Improving search engine results for Story Maps

[MichaelSchoelen]

Similar to the question: How can I help a google search find my story map?, what is the best practice to improve the searchability of an AGOL-based story map using search engines like Google? Does detailed metadata help with this? Does submitting a site map to Google help/ is that even possible for ArcGIS Online?

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael -- Unfortunately it's currently a limitation with ArcGIS Online that you can't optimize web searches for the story map itself. If you add item information to the story map's item page (summary, description, tags, etc.), that will enhance the search results for the item page, but people will then have to open your story map as an additional step.

You could embed or link to your story map from a web page you host on your organization's web site, then improve searchability of the web page where the story map appears. There are lots of examples of linked and embedded story maps in our gallery. Just scroll down a bit and choose "Linked" or "Embedded" from the "Format" filter in the sidebar.

If you self-host the story map app on your own server we have an article on our developers' blog that describes how you can improve the searchabilty of your story map.

[saharazh]

Hello, 

I'm just wondering if there is an update on this question - has this capability been added or it remains a limitation with AGOL?  

Thanks!

[OwenGeo]

@saharazh -- Changes have been made to ArcGIS Online that have allowed stories created with the classic story map templates to be directly indexed and appear in search results. 

Also, since the release of ArcGIS StoryMaps in mid-2018, one of the things that we built into it from the beginning is good indexing. Stories created with ArcGIS StoryMaps do get indexed and the stories themselves appear in search engine results.

Here's an example where you can see several stories in the search results: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=everest+storymap

[JaredLarsen]

Hi! I have created tags, added descriptions in the "alternative text" image option, and included the key search words multiple times throughout the StoryMap, but I'm still not having luck finding my StoryMap in any search engines. Is there anything that can be done to make searchable?