Web

Common Page Properties

How to complete the Basic, Image, OG (Social Share) and SEO tabs.

Background Image Pixabay License

There are 5 tabs that must be filled out in the page properties of each page on AEM. The tabs to complete are the Basic tab, the Image tab, the OG tab, the SEO tab and a template-specific tab. This article covers how to fill out the first 4 tabs and shows a examples from a preserve page and an article page of how these tabs show up on the front-end to site visitors. Towards the end of the article you will find links to the template guides that include instructions on how to fill out the template-specific tab properties.  

Basic Tab

There are two required fields (marked with an asterisk *) in the Basic tab that are also in the Page Creation tab. For all pages, you will fill out the Page Title and Page Description fields in page creation, but you can go into page properties to edit these fields or complete optional fields. 

  • Page Title*: Page Title should be written for external audiences and displays on page cards, internal search results, breadcrumbs (if applicable) and in components when the title is not authored directly. 150-character limit.
  • Page Subtitle: Will be used as the subtitle in hero components if a custom subtitle is not entered in the component. (Optional)
  • Page Description*: This should be an enticing sentence or two about what readers will find on this page. It will be used on page cards and in internal search results.
  • Language Label: If the page is available in more than one language, enter the language of the current page in this field. 50-character limit. (i.e. if your page is available in English and Spanish, and the page you are currently filling out properties for is the English page, enter English in this field).
  • Language Link: Enter the page path for the current page (the page in the language indicated in the previous field).
  • Language Label: If the page is available in a different language, enter the name of that language here (in the native language - e.g. Español). 50-character limit. (i.e., if the current page is in English but you have an equivalent page in Spanish, enter Español in this field).
  • Language Link: Enter the page path for the alternate language version of the page (the language indicated in the previous field).
  • Hide Alert Banner: Checking this box will hide any active site-wide alert banners from displaying on your page. This may be used at your discretion but is not generally recommended.
  • Hide Social Share: Checking this box will remove the social share buttons from the page. This may be used at your discretion but is not generally recommended.
  • Hide Pop Up: Do not use this checkbox unless instructed to do so by global marketing teams.
  • Go Live Date/Time: Use the calendar icon to schedule a date and time for the page to go live once it is published. If none is selected, the page will go live automatically after workflow is complete. You can also select publish time when submitting your page for publishing.
  • Unpublish Date/Time: For non-evergreen content, enter a desired expiration date (off time). 
screenshot of AEM page properties and where they go
Page title and page description © TNC

Image Tab

  • You must complete the image tab. This information will be pulled onto aggregation pages and other page cards. 
  • Image: Enter or select the file path (a.k.a. relative URL) of a photo in the DAM. This will show on aggregation page cards and content previews (i.e. featured content or list components).  
  • Image Alt Text: Add Image Alt Text that describes what is shown in the image. 
  • Desktop/Mobile Image Alignment: Select how you want the image to crop (what section to preserve) on both desktop and mobile browsers. 

OG Tags

  • OG Tags – or Open Graph Tags – are used for social sharing
  • When a nature.org URL is posted on Facebook or Twitter, the content of the post will be generated by pulling the title, description, image and URL from the OG Tags fields in the metadata
  • Complete the Title and Description how you would like them to appear on a social post
  • For Type, enter Article for articles and use Website for all other content
  • Select an Image to appear with the social post
  • For the Open Graph URL use the path picker to enter the URL that you will link to with the social post (typically the cleanest version of the URL of the page you are building). You can grab this URL from the last section of the URL in your browser starting from (and including) “/content”

Authoring SEO Tab Fields

When authoring a new page in AEM, the first thing you will do after creating your page is fill out the page properties. Refer to the basic authoring guide for a refresher on how to access the page properties in the sites console in AEM. This document covers the fields in the SEO tab of the page properties. This tab is the same for all page templates.

Brief Background on SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO), is a set of guidelines for website authors to follow to optimize their sites for search engine indexing and improve their site’s search engine rankings. The majority of search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages (SERPS), so it is critical to the success of our digital content that we take SEO seriously.

Completing the SEO Tab Fields

External Search Result Description* 

External search results descriptions show up in search engine results below the external search results title and act as a descriptor for the page.* These descriptions will often be used to determine whether someone visits the page.

*Sometimes, Google will rewrite the search results blurb or grab a sentence from the page. We cannot control when this is done. 

  • Enter a unique description for your page
  • Descriptions should be between 50-300 characters. The optimal limit varies, but descriptions over 300 characters usually get cut off.
  • The description should include keywords that reflect the contents of the page and should still read well to people.
  • The should be a compelling sentence, sometimes incorporating a call to action where appropriate.
  • It should also be keyword centric, focusing on page topic or subject, campaign, matching gift opportunity, etc.    

To get help with the last tab - the template-specific tab - go to the page for the specfic template that you are authoring.

For further questions or clarification, reach out to the Global Digital team.