SEARCH ENGINEOPTIMIZATION (SEO)

What is SEO?

Making your site’s content easy to find through external search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing

Why is SEO Important?

40% of visitors to uwyo.edu get to the site by finding it through a search engine.

Today’s Topics

• Page Titles• Page Descriptions• Page Content• Hyperlinks• Repairing Broken Links• Inbound Links• Images

Page Titles

The clickable text that shows up in a search results page.

One of the most important parts of optimizing a web page. Each page on your site needs a unique title.

How to Write a Page Title1.Start with your target keyword – what people would

search for2.End with department name, “University of Wyoming”3.Target a max of 70 characters

Example:You have a page about “Business Degree Programs”

Title:“Business Degree Programs | College of Business |

University of Wyoming”

Page DescriptionsShould briefly describe the contents of the page and give someone a reason to click on the result.

Each page on your site needs a unique description.

How to Write a Page Description1.Include your target keyword – what people would search

for2.Provide additional context3.Target a max of 150 characters4.Use call to action language when appropriate

Example:You have a page about “Business Degree Programs”

Description:“The University of Wyoming College of Business offers 14

fully accredited graduate and undergraduate business degree programs. Learn more today!”

Page Content

After someone has clicked on your search result, they expect to see page content that is consistent.

After I search on “School of Nursing”, I should see that phrase again on the page itself, ideally in the H1 heading and the main content.

Page Content

Use only one Heading 1 style per page.

Include the keyword(s) in the first 100 words of text on the page and target between 250 – 500 total words.

Page Content

Keep your primary pages updated with new information.• News• Events• Profiles

Hyperlinks

The “anchor text” or text that appears within a hyperlink should use keyword phrases when possible.

Good places to do this include your sidebar navigation and cross-links within page content. Title your homepage “Dept Name Home”

Hyperlinks

Check your broken links regularly. If a page can’t be found, it can’t get indexed. UW’s CMS broken link checker is available at http://webdev.uwyo.edu/web_statistics

Inbound Links

An inbound link is a link from another website to yours. Search engines consider inbound links like “votes” for your site. The more links you have from quality sites, the more authority your page has in the eyes of the engines. While an inbound link is good, one that uses keywords in the anchor text is ideal.

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How to Get Inbound Links

There are a variety of ways to get inbound links:

• Inquire of any academic or industry associations (research groups, conferences where your faculty are presenting, accreditation agencies, etc.).

• Government workforce sites.• Make sure any press releases have hyperlinks included in the

body text. Use target keywords in the release headlines.• Faculty personal sites or blogs.• Make sure any job postings link to your department.• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).

Alternate Text For Images

The “alt text” field allows you to provide a text description of an image so that someone who cannot view the image can understand what it is. Search engines are the same way, so include keywords in your alternate text descriptions.

Properly Size Your Images

When images are larger than they need to be, a webpage takes longer to load. Longer load times cause visitors to leave a page and have a negative impact on search ranking. Ensure that images are set at actual pixel size and no more than 72 dpi. [DEMO http://webdev.uwyo.edu/cmst1test/image-size.html]

SEO Checklist

Unique titles (Display Name) for each page in your site Unique descriptions for each page in your site One Heading 1 that includes keyword phrase on each page Body text that includes keyword phrase in first 100 words Use of keywords in anchor text for hyperlinks Fix broken links Inquires with associations and groups for inbound links Schedule for keeping top-level pages updated with

information Alternate text, including keywords, in place for images Properly sized images

Additional Resources

Weekly analytics reports that show number of visitors, where they come from, top keywords, and which pages they view delivered to site managers within next two weeks.

Bi-weekly Open Work Sessions in ITC 171. Sign up at http://www.uwyo.edu/infotech/services/training/schedule.asp.

Individual site review and keyword research. Contact webhelp@uwyo.edu to schedule.

This presentation will be shared with everyone who attended.