Specification For HTML Meta Element with Name Value Keywords-Not
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Section 1: Introduction
This is the specification for the HTML meta element with the name attribute value set to “keywords-not”. This is version 2.0.3 of this specification.
HTML is the HyperText Markup Language, which is a commonly used, perhaps the most commonly used, non-natural language for pages hosted on the World Wide Web. HTML is generally written approximately in accordance with specifications that have been revised several times. Two of those HTML specifications are the HTML Living Standard (as updated and (One-Page Version treated here as if authoritative) (<https://html.spec.whatwg.org/>, as accessed and )) and HTML 5.1 (version of ) (<http://www.w3.org/TR/html51/single-page.html>, as accessed before and on ). The HTML Living Standard is maintained by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) and HTML 5.1 is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Each of those HTML specifications specifies numerous elements and, in section 4.2.5 of each such HTML specification, one such element is the meta element. For that element, each of those HTML specifications specifies attributes including the name attribute, specifies some names that can be values for that attribute (limited to one such value per such attribute per such element), and provides, in section 4.2.5.2 of each such HTML specification, a means by which extensional or additional names may be proposed to be values for that attribute, each such proposal to include a link to a specification for that extensional or additional name. This specification may appropriately be linked to from such a proposal.
This specification, as published on this page and which, except as otherwise stated, is normative, shall also apply, insofar as compatible, to any specification of the HTML Living Standard or of HTML 5.1 other than those referenced above and of any version preceding or succeeding HTML 5.1; except that it shall not apply to any page authored before this specification was first published (the date of such first publication being stated below).
Sec. 1.1: Definitions and Construction
The words and phrases must, must not, required, shall, shall not, should, should not, recommended, may, and optional in this specification and regardless of capitalization are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 (also known as BCP 14).
A keyword-not is a ‘would-be keyword that is the opposite of appropiate for the page and is not merely a word that would not be considered a keyword’. The balance of this paragraph is non-normative. An example of a word that would not be considered a keyword but generally would not be a keyword-not is a noise word, such as the word The beginning a book title that has to be inserted into an alphabetical list of books. For instance, a book titled The Moon would normally be alphabetized at M and not at T. Noise words are not the only words that are not keywords and are not keywords-not. Typically, most words on a typical page are neither keywords nor keywords-not. A page need not have any keywords-not; and whether a page does or does not depends on the content of the page and the intent of the creator and the page author. For example, metaphors, figures of speech, and subjects of satire or parody may superficially appear to serve as keywords but should correctly and more reliably serve as keywords-not.
In this specification, if a string, including a null string and a non-null string with no visible or displaying characters, is rendered (including being displayed) with or surrounded by single quotation marks which are curved when a font in which this specification may be displayed has single quotation marks as both straight and curved or is rendered (including being displayed) with or surrounded by double quotation marks which are curved when a font in which this specification may be displayed has double quotation marks as both straight and curved, then the quotation marks that may thus be curved are, unless otherwise stated in this specification, not part of the string. Thus, generally, the string represented by “example” is only seven characters long, not nine.
Sec. 1.2: Problem Being Solved
This specification is intended to aid search engines in classifying World Wide Web content and to aid directory compilers; and other uses are not forbidden by this specification. The balance of this paragraph is non-normative. Some search engines may support negative searches (perhaps with a Boolean NOT operator or a negative sign before a keyword). For example, a searcher may search for pages that are about aspirin but are not about headaches, but if a page says “this page discusses aspirin but does not discuss headaches” then the negative search will not produce that page since the page does mention “headaches”, even though fleetingly and so as to signify substantive exclusion from the subject’s scope. A better means for letting page authors exclude pages from search results and letting website owners reduce irrelevant visitor traffic (and consequent bandwidth expense) is needed.
Non-normatively, examples appropriate for “keywords-not” may include similes, figures of speech, metaphors, and tropes and content from satires and parodies, all in their literal senses. If a creator writes that “lifting the table taxed my back”, “tax” might be excluded when its literal meaning is not meant in the clause, so that the page would be lowered in search engine results for “tax”. Normally, it would not be necessary to analyze all writing for slight cases, but a means for lowering in search results might be useful for the most substantially misleading cases.
Non-normatively, examples also include irrelevant words that shouldn’t be deleted from your page content but that people should not use in searches for content like yours. The “headache” example above is of that kind.
Non-normatively, since a means is already available outside of this specification so a page author can list one or more keywords most appropriate for the page, one or more keywords may be deduced by anyone from a page’s content, and, by contrast, would-be keywords that are not appropriate for the page may not be readily deducible by just anyone especially if the deducing is to be attempted from many pages that are on many subjects. This specification is intended to fill the gap in methods by providing a means by which would-be keywords that are mentioned on a page but that are not appropriate, or the opposite of appropriate, for the page may be easily parsed by search engines and Web directory compilers.
