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LibGuides Best Practices

Standards for creating useful, usable, and accessible guides.

URLs, Subjects, Tags

Improve the searchability and findability of your guide.

Quick Reference for URLs, Subjects, Tags

  • URLs — Assign friendly URLs to your guide and guide pages. Use lowercase letters and numbers only; separate words with dashes.
  • Subjects — Assign subjects to your guide to make it findable across various places on our website.
  • Tags — Assign tags to your guide to improve search results.

Getting There

  1. Log into LibGuides https://usfca.libapps.com/libguides/.
  2. Select  Content > Guides and click the Edit  icon for the guide you want to update.
  3. Click the pencil icon next to the URLSubjects, Tags, and PAGE URL(s) fields to select and save your options.

URLs

Assigning friendly URLs to your guide can make your guide's URL easier to remember and link to.

Best Practices

Subjects

Assigning appropriate subjects to your guide will help make it easier to find when users are browsing and searching the library website. 

Subjects are used in the LibGuides system to organize guides, databases, and subject experts. Once you assign subjects to your guide, your guide will be findable via these three main access points:

  • Subjects — Listed under the associated 'Guides' tab on each subject page.
  • Databases A to Z — Listed in the side column if a Subject is selected from the filter options.
  • Library Liaison Profiles — Liaisons have "Subject Specialities" listed on their profiles. These links lead to the general 'Subjects' page.

Best Practices

  • Only assign subjects that apply to your guide — Subjects should be applied thoughtfully. In general, avoid assigning more than five subjects to your guide.
  • Only assign subjects to research guides — Subjects are not used on the homepage, service and informational pages, or internal documentation guides.

The Taxonomy We Use for Our Subjects List

Springshare Documentation

Tags

Tags can help users when searching our website for specific keywords or phrases.

Tags are used to improve search results as they are weighted heavily in terms of relevancy. Tags also appear in the facet limiters on results pages.

Best Practices

  • Add new tags — If the tag you want to use is not already in the system, add it.
  • Use tags on all guides — This includes research guides, service and informational pages, internal documentation guides, etc.

Springshare Documentation