Customizing images in story maps and making it publicly searchable.

[SapanaLohani1]

Hi, I have two questions. First, I prepared images in ArcGIS viewer and added them in the story maps. How can I remove the collar showing table of contents and legend; and heading part showing the sign in? Second, even though my story map is public, I cannot search it in google. People whoever got the url from me can access it but it is not searchable. How do I change that?

[RupertEssinger]

Hi,

To tailor screenshots you can crop them in a paint program like Windows Paint or Paint.net. The Story Map builders don't have a crop function for images so it is best to make any modifications to images first before using them in a Story Map. 

The content in ArcGIS is crawled by Google but searches usually need to include 'ArcGIS' as a search term, and they tend to take people to the ArcGIS Online item details pages for the content, rather than directly to the map or app that the item details page represents. To improve your content searchability, be sure to include a good set of search tags, a brief summary and description in the item details page for your Story Map. However for best searchability/SEO, we recommend that if possible you add a link to your story map into a web page, or embed your story map in a web page, that your readers will be more likely to find via search. So if you work for a city and your Story Map is about parks in the city, feature that Story Map on your city's official web page about parks. So when people do searches about parks in the city they'll find that web page and also your story map. Similarly if you have you have a blog or your own website, feature your story as content in that media too.

Rupert

[SapanaLohani1]

Hi Rupert, 

Thank you for the feedback. Adding search tags will definitely help. My problem with the maps is that the maps need to be dynamic so I cannot crop those. I need to zoom in and out in the image. Is there any other suggestion for the images issues?

[RupertEssinger]

Perhaps you are trying to add an interactive web map into your story? In that case you just add them in directly in the Story Map builder you are using. No need to take images of them  For example if you are using Story Map Journal. you choose your map when add you/edit a section. See Step 4 in our Map Journal tutorial: Story Map Journal Tutorial | Story Maps 

[SapanaLohani1]

Hi Rupert,

I think I could not make my question clear. This is the url for my story map https://arcg.is/0n8u4W . In the section "Diverse Eco-regions", I do not like the way legends appear on the left side of the screen.  Also there is a small heading to that page. How can it be removed? I did not find any options to select the display.

[RupertEssinger · Accepted solution]

OK I see what you mean; you have embedded the ArcGIS Online web map viewer in your Story Map Cascade. When you do that it is displayed as-is. There is no way to turn off the components that surround the map when you embed the ArcGIS Online web map viewer. Your other options are to just add the web map directly into the Cascade via the Media Picker in the Builder (see Step 6 in the Cascade tutorial  Story Map Cascade Tutorial | Story Maps ). This will work best because your readers will just see the interactive map and not the legend/table of contents. Alternatively, you could embed a configurable app, such as an app created with the Web App Builder, where you can pick which components to include. But I think the best approach, and the most standard approach authors take, is to add the web map into your Story Map directly rather than embedded the web map viewer.

To make your story map look as good as possible on social media and search results, don't forget to add a thumbnail and a brief summary on its item page: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=d8bab8d4aeb547169cea58f61494a6bc   
You can do that directly on that page or via My Stories: My Stories | Story Maps 

For example tweets automatically show the title, thumbnail graphic and brief summary.

Rupert

[SapanaLohani1]

Thank you.

[SapanaLohani1]

Hi Rupert, 

One more issue along the same line. The url for my stroy map is not very appealing. I have seen general story maps with story map, cascade and other formal wordings within the url. How can I formalize the url for the story map?