If you work on websites, you have probably heard or SEO – it stands for Search Engine Optimization. The aim of SEO is to have your web pages show up near the top of search engine results. This makes it more likely that people will click on them and come to your web site.
There are things that can be done to the backend of your site to help with SEO. These include making it mobile friendly, having pages that load quickly, and ensuring it is structured optimally for spiders. If you have a Carleton cms or framework site, Web Services takes care of these things for you – yay!
However, there are still several things that you can do on your web pages to improve your SEO. You can write engaging, user-focused content, add new content regularly, use appropriate keywords, and link strategically.
1. Write for your visitor
Web pages that rank highly, are always focused on the user. When writing for web readers, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
- Make sure that your content is scannable (online attention span is short!)
- Use headings and subheadings.
- Break up text into short sentences and paragraphs.
- Write in active voice.
This will make your content both user and SEO friendly. Have a look at our article for more tips on writing for the web.
When you write with your audience in mind, your content will climb in search results.
2. Use keywords strategically
Keywords are important because they help people find your content. Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. What would they actually type in? And what would they ask for? (Voice search is becoming more popular – think personal assistants). Long tail keywords /key phrases are becoming the norm. They are more specific and tend to give more accurate results. If you need ideas, you can check out tools such as Ubersuggest).
Once you have determined a couple of important keywords, put them in the following places on your page:
- Page title (title has the most weight when it comes to SEO)
- Meta description (use YOAST)
- Header tags (H2, H3, etc.)
- URL
- Alt tags of images
- In your content: Mention keywords a few times. But don’t get carried away, write naturally using keywords where it makes sense.
3. Add content regularly
Post fresh and high quality content. The more you post, the more traffic you will get. Adding new content regularly keeps the search engine spiders coming back and boosts your rankings.
And you don’t have to always come up with something brand new. You can update articles from the past that have done well for you. A post can be a quick video, an infographic, a newsletter item, an event recap or a photo gallery.
4. Have a linking strategy
Internal Linking
Link pages within your site using keywords in the anchor text. Every time you add new content, be sure to link to pre-existing, relevant content in your site. Internal links help search engines understand the structure of your site. They also help users navigate keeping them on your site longer.
Inbound links
Get pages from quality sites, for example other Carleton sites, to link back to you. You can write content for other sites, partner with another site and contribute content to each other’s blog or newsletter and write useful articles that others will want to link to.
Interested in learning more about SEO?
Come to our Get Found on Google! SEO Workshop.