Search Engine Optimization

SEO Tips

Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like incremental improvements, but when combined with other optimizations, they could have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results.

The following is a list of tips for Editors to follow as a guideline when adding content to the site:

Tip	Description
Use Semantic HTML Elements	*Use headings properly: H1, H2, H3 … *Avoid using more than one H1 in each page. Each page already is set to have the page title as H1 therefore, in the rich text you should use H2 and below. *Avoid not specifying a hierarchy in headings in your page. In the rich text it is best to have subtitles within your text and use headings to do this.
Proper and Unique Page Title Patterns	Every single page has a different title *Keep it short, direct, and concise *Keep it relevant *Avoid overly long title (more than 65 characters) *Avoid stuffing keywords in titles *Avoid choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page *Avoid using a single title across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages
Metadata, Meta Tags	Meta tags describe the pages’ content to search engines *Avoid duplicating description across all or some pages *Avoid overly long meta descriptions *Avoid irrelevant meta descriptions
Image ALT Attributes are Required	Alt text (alternative text), also known as "alt attributes" or “alt descriptions”. *Describes the appearance and function of an image on a page *Important for “Accessibility” - screen readers - and “Image SEO” *Avoid missing alt text *Avoid stuffing alt text with keywords
Use Human-Friendly URLs	A URL that is human-friendly, is search engine friendly *Avoid URLs with a lot of query strings http://www.mysite.com/SubPage.aspx?PageId=303&MenuId=83 *Avoid stuffing keywords in URLs *Avoid spaces and special characters in URLs
Make Your Site Secure - HTTPS	*Google announced on August 06, 2014 that HTTPS is ranking signal *Increases visitor confidence *Improves security This will be technically done on the server directly.
Prevent URLs Pitfalls	Each unique page should be accessed from a single URL only *Use redirects to maintain a single domain (with or without www) *Use redirects to maintain a single page URL *Do not create duplicate content