Content is the key to having a website that easy to find when using search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. As content contributors, we are always working to improve our content. If you are new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or need a refresher, continue reading and reviewing SEO resources below.
Our web audience includes prospective students, current students, former students and alumni, faculty and staff, donors, family and friends, and information seekers. All audiences are important to us overall, but some may be more important to your school, department or program.
Consider your target audiences before writing new content or editing existing content on your website by asking yourself a few questions:
Our web audience includes prospective students, current students, former students and alumni, faculty and staff, donors, family and friends, and information seekers. All audiences are important to us overall, but some may be more important to your school, department or program.
Consider your target audiences before writing new content or editing existing content on your website by asking yourself a few questions:
- What words would they use to find your website?
- What are their interests?
- How do schools/departments/programs similar to yours rank in searches? How is their content different?
Thinking of your content strategically will help you develop content that’s not only useful and easy to find, but lead visitors to apply or give to the University.
How Search Engines Work
Search engines have two important functions:
- crawl and index web pages
- rank pages in order of relevance
Guides
- MOZ's The Beginner's Guide to SEO
- Yoast's WordPress SEO: The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites
Tools
- Moz Keyword Explorer - find best keywords to use on your website
- Moz Open Site Explorer - research backlinks and find link-building opportunities
- MozBar - on-page metrics through the Chrome browser
- Yoast SEO Plugin - We have installed the Yoast SEO plugin on our website to help contributors improve their content. See Yoast's SEO Plugin Tutorial