The "Meta" field is where you can put searchable keywords or other information that you want to document regarding your article. Keywords are important to the findability of your article. The best content in the world isn't useful if the audience can't find it.

NOTE: The "Meta" field is only visible to those with access to contribute to the knowledge base, and it's only visible when editing the article (that is, not in the service portal).

Use words from the article's short description, error messages, etc.

• You may be able to increase your article's findability in the search results by putting critical words in the "Meta" field even if they are already in the short description or in the body of your article.
• Make sure that your keywords include the most important words for what the article is regarding. For instance, if your article is about setting up TechMail on Android, you would always make sure words are included like the following: "how to steps directions instructions mobile phone cell Moto Motorola Samsung Galaxy Google Pixel Android configure setup set up add account email mail TechMail TTU ttu.edu Texas Tech University Microsoft365 Microsoft Office 365 Office365 O365 M365".
• Use exact words from error messages.

Ideas for words to use

• Try to think of what someone might search for if they were looking for the content you're seeking to create. Put yourself in their place.
• Think of synonyms for words that you've used. You might search for "privileges" while someone else might think of "permission" or "rights". Try to include all such words. You might choose to search for "website" while someone else would type "web page". Use as many different types of words like this as possible when populating the "Meta" field.

Information Technology uses the following guidelines for keywords in our knowledge bases. You may wish to create standard lists of words for common topics in your knowledge base to increase findability of your content.

Unified Communications

Required for all articles

Texas Tech University TTU Unified Communications UC

Required for articles dealing with Microsoft Teams

Texas Tech University TTU Unified Communications UC Microsoft Teams Microsoft365 Office 365 Office365 O365 M365

Required for articles dealing with Skype for Business

Texas Tech University TTU Unified Communications UC Microsoft Skype for Business SfB

Optional, depending on the type of article

telephone phone number DID EV enterprise voice mail voicemail VM service video chat IM instant message response group call queue VoIP IVR auto automatic automated attendant dept department departmental directory menu recording greeting dial

askIT and knowledge base

KBase K-Base KB knowledgebase knowledge base askIT ask IT Help Central HelpCentral ITHC Desk Helpdesk Service Now ServiceNow

Overview

basic overview general info information about

Troubleshooting guides, especially intricate procedural guides

NOTE: Do not overuse the keyword "tguide". See the "tguide" section below. It should not be used on every troubleshooting article that we create. Ideally, there would be one of these troubleshooting guides for each major service only.

tguide trouble shoot troubleshoot guide

How to get assistance with a particular service

how to get request help assistance procedure process who where call contact

Microsoft 365

Required

TTU Texas Tech University Microsoft365 Microsoft Office 365 Office365 O365 M365

Optional, depending on the type of article

microsoft365.com Office.com One Drive OneDrive for Business cloud storage file document ttu.edu web app webapp site website suite service online

TechMail

Required

ttu.edu TTU Texas Tech University TechMail mail email Microsoft365 Microsoft Office 365 Office365 O365 M365

Optional, depending on the type of article

Exchange Online server ActiveSync EAS EWS service Outlook.com Outlook web app webapp OWA webmail

Wireless network

Required

Wi-Fi WiFi wireless network Internet

Optional, depending on the type of article

TTU Texas Tech University campus TTUnet net TTUguest guest visitor eduroam edu roam connect Res Halls ResHall residence hall dorm

Software installation

install set up setup program software application app

Web applications

webapp web app application website site page webpage

iOS

Required

Apple iOS iPhone iPad OS iPadOS

Optional, depending on the type of article

18 17 iOS18 iOS17 16 Pro Max Plus 15 14 SE Air mini

macOS

Required

Apple Macintosh Mac OS macOS

Optional, depending on the type of article

Sequoia Sonoma Ventura 15 15.x 15.0 14 14.x 14.0 13 13.x 13.0 MacBook Air iMac Pro mini Studio

Windows

Required

Microsoft Windows

Optional, depending on the type of article

11 Windows11 Win11 10 Windows10 Win10

Android

Required

Moto Motorola Samsung Galaxy Google Pixel Android

Optional, depending on the type of article

15 15.x 15.0 14 14.x 14.0 13 13.x 13.0 12 12.x 12.0

Health Sciences Center

TTU HSC TTUHSC Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Nursing school SON Medicine medical SOM Pharmacy SOP Professions

IT Help Central

IT Help Central ITHC HelpCentral Helpdesk Service Desk

KACE

Quest KACE KASE CASE

Anticipate what your audience might search for

Put yourself in place of the audience

• Ideally, our goal should be a knowledge base that requires the least amount of training possible for average users to benefit from it. The searching should be intuitive to users so that there is a small learning curve on knowing what words to use in a search. Anticipate the actions of your audience (those searching for your article) by putting words which might be used in their searches.
• Add the name of the system, application, operating system, and version.
• If your article is written for customers, think about the end user being them and not just our support agents. You can do this by thinking about what types of problems might your audience encounter. What problems would they contact us about? What problems would your audience encounter that would result in them searching for the article that you are drafting? Use the keywords that the audience in that situation would use when they search.
• If the article is being created from the result of a customer interaction, use words that the customer used to describe the problem or the request. Customer context is key to findability.

Add misspellings and slang words

• Anticipate common misspellings and other mistakes of your audience (for example, for Rogue DHCP articles, type "rogue" and "rouge" as keywords). Don't go too far with this, however. Only use common misspellings.
• Add slang keywords. For example, if your article is about creating an interaction in ServiceNow, add the slang terminology "ticket" and "issue" to the "Meta" field even though it may not be proper terminology to use in the main article content like the short description field.
• Remember: just because you know how to correctly spell a word doesn't mean your audience does. Look for instances where words might be separated or combined in a search, whether mistakenly or because of ambiguity. This is commonly the case with compound words and portmanteaus. For instance, articles created regarding the TechShare service should include "Tech", "Share", and "TechShare" as keywords because some people may search for "TechShare" while others might mistakenly type "Tech Share".

Grouping

Group words in "Meta" that would normally go together (for instance, Adobe Creative Cloud). This is because when people enter these terms into the search field, the search algorithm will first look for them in the order they were typed. If you have them separated instead of together, your article will rank lower in the search results that appear.

Spelling

To avoid spell checking software from identifying your words as misspelled, please type them with appropriate case. For example, a spell checker is much less likely to identify "Microsoft" as misspelled than it is "microsoft".