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

Web team training guidance

https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TRAIN/Metadata

https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TRAIN/Writing+metadata

WIP guidance

https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/display/WIP/Metadata+descriptions+and+page+intros

Proposed approach

HTML title

Recommended length: 55-60 characters (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 is short so 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

PG programmes

The elements the description should have are:

• Key benefit, ideally as direct address/imperative the banner overview should be a good starting point)
• Programme name
• Any key words/synonyms that are commonly used, e.g. MBA for the Master of Business Administration
• What kind of content users will find, the tasks they allow users to complete (if 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. The most common search term that will bring people to a programme page is the programme, so to avoid having Google chop of important parts of our description we should include the programme name in the search term.

Key words: Findability

Kind of content: