The meta tags on your site allow Boomtrain to take your content and tailor recommendations based on your requirements. The Boomtrain platform provides its own proprietary tags, but it can also read a few different tag types. We've provided an overview of meta tags, the tags we require, and the tags we recommend based on your industry type.
Table of Contents
Meta Tag Overview
Tags
Meta Tag Overview
Meta tags are placed in the header (<head></head>) section of the pages on your website and provide detailed information about each page. As an example, when a User browses to a page on your site the ‘title’ value will display in the browser tab.
Why Meta Tags are Important for Boomtrain
For Boomtrain's purposes, meta tags are used when we build recommendations. For example, your ‘image’ tag is used as a thumbnail of the content when we send it to the Users, so there is an image to go along with the text of the recommended content.
Many of the meta tags that Boomtrain uses when ingesting your content are likely already in place, but there are a few that we require and strongly recommend be added, if they don't exist already, so that we can provide the best possible experience for delivering content that is recommended to your individual Users.
Meta Tag Types Boomtrain Can Use
Boomtrain can ingest a number of different tag types, but the main two are:
- bt - Our proprietary tagging. Meta tags using 'bt:{Property Name}' supersede the value of other tagging types, if they are duplicated on your site.
- og - Stands for The Open Graph protocol. This is a very common tagging type and if the required tags exist as ‘og:{Property Name}’ on your site, there is no need to add a duplicate ‘bt:{Property Name}’ tag.
- Navigate to a page on your site.
- Right-click anywhere on the page and select 'Inspect Element' at the bottom of the context menu:
- On the 'Elements' tab, expand the '<head>' section.
- Locate the meta tags and check their formatting against the tables found later in this documentation.
Common Tags for All Sites
There are a few meta tags that Boomtrain requires or strongly recommends that all our customers implement, to ensure that we can provide the best experience possible. We've provided a table below with a list of these tags for your convenience.
Table Legend:
- Green indicates meta tags that are most likely on your site, particularly if you are using ‘og’ tags.
- Yellow indicates meta tags that Boomtrain recommends be added to your site, if they don’t already exist.
- Red indicates meta tags that Boomtrain absolutely requires. If they are not already on your site, they must be added for your integration process to go smoothly.
| Tag Name | Required/Recommended | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
URL | Required | This needs to be a canonical URL that is unique to each piece of content. NOTE: If you are using slide shows or other methods to display multiple pieces of content on one page, make sure each piece of content has the same canonical URL. | <property= 'og:url' content= 'The Content URL'> If a URL tag is missing, use: <property= 'bt:url' content= 'The Content URL'> |
ID | Recommended | Boomtrain tracks User behavior on your site. Without an 'ID' tag, we are only able to track 'viewed' events. If that's all you want, then the 'ID' tag isn't necessary, but if you'd like to track any additional events, such as 'clicked', 'watched', 'shared', etc., the 'ID' tag is essential. NOTE: Each piece of content must have a unique 'ID' value, except when you have a slide show or other method of displaying multiple pieces of content on the same page. In that case, make sure each piece of content in the slide show has the same 'ID'. | <property= 'bt:id' content= A unique ID for the Content, such as 'article-abc123'> |
Type | Required | Type defines what the content represents, such as a news article, a blog post, or a video. Boomtrain uses the value of 'Type', also called Resource Type, in a number of ways, such as restricting recommended content to one particular type. | <property= 'og:type' content= 'The Content Type'> If a 'Type' tag is missing use: <property='bt:type' content= 'The Content Type'> |
Title | Required | This represents the title of the content. Most customers will have some iteration of 'Title' on all their pages already. | <property='og:title' content= 'Boomtrain and Meta Tags'> If a 'Title' tag is missing use: <property= 'bt:title' content= 'Boomtrain and Meta Tags'> |
Description | Required | Usually a short blurb about the page. If you plan to have Boomtrain recommend content that doesn't include a thumbnail, we will use the Title and Description, so that the important information about the content is conveyed to your Users. NOTE: Most customers will have this implemented, but it may be worth reviewing with your Solutions Architect, to make sure the description you provide will work well with the Boomtrain platform. | <property= 'og:description' content= 'Boomtrain and Meta Tags: The meta tags Boomtrain requires and the tags we recommend based on your company type.'> If a 'description' tag is missing use: <property= 'bt:description' content= 'A Description for the Content or Page'> |
Image | Recommended | If your page has an image that can be used to represent the content, Boomtrain will use this tag to ingest that image. While not required for all pages, we strongly recommend ensuring this tag exists for any page that should have an image accompanying it. | <property= 'og:image' content= 'URL to the Hosted Image'> If an 'Image' tag is missing use <property='bt:image' content= 'URL to the Hosted Image'> |
Body | Required | This tag represents the contents of the full article text of a page. It is not necessary to have a meta tag that contains the contents of the body (thus duplicating it on each page). Boomtrain can detect the contents of the body by a CSS selector, such as <id='article-body'> or <class='article-body'>. This selector needs to be consistent across all your pages. | <div id='main_body'> <div class='main_body'> If a CSS selector is missing use: <property='bt:body' content='The contents of the body on the Page'> |
Keywords | Recommended | The keywords tag gives Boomtrain the ability to better analyze and granulate your content. Similar to 'Type', we can use 'Keywords' to recommend or prevent recommending specific content based on your needs. They should represent specific things about each page, but also overlap, so that your pages have commonalities we can use to build out recommendable content. | <property='bt:keywords' content= 'Keywords, separated by commas'> |
pubDate | Required | The date that the page was originally published on your site. This should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: Without this date, Boomtrain won't be able to properly respect your recency window, how far back we will go to get recommendable content. | If a Created or Published Date tag does not exist, use: <property=bt:pubDate' content= '2015-09-03T14:06:00-07:00'> |
modDate | Required | The date the last time the page was modified. Should also be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows to re-scrape your site when changes are made. | If a Modified Date tag does not exist, use: <property='bt:modDate' content= '2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00'> |
In addition to these required tags, there is one additional tag that may be useful for managing which content Boomtrain recommends to your Users.
