IMRC - Indexing Federal Government Web Pages: Guidelines for the Development of an Indexing Policy

Standards

Indexing policies should be developed and used in conjunction with:

1. TBITS 39: Treasury Board Information Management Standard, Part 1: Government On-Line Metadata Standard
   http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/its-nit/standards/tbits39/crit391_e.asp
   
   
2. TBITS 39: Treasury Board Information Management Standard, Part 2: Controlled Vocabulary Standard
   http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/its-nit/standards/tbits39/crit392_e.asp

Policy Issues

1. The larger the number of documents to be indexed, the greater will be the requirement to establish priorities among document types to be indexed.
   
   
2. In general, index as many pages as possible, but index main pages, such as welcome and home pages first.  In addition, index pages containing:
   
   
   • Programs or services in high demand (especially online services);
     
     
   • Information about entitlements, rights or obligations;
     
     
   • Information about dangers or risks to health, safety or the environment;
     
     
   • Information required for understanding major new priorities, laws, policies, programs or services.

The TBS Metadata Standard (TBITS 39.1), Section 3 provides a complete list of resource types to which metadata (including index terms) should be applied.

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/its-nit/standards/tbits39/crit391_e.asp