Optimize your site for search engines

You can help users find your content by following these tips for search engine optimization (SEO).

Add a Relevant Keyword Page Title

Page titles account for about 14% of overall factors in the Google algorithm rankings. Focus on creating unique and thoughtful page titles that are precise to the content of your page. Each title should be no more than 50-60 characters, with keywords towards the beginning of the title. Avoid keyword "stuffing", and use Title Casing (e.g., SEO Best Practices) to accomplish your goals.

Most importantly, you want to write your titles for people. After all, your audience are human beings; make sure your titles reflect your site visitors in a manner that is natural sounding and based on user intent.

Write an Engaging Page Description

The page description appears in Google results under the link. It's your chance to convince the user to click the link. It's an imprtant way to make sure our users can find what they are looking for on the CCRI website, and also an important way to get your page to the top of the Google search results. Page (meta) descriptions should be in a range of about 150-160 characters in length.

Please watch the following video to learn how to update the page desriptions on your site. Also be sure to read the following tips on how to write a good description.

How to write a good desrciption

 

Primary Header Tag - H1

The ultimate goal with the H1 tag is match your primary header to the page title "loosely", which means to create a page header similar to the page title, but not exact; if possible. This will offer varied context in the meaning of the content you are authoring. There should only be one primary header (H1) per page. This should be labeled in the Properties tab of your page setup, not in the main content body, where only H2, H3, and H4 should be used. H5 and H6 headers are discouraged, as they offer little to no ranking quality in the search results.

Image Sizing

Page speed is also an important ranking factor in search engines such as Google. Although there is no set "max size" for images, you will want to avoid adding images to your webpage that are over 200KB, if possible. We realize that can be a challenge when working with hero banners for your webpages.

However, the general rule of thumb is to create image dimensions based on width and height that are as close as possible to the space size on the page that will load the image impression.

For example, you wouldn't want to create a graphic that is small for a larger space, as this will cause resolution issues when the image is rendered. Conversely, a publisher should not create a graphic that is too large for a small space, as this will cause the file to slow down webpages unnecessarily.

Create unique descriptions for each page on your site

Identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site aren't helpful when individual pages appear in search results. Wherever possible, create descriptions that accurately describe the specific page. Use site-level descriptions on the main home page or other aggregation pages, and use page-level descriptions everywhere else. If you don't have time to create a description for every single page, try to prioritize your content; at the very least, create a description for the critical URLs like your home page and popular pages.

Include relevant information about the content in the description

The meta description doesn't just have to be in sentence format; it's also a great place to include information about the page. For example, news or blog postings can list the author, date of publication, or byline information. This can give potential visitors very relevant information that might not be displayed in the snippet otherwise. Similarly, product pages might have the key bits of information—price, age, manufacturer—scattered throughout a page. A good meta description can bring all this data together.

For example, the following meta description provides detailed information about a book, and information is clearly tagged and separated:

<meta name="description" content="Written by A.N. Author, Illustrated by V. Gogh, Price: $17.99, Length: 784 pages">

Use quality descriptions

Make sure your descriptions are truly descriptive. Because meta descriptions aren't displayed in the pages the user sees, it's easy to let this content slide. But high-quality descriptions can be displayed in Google's search results, and can go a long way to improving the quality and quantity of your search traffic.

Here are some examples of how a meta description can be improved:

Write a good page description.

Bad (list of keywords):

<meta name="description" content="Sewing supplies, yarn, colored pencils, sewing machines, threads, bobbins, needles">

Better (explains what the shop sells and details like opening hours and location):

<meta name="description" content="Get everything you need to sew your next garment. Open Monday-Friday 8-5pm, located in the Fashion District.">

Bad (same description used for every news article):

<meta name="description" content="Local news in Whoville, delivered to your doorstep. Find out what happened today.">

Better (uses a snippet from the specific news article):

<meta name="description" content="Upsetting the small town of Whoville, a local elderly man steals everyone's presents the night before an important event. Stay tuned for live updates on the matter.">

Bad (doesn't summarize the page):

<meta name="description" content="Eggs are a source of joy in everyone's life. When I was a small child, I remember picking eggs from the hen house and bringing them to the kitchen. Those were the days.">

Better (summarizes the whole page):

<meta name="description" content="Learn how to cook eggs with this complete guide in 1 hour or less. We cover all the methods, including: over-easy, sunny side up, boiled, and poached.">

Bad (too short):

<meta name="description" content="Mechanical pencil">

Better (specific and detailed):

<meta name="description" content="Self-sharpening mechanical pencil that autocorrects your penmanship. Includes 2B auto-replenishing lead. Available in both Vintage Pink and Schoolbus Yellow. Order 50+ pencils, get free shipping.">

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