A few weeks ago we facilitated a workshop all about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We started off talking about why SEO is important and ended with: ‘it’s kind of a big deal’.
So first off, what is SEO?
According to Moz, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.”
Basically, it’s optimizing your website so that you can get more search (ie: Google) traffic. When you type in a search query into Google, there’s a reason why you get the results that show up. It’s because those webpages have been optimized for those keywords that you typed it. But it’s more than just keywords that get them on that results page (we’ll get to that in a minute).
Why does SEO matter?
SEO matters because people are going to Google (and the like) to get to the information they need. Take a prospective student as an example. They know they want to study Mechanical Engineering, but they’re not sure where. So they type ‘mechanical engineering programs’ into Google. They click on the link that appeals to them most and next thing you know, they’re applying to that school.
OK, maybe not right away, but you see where I’m going with this.
It’s about more than perspective students though. It’s about the community in general, both internal and external to Carleton. We do a lot of great stuff here, and we post stories about this great stuff. You can extend your readership base massively if you do a few simple things to your content to get showing up in search engines.
Four Key Factors that Influence SEO
So what can you do to get your websites showing up in Google searches and bring in more traffic to your site? There are four key factors to take into account:
Backend stuff.
We’re talking loading speed, mobile friendliness, security, plugins, and having an xml sitemap. Luckily for you, Web Services takes care of all this stuff. Though if you keep your images small (ie: don’t upload the full 4000×3700 image to your website, resize it first) – large images take longer to load – that will help.
Engagement.
Google’s Page Rank algorithm has become increasingly sophisticated and it now takes into account how people are engaging with your content – particularly when they get to it from a search engine. For example, if someone clicks on your link from Google, but then bounces right back after only spending 3 seconds on the page, that’s bad for your SEO. Whereas if they clicked on the link and stayed for 3 minutes, Google likes that a lot and will rank you higher.
So how do you get people to stay? You provide value for your audience. You use keywords naturally throughout your content. You break your text up with headings, short paragraphs, and bullets. In other words: you write for the web.
Keywords.
We can’t talk about SEO and not talk about keywords. Obviously, they are super important and there’s a lot that can be said about keyword research and keyword ranking. I say, don’t overthink it.
Pick your keywords that make sense to the content you’ve written and the audience you’ve written for and make sure you have them in all the right places. I’m talking titles, your first paragraph, headings, link anchors, and alt tags. And use long tail keywords. For example, you won’t rank high if you just use ‘research’ as a keyword – the competition is just too high and it’s so broad. You’ll have better luck with ‘Carleton Research’ or ‘Canadian University Research’.
Links.
When it comes to links it’s all about connectivity and added value. Being connected to the rest of the internet is a good thing. Linking to information that your audience would be interested in adds value to your content and is also a good thing. When it comes to links there are three different kinds you need to consider: internal, inbound and outbound.
Internal links include your information architecture and internal linking. Basically how well your pages are organized on your website. Outbound links are when you link to websites outside of your site – this includes other Carleton pages – and they add value to your content. Inbound links is all about getting people to link to you. The key with inbound links is to get the quality links. A link from CNN will get you better ranking than a link from someone’s personal blog post.
Want to Learn More About SEO?
We have another SEO workshop coming up on November 15 and we’d love to see you there. In this workshop:
- we dive into your Google Analytics reports to see how much search traffic you’re bringing in,
- we talk in depth about the information above, and
- we use this information to improve the search results on key pages on your website.