SEO tips

What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization is about improving the findability of your content. Using good SEO practices can make your content easier to find internally within the UVU web site, as well as externally, in terms of page ranking in search engines. Good SEO is about the words used on a page to help a visitor get the information they're looking for. Questions to ask when considering whether a page is well optimized:

• If you were to read a webpage without clicking anywhere, what information could you glean?
• Would you be able to find answers to your search query?
• Did you land on the right page for your search query?

How can I improve my site's SEO?

When you're building pages in your site, there are some ways you can improve the page's optimization for search engines. Some methods for improving SEO are:

• Adding descriptive meta keywords
• Making sure your page has an accurate, descriptive title
• Using informative heading tags appropriately
• Making sure images have informative alt tags
• Be sure visitors don't have to scroll too far to find important content on your page
• Keep the text on your pages concise and relevant

Meta information

Meta information is used by search engines to understand the content of your page. When creating a page, be sure to enter information into the search title, search keywords and search description fields.

• Search title: the title of your page as it will appear in browser tabs and on search engine results pages.
• Meta/search keywords: keywords that visitors enter into a search engine to find your content.
• Meta/search description: a description that appears below the search title on search engine result pages.
  • The search description can help a potential visitor quickly scan search results and determine if the page has they content they're looking for.
  • It should be a sentence or two -- think of it as an invitation to visitors to go to the page.
  • Length should be between 120-158 characters.
  • It's written for humans, not crawl bots, so it should be written in an active voice, to appeal to visitors.
  • Don't overstuff keywords into the meta description.
  • Be unique - don't copy and paste the same meta description for multiple pages.

Editing meta information

Upon page creation you will see fields for search title, search keywords, and search description. Filling out these fields will improve your page's SEO.

This information can also be entered or edited after page creation in the page parameters:

Heading tags

The text found within your page's heading tags (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) should be informative and related to the content in the sections they pertain to. Only use heading tags as headings, not as a means of formatting text simply to draw attention to it.

H1 tags

The H1, or Heading 1 tag should be reserved for the title of the page. When you build a new page in Omni CMS, the title you enter for the page will automatically become an H1 tag. The H1 tag helps crawl bots understand what the page is about, and they help create hierarchy in the page. They are also important in creating accessible pages.

Ordering headings

Heading tags in pages should be nested correctly and should not skip around. Heading 2's are subheadings of Heading 1's, Heading 3's should be subheadings of Heading 2's and so on.

Content

Content on pages should be concise, clear, and informative. Try to avoid acronyms, and use terms that would be most useful to visitors who are searching for the content on your pages. Pages should be scannable, and use clear, simple language and terminology.

SEO and responsive testing tools

• Meta tag description checker
• Mobile-friendly test