Table of contents

  1. Article titles
  2. Article summaries
  3. Referencing coronavirus in article titles

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Article titles

Article titles need to be short and clear and reflect the content on the page. The shorter the title, the more likely a user is to click on your content in a search result.

Article titles should:

  • be a concise description of the subject
  • include the geographic coverage and time period if appropriate; use the month of publication if data sources from different time periods are used
  • be no more than 65 characters including spaces; longer titles are cut off in search engine results
  • be frontloaded and have the most important information first; avoid starting your title with “An exploration of” or “Analysis of”
  • include words that users put into search engines; people are more likely to search for “employment” than “labour market”
  • not include a survey name or statistical designation (such as Experimental Statistics); these should be in the article summary or keywords
  • be written in sentence case

Analysis articles
Child sexual abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2019
Disability pay gaps in the UK: 2018
Coronavirus and travel to work: June 2020

Information articles
Population statistics research update: June 2018
Coronavirus and the effects on UK productivity measures

The Content Design team can help you write a clear and user-focused article title. Email Content.Design@ons.gov.uk for help with choosing a title or to get feedback from Content Design on your title. 

Any changes to titles or summaries should also be reflected on the calendar entry. Please email publishing@ons.gov.uk to amend an entry.

Article summaries

This is the description that follows the title at the top of the page. The summary should:

  • tell users what the article is about
  • be under 160 characters including spaces; long summaries will cut off in search engine results
  • begin with the most important information (avoid using phrases like “This article covers…”)
  • tell users if the article contains Experimental Statistics; include a sentence at the end with “Experimental Statistics”
  • not be a technical definition of the topic; you can do this in the article if needed

Analysis articles
Prevalence, long-term trends and types of domestic abuse experienced by adults based on findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime.

Earnings and employment for disabled and non-disabled people in the UK, raw disability pay gaps and factors that affect pay for disabled people.

Information articles
How the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the wider containment efforts are expected to impact on UK productivity estimates, and challenges on data collection.

Annual progress update on our transformation of population, migration and social statistics.

Any abbreviations should be written out in full in the summary and the abbreviation included in brackets. For example, CSEW should be written as Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). 

If there are any other terms that users are searching for, include these in the keywords. Both the summary and the keywords contribute to search, so you do not need to duplicate terms.

The Content Design team can help you write short, concise and frontloaded article summaries. Email Content.Design@ons.gov.uk.

Referencing coronavirus in article titles

If the release is specifically about coronavirus, please include this in the title. Use the format “Coronavirus and [topic]” where possible. 

Coronavirus and employment for parents in the UK: October to December 2019

If the release contains some information on coronavirus, but this is not the main focus of the content, include “coronavirus (COVID-19)” in the summary and meta description. For example, the Homeworking in the UK – regional patterns: 2019 to 2022 article summary is: 

Homeworking during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, focusing on changes and how they have altered the distribution of labour across the UK. The Content Design team can help you write short, concise and frontloaded article summaries. Email Content.Design@ons.gov.uk. 

We are constantly improving based on research and best practice. Any significant changes to our guidance are available on the Updates page.

Next section: What to include in your article