Follow these suggestions to increase your search engine optimization (SEO) and see your website climb up the ranks in search engine results.
1. Publish Relevant, Authoritative Content
The most important reason for your search engine rankings is high-quality, authoritative material, and there’s no substitute for excellent content—particularly when it comes to SEO marketing. Increasing the authority and relevance of your website by creating material, particularly for your target audience will increase site traffic.
Keywords
For each authoritative content page on your website, choose a keyword phrase to focus on. Consider how your reader might search for that particular page using terms like:
- online masters in engineering management
- what is biomedical engineering?
- title IX education resources
- photographing northern lights
- how to apply for scholarships?
- when is the FAFSA deadline?
- What is the difference between engineering and engineering technology, exactly?
Multiple Keyword Phrases
It’s difficult enough for a website to rank for several keywords—unless they’re nearly identical. A single web page may rank for terms like “biomedical engineering employment” and “biomedical engineering careers.” It’s more challenging to rank for terms like “student affairs” and “dean of students,” as well as other single-page keywords.
If you want to rank for several keyword phrases on your website, you’ll need to create numerous web pages for each one.
Placing Keywords
Consider these questions while selecting a keyword phrase for a specific web page:
- Is it possible to utilize part or all of the keyword phrases in the page URL (using keywords in folders)?
- Is it possible to utilize part or all of the keyword phrases in the page title?
- Is it true that I may utilize keyword phrases in page headings and subheadings?
Yes, you can improve your search engine ranking by answering these questions in the affirmative. However, you don’t want the term “engineering” to show up three or more times in the URL, and you don’t want the phrase “Northern Lights” to appear in the page title or all heading titles.
Content
The content on a website is most important for search engine rankings, according to studies. The phrase you’re looking for should appear several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four additional places. Be authoritative. Strategically link to reputable sources as well as additional information from anywhere in your business’s vast website and even outside of it.
Don’t forget to emphasize these keyword phrases with bold, italics, heading tags (particularly an H1), and other emphasis tags—but don’t overdo it. You want your language and style to sound natural. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The finest pages are intended to be read by people, not search engines.
2. Update Your Content Regularly
You’ve undoubtedly noticed that we’re big on content. So do search engines. One of the most effective signals of a site’s relevance is well-kept content, therefore keep it updated on a regular basis. Make adjustments to your material according to a set timetable (for example, semesters) and make necessary updates.
Blogging
The addition of new, keyword-rich material to your departmental news blog might improve your search engine rankings. Blog entries may be shorter updates that focus on a single issue. When it’s feasible to provide the reader with a more vivid picture or additional information about a specific difficulty, link your CMS and blog postings together.
3. Metadata
The between the <head> tags is where you can add metadata or information about the page’s content. If you’re using a CMS site built by the UMC web team, this data will have been filled in for you. It is, however, critical that you maintain and update your metadata as your website evolves.
Title Metadata
The most crucial thing about the Title meta tag is that it influences how document titles are displayed in a browser window’s title bar and as search engine results in headings. It is by far the most important metadata on your page.
Because the CMS team generates a unique title for each webpage, you may use this meta title generator. This emphasizes the importance of employing well-thought-out page titles that include relevant keyword phrases.
Description Metadata
Metadata is the information that a browser may display in your page search results. Metadata is similar to the window display of your website—a succinct and appealing description of what’s within with the goal of enticing visitors to click through it. It’s acceptable to use a single word, but two complete sentences are best. Despite the fact that search engines may or may not utilize your meta description, it is beneficial to give them the option.
Keyword Metadata
Although it is not utilized in the calculation of search engine ranks very frequently, you should include your keyword terms when possible. You’ll want to use a wide range of keywords in your ad. On each phrase, try for 3-7 terms and 1-4 words overall.
4. Have a link-worthy site
A page that is rich in information, authoritative, unbiased, and capable of assisting visitors in learning more about what they are interested in has a good chance of being linked to by other sites, which improves your search engine optimization.
Make sure your blog or website includes links to relevant and helpful sites. Make certain that the material in your post is correct by including URLs that go back to it. Consider replacing “click here” connections with phrases instead of abbreviations. The term “Enterprise Program” has a lot of SEO value because it contains keywords, improving both your site’s and the page you’re linking to’s rankings. To make your site more SEO-friendly and relevant to people using screen readers, use connect terms rather than descriptive connections.
5. Use alt tags
Alt tags and alternative text descriptions are vital for search engines to find your page. They allow search engines to locate your page, which is crucial—especially for people who use text-only browsers or screen readers.