| Tag Name | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| isBlacklisted | When set to 'true' Boomtrain will not include this content when recommending to your Users, even if it meets all other criteria for recommendation, such as the recency window or the selected model type | <property='bt:isBlacklisted' content='true' or 'false'> |
This tag is not required and may not be necessary for all customers, but it provides powerful options for controlling what content Boomtrain recommends to your Users.
Recommended Tags by Company Type
These tags are grouped by the type of companies that may want to use them. While these tags are optional, if you already have them, or if you add them to your content, they will help the Boomtrain platform maximize the personalization of content delivered to users and provide you with as many options as possible, for controlling your recommendations.
Blog, News, Opinion, Entertainment, Other
In addition to the Common Tags for All Sites the below tags are recommended for companies that fall into these verticals.
| Tag Name | Purpose of the Tag | Example of the Tag |
|---|---|---|
| author | Provides the name of the person that wrote the content. If you would like to send recommendations that also include the name of the author, you will need to include this tag on the content. | property=”bt:author” content=”{Author’s Name}” |
| expDate | The date the content expires and should no longer be recommended. Should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows when to stop including this content in recommendations. | If an Expiration Date tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:expDate” content=”2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00″ |
Tags listed in other company types are available to Blog, News, Opinion, Entertainment, etc. sites, but may not necessarily add personalization value for all sites of this type.
Deals
In addition to the Common Tags for All Sites the below tags are recommended for companies that fall into this vertical.
| Tag Name | Purpose of the Tag | Example of the Tag |
|---|---|---|
| discount | If you provide a way to display the discount Users receive, whether it is the discounted price, a percentage, or another method, this tag can be used to include this information when sending recommendations to your Users. | If a ‘discount’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:discount” content=”{The Discount Information}” |
| price | The price value of the content can be used in recommendations, to ensure Users are seeing how much something costs, in addition to other attributes. | If a ‘price’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:price” content=”{Price of the Content}” |
| expDate | The date the content expires and should no longer be recommended. Should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows when to stop including this content in recommendations. | If an Expiration Date tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:expDate” content=”2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00″ |
| vendor | If your site sells products from multiple vendors, or lists contents that are sold from other websites, this tag allows you to pull in the name of those outside vendors. | If a ‘vendor’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:vendor” content=”{Vendor’s Name, such as ‘Amazon.com’}” |
Tags listed in other company types are available to Deals sites, but may not necessarily add personalization value for all sites of this type.
E-commerce
In addition to the Common Tags for All Sites the below tags are recommended for companies that fall into this vertical.
| Tag Name | Purpose of the Tag | Example of the Tag |
|---|---|---|
| category | Similar to ‘keywords’, can be used to help identify what each piece of content is and build out an overlapping map of the content being sold on your site. | If a ‘category’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:category” content=”{Categories for the Content}” |
| currency | Allows you to specify which currency or currencies your products are sold in. This is useful for recommending the same content, which is sold in multiple places, so that Boomtrain sends the correct currency to your Users. | |
| expDate | The date the content expires and should no longer be recommended. Should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows when to stop including this content in recommendations. | If an Expiration Date tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:expDate” content=”2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00″ |
| isUnavailable | Use this tag to tell Boomtrain that this piece of content is no longer available on your site, so that Boomtrain will no longer include it in recommended content. NOTE: To use this tag you must have the ‘modDate’ tag. | property=”bt:isUnavailable” content=”{true or false}” |
| memberPrice | If some of your Users should see a different price than others you can use this tag to identify this special price. | property=”bt:memberPrice” content=”{The Member Price of the Content}” |
| price | The price value of the content can be used in recommendations, to ensure Users are seeing how much something costs, in addition to other attributes. | If a ‘price’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:price” content=”{Price of the Content}” |
Tags listed in other company types are available to E-commerce sites, but may not necessarily add personalization value for all sites of this type.
Travel
In addition to the Common Tags for All Sites the below tags are recommended for companies that fall into this vertical.
| Tag Name | Purpose of the Tag | Example of the Tag |
|---|---|---|
| expDate | The date the content expires and should no longer be recommended. Should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows when to stop including this content in recommendations. | If an Expiration Date tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:expDate” content=”2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00″ |
| startDate | The date the content expires and should start to be recommended. Should be in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD) or Unix Epoch with milliseconds (14409993870000). NOTE: This date value is important for ensuring that Boomtrain knows when to start including this content in recommendations. | If an Start Date tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:expDate” content=”2015-09-03T14:10:00-07:00″ |
| vendor | If your site sells products from multiple vendors, or lists contents that are sold from other websites, this tag allows you to pull in the name of those outside vendors. | If a ‘vendor’ tag does not exist, use: property=”bt:vendor” content=”{Vendor’s Name, such as ‘Amazon.com’}” |
NOTE: Most Travel companies will also want to limit recommendations based on the user’s location. There are a number of tags that allow Boomtrain to do this, but each company quantifies their data differently. If you are a travel company, please work with your Customer Success Manager to confirm which tags you should use, based on how you segment your data.
Tags listed in other company types are available to Travel sites, but may not necessarily add personalization value for all sites of this type.