HTML Meta Description for Topics

Abstract

Learn how to add an HTML meta description to your Paligo topics so that each topic has a description in search engine results.

For search engine optimization (SEO), it is good practice to add a description to each topic's metadata. When your topic appears in a search engine result, the search engine may use the description to provide more information about the page. The description usually appears below the page link in search results, but we cannot guarantee that the search engines will use it.

To add an HTML meta description, use the info, abstract, and para elements, so that they are in a structural hierarchy like this:

<info>
    <abstract>
              <para>Your description</para>
    </abstract>
</info>

We recommend that you add the info, abstract, and para immediately after the title in your topics.

  1. Open a topic in the Paligo editor.

  2. Select a valid position for the info element, for example, immediately after the title but before the first paragraph.

    Topic in Paligo editor. A callout arrow points below the title, but above the first paragraph.

  3. Use the element context menu to add the info element.

    To access the element context menu, press Alt and Enter (Windows) or Option ⌥ and Enter (Mac).

    Note

    If you already have an info element, you can add an abstract inside that. For example, you may already have an info element to contain keywords. In which case, you can add the abstract and para elements inside the same info element, before or after the keywordset.

  4. Use the element context menu to add the abstract element inside the info element.

    Paligo topic in editor. An info element has been added. Inside the info element, an abstract element has been added.

  5. Use the element context menu to add a para element inside the abstract element. Enter the description for the topic in the paragraph. Be aware that search engines have recommendations for the description length. For example, ideally, Google descriptions should be between 50 and 150 characters.

    A topic in the Paligo editor. An info element has been added and inside that, an abstract element. Inside the abstract element there is a para element containing the text for the description.

  6. Add the rest of the topic's content after the info element.

  7. Select Save.

  8. By default, the abstract will be visible in your HTML output. But you can use CSS to hide it from readers but still make it available to search engines.

    The CSS to use is:

    .abstract {
    display:none;
}

    You can either add that to your existing CSS file or you can use a CSS editor to create a new one. If you create a new CSS file, you will also need to add any other CSS that you want to apply to your content. When you have the CSS file ready, upload it to your HTML layout and save the layout. When you publish with that layout, your meta descriptions will be included, but hidden from view on your web pages.

    To learn more about using CSS, see Branding your HTML Outputs with CSS.

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