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Techniques for Optimizing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Documents for the EERE Search Engine

Here are some important tips for optimizing Microsoft Office documents for the EERE search engine.

Title Field

Titles appear as the caption for documents in search results and give users an idea what the document is about. Titles are searchable and contribute greatly to search engine rankings.

  • Use the title as it appears in the document.

  • If you have to cut the title short, end the title with complete words, not in the middle of words.

  • The search engine will display the first 90 characters of the title, so make sure the first 90 characters contain the most meaningful and important information.

  • For forms that do not include the word "form" in the title on the document, and which need the word "form" in the title to clarify the content:

    • Add the word "Form" at the end of the title, or add the words "Form for" at the beginning of the title.

    • For example,
      • Records Checkout/Retrieval Form
      • Form for Records Transfer for Terminating Workers

  • If you do not provide a title in PowerPoint documents, the default title "PowerPoint Presentation" will display in search results.

Subject Field (Summary)

Information in this field appears as the document summary in search results. If there is no information in the summary field to display, the search engine will use the first 200 characters of text on the page. This can be an issue because fonts and other factors can cause the search engine's summary to be scrambled. Words in summaries can also help contribute to ranking in the search engine.

  • Include terms used in the document — this enhances the ranking in search results.
  • Summaries should not exceed 200 characters.
  • Keep it simple.
  • Make each description unique.
  • To save space, you do not have to use incomplete sentences:
    • For example,
      • Provides information on...
      • Includes...
      • Information on...
  • Use periods at the end of sentences.
  • Save time by using a template for documents that are similar in nature.
    • Templates for forms:
      • Form for...
      • ...form for...
    • Templates for PowerPoint presentations and slides:
      • PowerPoint presentation on...
      • PowerPoint presentation on [topic] by [name of presenter], date of presentation.
      • PowerPoint slide of...
  • If you don't have the money or time to prepare summaries:
    • Use the first couple of complete sentences from the first page of the document,
    • Use the first couple of descriptive sentences if the first few sentences don't describe the content, or
    • Repeat the title information if that is more descriptive than anything else.

Author, Company, Keywords, and Other Meta Fields

  • Do not fill out these fields.

  • Improper use of these fields adversely affects search results.

  • By default, the author field contains your name and the company name contains your company name. Remove this information so that it does not show up in the summary in search results.

Properties

To remind yourself to complete the title and summary fields and remove author and company information, set the properties dialog box to automatically display when you save documents for the first time.

  • For Word and PowerPoint, go to the Tools menu, click on Options, click on the Save tab, then check Prompt for properties.

  • For Excel, go to the Tools menu, click on Options, click on the General tab, then check Prompt for properties.