Non-normatively, claims that one or more search engines do not depend on keywords, since those claims may not be accurate at all times and may not apply to all of the more popular or specialized search engines, are not dispositive of the reason for keywords-not.
Normatively, if, in the future, “keywords” is invalid as a name attribute value for the meta element, that invalidation, by itself, would not invalidate “keywords-not” as such a value.
Sec. 2: Method
There may be an HTML meta element with the name attribute value set to “keywords-not” and, if that element is present, it shall have the content attribute value set to one or more tokens including optional breaking spaces and no commas or invisible characters other than breaking spaces. If there are two or more such tokens, they shall be separated by a comma or commas and a comma may be followed by one or more consecutive spaces and such spaces shall not be part of such a token.
The specification for keywords shall apply to keywords-not except that the meta element name attribute to which the value or values are written is keywords-not and except for the choice of keywords-not (instead of keywords) relative to the page on which the meta element is present.
A user agent or search engine may truncate the value and, if it does so, shall do so at a comma.
For example (non-normatively), a page about aspirin that does not discuss the relevance of aspirin to headaches or heart conditions may have the following meta element:
<meta name="keywords-not" content="headaches, heart conditions">
The page author shall use good judgment with the meta element with the name “keywords-not” kindred to the good judgment that should be used for the meta element with the name “keywords”. For example (non-normatively), keywords-not should be relevant and should not be stuffed.
Sec. 3: Security, History, and Backwards Compatibility
This section is non-normative except as otherwise stated.
Sec. 3.1: Security
No security implication has been identified with respect to this specification.
Sec. 3.2: History
The original author and editor of this specification, except as otherwise stated, was Nick Levinson, who can be contacted through a link on this page.
A version of this specification was first published on https://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/MetaExtensions at , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3539 (with page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3539&oldid=3467); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1 and should now be so known. Version 1 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3540 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3540&oldid=3539); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.0.1 and should now be so known. Version 1.0.1 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3695 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3695&oldid=3626); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.0.2 and should now be so known. Version 1.0.2 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3700 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3700&oldid=3695); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.0.3 and should now be so known. Version 1.0.3 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3727 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3727&oldid=3705); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.0.4 and should now be so known. Version 1.0.4 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3732 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3732&oldid=3727); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1 and should now be so known. Version 1.1 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3810 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3810&oldid=3732); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.1 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.1 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=3811 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=3811&oldid=3810); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.2 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.2 was revised on , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=4088 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=4088&oldid=3824); its version was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.3 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.3 may or may not have been revised, but probably was not, in the course of being moved on the WHATWG MetaExtensions wiki page at , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=5908 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=5908&oldid=5604) into a version that was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.4 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.4 may or may not have been revised, but probably was not, in the course of being moved on the WHATWG MetaExtensions wiki page at , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=6432 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=6432&oldid=6431) into a version that was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.5 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.5 was revised at , at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&oldid=6557 (with the page differences at https://wiki.whatwg.org/index.php?title=MetaExtensions&diff=6557&oldid=6519) into a version that was undesignated but, normatively, it was implicitly version 1.1.6 and should now be so known. Version 1.1.6 was revised into version 2, which was published on this page on . Version 2 was revised into version 2.0.1, on . Version 2.0.1 was revised into version 2.0.2, on . Version 2.0.2 was revised into this version, being published on .
Discussion occurred at https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=6609.
Sec. 3.3: Backwards Compatibility
Backwards compatibility is intended.
Sec. 4: Intellectual Property For This Specification
Sec. 4.1: Copyright Status
Insofar as lawful, with respect to the CC0 1.0 Universal legal tool (herein “CC0”) (summarized at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) (both URLs as accessed ) of the Creative Commons Corporation, Nick Levinson, the original author and editor of this specification, has, upon first publication of this specification, hereby become the Affirmer under CC0 and hereby elected to apply CC0 to this specification, to publicly distribute this specification, and to make this specification available, all such electing as provided for in CC0, and hereby waived, abandoned, surrendered, granted, affirmed, offered, and disclaimed, all such waiving, abandoning, surrendering, granting, affirming, offering, and disclaiming being with respect to this specification and being as provided for in CC0.
Sec. 4.2: Trademarks, Endorsements, and Associations
“Creative Commons” is a trademark of Creative Commons Corporation; use of such trademark does not imply endorsement by or association with Creative Commons Corporation.
“CC0” is a trademark of Creative Commons Corporation; use of such trademark does not imply endorsement by or association with Creative Commons Corporation.
Sec. 4.3: Other Claims
Except as otherwise referenced, the original author and editor of this specification, Nick Levinson, is not aware of any claim by any other person or entity to intellectual property adversely affecting this specification.
Sec. 5: Section Titles Not Restrictive
Titles of sections, including subsections at all subsectional depths, are provided solely for convenience and do not restrict the meaning of the content of the respective sections. Titles of sections include headlines of sections.
