Search Engine Optimization

 

SEO written on a computer screen

 

About 50% of traffic to GW’s websites comes from search. With good search engine optimization (SEO), your site can appear more successfully in search results so you can better reach people looking for something related to your content. SEO is not about achieving a high rank in a search; it is about providing high-quality content that meets the needs of your audiences. We can’t control where a page appears in a given search result. In fact, search results are often different for every person.

 

Creating Good SEO

Know your audience and your keywords

Use what you know from your content strategy to identify and understand the words and phrases your audience is likely to use when searching for the topic. They should be specific to the content on each page. Combine your own knowledge of your audience with data from Google Analytics, Google Trends or Google Adwords.

Keep in mind that your audience might use different words than you. For example, you might say “athletics” while prospective students search for “sports.”

Make good web pages

The quality of your content is the most important factor in your SEO. Pages that are well-written and well-structured are preferred by users and search engines.

Headings

  • Put your most important keywords in your page title and headings.
  • Create a hierarchy with your subheadings.
  • Search engines use headings to understand the structure of your page. Don’t skip heading levels: we offer levels H2 through H6 so you can prioritize content on the page. You can easily apply these headings in the WYSIWYG editor in Drupal.

Body content

  • Use the keywords you’ve identified throughout the text of your page. Instead of overwhelming your content with buzz words, focus on writing unique and valuable content, using keywords where you can.
  • Write descriptive links to tell your users where you are sending them. Links that use descriptive text, instead of “click here,” will boost a page’s search rank for those keywords.
  • Don’t use images as the only way to display important text.
  • Include quality alt text on all images that accurately describes what is displayed.

Page performance

  • Make sure your page loads quickly. Use images that are sized appropriately and minimize external references.
  • Keep your page mobile-ready. GW Drupal automatically formats a page for mobile devices so you don’t need to mess with this responsive design.

 

Use GW Drupal’s Metatags Feature 

Metadata is information seen by search engines but not in the main content of your page. If you have content supervisor or site admin roles in GW Drupal you can add metadata to pages.

In the “Description” field, summarize your page’s content in about 150 characters. This will then automatically show in search results beneath your page and when someone shares the page on social media. This information gives context and can help drive people to click on your page in search results.

 

Metatag Guide