tourism-management/about
The tourism industry offers a world of opportunities. A Bachelor of Tourism Management from Victoria will help you on your journey towards a senior role in this ...

Notes:

For 1. The snippet is the first paragraph. There is no meta description in Gather (Google Search metadata – Mechanical) and the description doesn’t show via View source so I'm not sure if there is a meta description.

For 2. The snippet is the banner intro. There is a meta description in Gather but Google isn’t using it.

Search “tourism management”:

 3. Bachelor of Tourism Management | Victoria University
www.victoria.ac.nz/btm
The Bachelor of Tourism Management (BTM) is a three-year undergraduate degree designed to set you on the path to a senior role in the tourism industry. ... You'll study how tourism works, how tourism businesses operate, tourist behaviour and the impact visitors have on their ...

 4. Tourism Management | Victoria University
www.victoria.ac.nz/explore/study-areas/tourism-management/about
Study for your Tourism Management degree at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand. Discover Vic Uni now.

Notes:

For 3. The snippet is the first paragraph plus additional text from the page taking it over 160 characters (something Google is doing a bit of these days but not consistently).

For 4. The snippet is the meta description in Gather.