Wednesday, June 29, 2011
News Editorial Tip Part 3: Tags (Keywords)
Tags, also referred to as Keywords, are used to link your article with related content on the Â鶹´«Ã½ site. Keywords are also used in the Advance Search area of Â鶹´«Ã½, where you can search by keywords (not to be confused with a text search). The top 20 keywords are displayed in the left column of the Advance Search page. Their size reflects the number of articles that are associated with those keywords.
What keywords should you choose to enter on the Â鶹´«Ã½ contribution form? The best choice are keywords that are already in the database. Once you start typing, examples will appear as a list. These are keywords that are already entered. Avoid using keywords that are misspelled, appear incomplete, or have erroneous punctuation. Enter new keywords one at a time rather than copying a string of keywords into the form. Use whole words. Short phrases are fine but we recommend keeping them simple. By selecting keywords that are general enough to connect with other articles on a related topic, you will help users find your article. Therefore, using institution names and researcher names are little help in this area.
Adding institution names and researcher names serves no purpose and actually distracts from the use of keywords. This inhibits the journalists and other readers from finding your stories when using appropriate keyword searches.
Examples of tags:
Heart Disease
Depression
Ovarian Cancer
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Neutrino
Baseball
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