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Overview
MSU Keywords is a collection of starting points of interest to the Michigan State University community. When a user searches from MSU's home page, any matches from MSU Keywords appear first in the featured results.
There are two reasons to add a site to MSU Keywords:
- Customer Demand: The site is popular with customers. For instance, we know that many customers search for "Desire 2 Learn" or "Wharton Center". We look at aggregate search statistics to find out what people seek the most, and we match their search terms to specific Web addresses offering the content they seek.
- Content Provider Demand: The site represents a significant starting point (such as a college or department home page) or topic/campaign that the university wants to convey.
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Guidelines for Keywords
In addition to general keywords related to your site's name, we also can include aliases. To be effective, your keywords should include the words and phrases customers are most likely to type when looking for your start page. Such as:
gene testing or DNA testing ... instead of "Deoxyribonucleic Analysis Facility"
We use aliases so that we match real customer behavior; the words customers type into a search box may be very different than the words that you, the content provider, would use to describe your own site.
Here are the key phrases for "Wharton Center":
- Wharton Center
- Clifton and Delores Wharton Center for the Performing Arts performing arts center
- Wharton - Warton - Worton - Center - Centre - for Performing Arts
- WhartonCenter
Keywords is not caps sensitive.
Use Timeless URLs: If your site's content changes periodically, publish it under a timeless URL. For instance, Ag Expo uses http://www.agexpo.msu.edu (as opposed to http://www.anr.msu.edu/agexpo2004).
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How to submit your site to MSU Keywords
If you are an MSU content provider and wish to add your site to MSU Keywords, please use the Add or Modify Existing Keyword and Departmental Information Form (link).
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Recommended sites for MSU Keywords
Think of MSU Keywords as a starting points service, similar to the departmental listing in the Faculty/Staff directory. Good candidates for MSU Keywords include:
- The home pages of MSU colleges, departments, and programs.
- Home pages for significant MSU initiatives (e.g. the Capital Campaign) or communications (e.g. the State of the University address).
- Pages that cover a specific topic area of widespread interest, such as immunizations, Study Abroad, Admissions, etc.
- Home pages for registered student organizations.
- Other topical areas that appeal broadly to members of the MSU community, as revealed by customer input.
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Sites omitted from MSU Keywords
Generally speaking, the following do not belong in MSU Keywords:
- Personal pages.
- Deep "leaf" pages with highly-specific content.
- Businesses or organizations outside of msu.edu and the MSU community.
Exception: some "outside" sites have a special affiliation with MSU or are of special interest to the MSU community. For example, the official MSU Athletics (.com) site.
- Events. MSU Keywords isn't an events calendar.
Exceptions:
- Annual events, such as the Ag Expo or the Summer Circle Theatre.
- MSU events of national import, such as a visit by a head of state, or a speech by a Nobel laureate.
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If your MSU website doesn't have an msu.edu Domain
Some MSU content providers have chosen to move their Web sites outside of the msu.edu domain. This means that search engines for MSU won't index their content. For instance, Breslin Center's site is at www.breslincenter.com, and the Union Activities Board has an events site at www.uabevents.com. Customers searching within msu.edu, for instance using Google's MSU Index, won't find any content from those sites.
MSU Keywords can help. We can list your MSU-related home page even if it's not within msu.edu. For instance, Breslin Center and UAB Events are listed in MSU Keywords, so users can find the sites easily (however, information on specific events information within those sites will not be visible.)
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Start and Expiration Dates
We can define "start" and "expiration" dates for entries in MSU Keywords. A site will show up in searches only after the start date, and will no longer show up after the expiration date. If you are launching a new Web site, we can pre-stage its URLs using start dates. If you want your site to disappear after a certain date, we can set the expiration accordingly.
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Preparing for misspellings and variant spellings in MSU Keywords
We enter common misspellings into MSU Keywords as hidden aliases. Thus a customer can type "warton center" or "libary" and they will still find the content they seek.
Variant spellings also help more users find your content. Examples include:
- "theater" and "theatre"
- "Clinical Center" and "Clinical Centre"
- "adviser" and "advisor"
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Link Checking
MSU Keywords incorporates a link checker. This allows the editor to remove or update entries as Web content is re-organized.
If you are re-organizing a Web site that is listed in MSU Keywords, please contact us prior to launching the re-organized site.
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