Improve Your Webpage SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of those marketing buzzwords that everyone has heard but often have difficulty defining. It is viewed as one of the “must-dos” for marketing and heralded as a fix for all of one’s marketing woes. SEO is only a piece, albeit an important one, in the greater marketing puzzle.

Adjusting your website’s SEO is a complicated process. It is based on a complex algorithm, and there is no one effortless, magical way to improve your page’s standing in the Google search results. So how can you utilize and improve SEO for your marketing efforts?

What is SEO?

SEO is the practice of improving quality and quantity of web traffic through organic (also known as non-paid) search. The end goal of SEO is for your site to be one of the top results in a Google search without you needing to pay for it.

Search engines have three primary functions to create the curated list of results that appear on your screen:

1. Crawling: using robots known as “crawlers” or “spiders,” the search engine scours the internet for new and updated content via links. They use the links in your webpage, for example, to find new webpages, tracing the pathways of hyperlinks to curate an index of sites.
2. Indexing: Crawlers return information to a database where the content is stored and organized. Once your content is indexed, it has the opportunity to be displayed in a search.
3. Ranking: Indexed content is ranked from most relevant to least when a search is performed. This is done through a variety of means, such as keywords, tagging, validity of links on a page, bounce rate, and more.

There have been multiple iterations of the algorithm used for SEO. At one point, it was all about site tagging with keywords. Before that, it was about refreshing content. Before that, it was about how many times your site was linked to other valid sites. Google changes its algorithm a few hundred times per year—no, that is not a typo. Many of these alterations are minimal, and do not cause significant changes. Some do.

The pervasive myth is that there is one golden ticket item that can drastically change your SEO. Use a bunch of keywords, and you will skyrocket to the top of the search. Auto-refresh your page and trick the system and you will find yourself in the coveted #1 search spot.

SEO is, at any given moment, determined by a combination of factors. All of those above, and many others, too. Most importantly, SEO is not just about an elusive computer program that you can trick or manipulate. SEO is about human interaction: it is about understanding how people are searching, the terms they are using, and the content they are looking for.

Let’s say you search for DIY instructions to build a built-in bookshelf. The first organic search result says it is about building a built-in bookshelf, with all the keywords from your search bolded. You click it. When you get to the webpage, you see that it is not actually about built-in bookshelves but about stand-alone bookshelves that you can then secure to the wall. You go back to the search. You click the second result. It is about built-in bookshelves, with step-by-step instructions and a video on how to do so. You read through the whole page, watch the video, and then exit Google.

Because you spent less time on Result #1 and came back to the search, this tells Google that Result #1 was not as useful to the user. Over time, and over the course of multiple users doing the same, this will result in Result #1 moving down the rankings, and even eventually off the first page.

Result #2, however, was useful. You spent time on the page, engaged with the content, and exited out of the search once done. This shows Google that Result #2 provided the user with useful information that answered their question completely. Over time, and over the course of multiple users doing the same, this will cause the website to move up in the rankings.

Search Engine Optimization is all about understanding what your audience wants and needs and answering the implicit or explicit questions asked within the search bar.

How can you improve your webpage SEO through content?

SEO is about the human being behind the search. Therefore, one of the ways to strategize around SEO and improve your site’s SEO is to think about the audience you hope to serve when creating content.

Keywords and phrases: There are the terms we use within the university: in the catalog, within policy documents, and amongst our fellow academics. Then, there are the terms and keywords our audience uses. Make sure the terms and phrases that your audience uses are incorporated naturally into your page copy. “Masters of English” or “Virginia university” or “continuing education,” for example.

Hyperlinks: If the bots are crawling via hyperlinks, then make sure your links are working. Checking for broken links is key to keeping your page bot-friendly. And it looks good to your audience as well. Further, your page’s credibility is either positively or negatively impacted by the credibility of the sites to which you link. Linking to unsecure, untrusted, or otherwise concerning sites can decrease your search ranking.

Accessible information: Think of this not just in terms of ADA compliance, but ask yourself: does this page answer the question being asked? This does not have to be a literal question entered into the search bar, but more so the mindset of the person searching. If someone types “Masters in English,” there is an implied list of common questions: what programs? Where are they? How much? Areas of study? Again, this is about understanding your audience and meeting their needs. Similarly, make sure information is accessible through clear navigation pathways that are easy to find and make sense to an external user.

Alt text: Not only is this a critical component of accessibility, it is also useful for those little bots crawling your site to be able to better identify and index.

Regular content updates: the CHSSWeb team recommends fall and spring cleaning, which is an ideal time to review and refresh your page content. Outside of those biannual refreshers, utilize the events and articles features on your site to have a consistent stream of updated content. Remember that while you may know your department has plenty of events going on, an outside audience will not see that if you do not tell them or show them on your website.

Google Search Central has an incredibly helpful guide on SEO—what it is, how it affects you, and how to improve it—a specific section on optimizing your content to improve SEO.