# Meta tags and SEO

{% embed url="<https://vimeo.com/516059431>" %}

The GovCMS distribution provides a helpful set of tools to manage the appearance of your content in major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. This functionality is provided by the Metatag module (<https://www.drupal.org/project/metatag>).

The Metatag module provides two areas to manage the metadata of your site:

1. Global Metatag administration area: This area is usually only accessible by Administrator users.
2. Content pages: The metadata for can be managed at the page level for all *content* or pages.

To understand how to manage content metadata, perform a simple search for “Drupal metatag” in Google. The first search result is <https://www.drupal.org/project/metatag>.

The search result snippet consists of the following elements:

1. URL to the page
2. Page title
3. Site name
4. Search excerpt

![Image of search results](https://1079433754-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Lyh9JMywljz0CN8oT8o%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-02056c416048012fe82aca2cae211e74736535db%2FUnit-8-Metatags-Search-1.png?alt=media)

As a Content Approver, you can manage all of these elements using the *Meta Tags* pane in every content page.

When creating or editing content - the *Meta Tags* pane is available on the right-hand side of the page in an expandable section.<br>

<figure><img src="https://1079433754-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Lyh9JMywljz0CN8oT8o%2Fuploads%2FZWvxoyenc64hIsJb5NWP%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=248b1bd1-d402-4e2e-8432-692a9d91b9d9" alt=""><figcaption><p>Showing Metatag section in the content edit screen</p></figcaption></figure>

By default the main elements are pre-populated by GovCMS automatically when you create or update content. These elements are populated using **tokens**. (Tokens are covered in the next lesson).

In the screenshot above, the *Page title* field populates elements 1 and 2 from the Google search result screenshot. The Description field (6) populates the search result excerpt (4). The URL alias of the page (covered in [**Unit 7**](https://salsa-digital.gitbook.io/govcms-content-administration/unit-7-managing-url-aliases-and-redirects/url-aliases-and-redirects)) is used as element 3 in the Google search result screenshot.

Search results display can be customised by manually updating the information in the Meta Tags area.


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://salsa-digital.gitbook.io/govcms-content-administration/unit-8-meta-tags-and-seo/meta-tags-and-seo.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.