Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics

A page title (Display Name & Title in Cascade) tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. It shows up as the heading 1, in browser tabs as well as Google Search Results.   

Best Practices:

• Avoid using extremely lengthy titles
• Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page's content
• Title Case is required

The description block in Cascade is your “digital billboard,” this information can appear on Search Engine Results Pages and it should tell readers why they should visit your page.

Descriptions are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Adding descriptions to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the search result snippet.  

While accurate descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won't affect your ranking within search results 

Best Practices

• Keeping descriptions to less than 150 characters (preferably around 120 characters to show on all devices)
• Write a description that would both inform and interest users. 
• Use a different description for each page.
• Avoid using generic descriptions like "This is a web page" or "Page about baseball cards".
• Avoid filling the description with only keywords.
• Avoid copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag.
• Avoid using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages

Headings give structure to your web page and it is important to use headings in proper order., especially when it comes to accessibility. Screen readers and browsers rely on the use of organized headings to outline your webpage for visitors who are unable to see it. Which is why we stress that headings must be used in an order that helps to outline your page.

Best Practices

• Imagine you're are writing an outline
• Use heading tags where it makes sense. Too many heading tags on a page can make it hard for users to scan the content and determine where one topic ends and another begins.
• Avoid placing text in heading tags that wouldn't be helpful in defining the structure of the page.
• Avoid using heading tags where other tags like italics and bold may be more appropriate.
• Avoid erratically moving from one heading tag size to another.
• Avoid excessive use of heading tags on a page. 
• Avoid very long headings.
• Avoid using heading tags only for styling text and not presenting structure.

Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here.

The simplest strategy is to use the words, phrase and questions your audience uses. Use this language in your headlines and subheads. Use it in your links or your calls to action. Answer their questions in your content. See Tip 6: Use Keywords in Your Content for help using keywords in your content.

Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.

Best Practices:

• Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow. 
• Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users find the content they want faster. 
• Update your content regularly
• Designing your site around your visitors' needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results.
• Provide information about who publishes your site, provides the content, and its goals.
• Avoid writing sloppy text with many spelling and grammatical mistakes. 
• Avoid awkward or poorly written content.
• Avoid embedding text in images and videos for textual content: users may want to copy and paste the text and search engines can't read it.
• Avoid having duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content across your site. 

Think about how your reader might search for one of your pages:

• masters in engineering management
• What is biomedical engineering?
• Title IX resources
• northern lights
• How to apply for scholarships?
• application deadline

When optimizing content, you want to use the same words or phrases your audience uses when it tries to find you. Those words and phrases are called keywords, and it’s helpful to have a list of keywords before you begin writing or revising your content.

Remember, the most popular terms have the most competition. For example, the top 18.5% of keywords on a given topic (e.g., “online education”) can return millions of search results.

Even the middle-of-the-road terms can return thousands of results. It’s when you get into the very specific, less-used terms that you have greater success: 70% return hundreds or only dozens of results. These are called “long tail” words because they fall in the long tail of a graph of search terms.

Best Practice:

• Incorporate keywords that you expect your audience would use to search for your content.
• Use keywords in your headings, subheads and links.
• Avoid using pages that cover dissimilar topics, it is difficult for a webpage to achieve search engine rankings for a page that covers a variety of unrelated topics.

Link text is the visible text inside a link.

Best Practices: 

• Be mindful of linking to external sites. Ensure that the site is a legitimate and non-harmful site.
• Avoid writing generic anchor text like "page", "article" or "click here".
  • "Click here" has no search engine value beyond the attached URL, whereas “University of North Carolina Degree Program” is rich with keywords that will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.
• Always use descriptive links because it adds value for your readers and includes those with disabilities or who are using screen readers.
• Avoid using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases, although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address.
• Avoid using long link text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text.