Add Canvas page creation setting accepting search tags/keywords for third party search engines

[pgo586]

A Canvas page creation setting - only applicable to public Canvas pages- could be added that allows for the specification of (search) tags/keywords. This would allow external search engines (Google or others) to better index these pages for the purposes of searching. This feature would be perfectly suited to the creation of public documentation or guides within public Canvas courses.

[Stef_retired]

@pgo586 

Canvas pages reside behind authentication credentials and cannot be accessed for indexing by third-party search engines. We've archived this idea.

You might want to add your support to the long-standing and actively-monitored request for global search within a Canvas course: Comprehensive Course Search Tool (Searching Course Content for a Topic)

Thanks.

[pgo586]

@Stef_retired , I think you may have mis-read my proposal, as I'm specifically mentioning the usefulness of this feature for *public* Canvas pages. Note that you can certainly make courses public in Canvas, which then makes the course pages public. Our group has written several public guides of this sort, and it would be definitely useful to have a way to allow for the smarter indexing of such pages by Google or other engines. 

[Stef_retired]

@pgo586 

Thanks for your quick response! The idea as currently written doesn't clearly restrict the request to public pages only. Would you please edit the idea to revise it? You can edit the title and description by clicking on the three-dot menu at the upper right and selecting Edit Idea.

[pgo586]

Sure @Stef_retired, I will edit the idea conversation shortly. Thanks!

[Stef_retired]

Thanks, @pgo586 . It's my oversight, as I overlooked the mention of "public" at the very end, but I imagine others might as well, so having that critical aspect of the request front and center in the title will help members evaluate the idea.

[Stef_retired]

@pgo586  Thanks for making the requested edit! We've moved the idea forward for broader discussion.

[dperpich]

We offered an online conference in Canvas this spring, and we'd love for our session summaries and other public pages to be discoverable via a Google search.

Over the years, I've returned to Northwestern University's publicly available Canvas modules, but I always have to google "Northwestern University Canvas tutorials". There's some great content there, but you have to know who published it to find it. 

Improving the discoverability of public pages could have significant positive impact on equity and accessibility, supporting Open Educational Resources across disciplines. 

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.