Introduction

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, refers to strategies that help enhance your organic search results on browsers like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Years ago, SEO was a buzz word that was associated with various tactics designed to game the search engine system and increase your result standings. But, modern browsers are designed to deliver accurate results to users that cannot be easily influenced. Today SEO strategies are focused on the quality of your content, writing, and organization.

Improving Your SEO

There are many strategies that can help improve your sites SEO. But, the single best thing you can do for SEO is to follow web writing guidelines and best practices.

Web Writing for SEO

• Follow Web Writing guidelines and best practices. See Web Writing for a complete list.
  • Write clear and concise text
  • Use formatting to help readers scan
  • Keep pages highly-organized
• Write clear and effective headers. See Headers for more, including guidelines and best practices.
• Use correct header classes. See Headers for more, including guidelines and best practices.
• Avoid using header classes unnecessarily when a simple heading will suffice.
• Write clear and effective links. See Links for more, including guidelines and best practices.
• Use the language of your users. Use the words they are likely to use when searching for the information.

Additional SEO Strategies

• The XML Sitemap feature of Drupal automatically increases your site's searchability both externally and internally.
• Make sure your site is organized logically and effectively. See Organizing My Site for more, including guidelines and best practices.
• Avoid redundancy when possible. Duplicating content could dilute your search engine results.
• Alternative text is important for SEO. All images in the KU CMS are required to have alternative text.
• Make sure all your content adds value. Remove any unnecessary content that is competing with other more valuable information.