SEO Search Engine Optimization Best Practices SEO is

SEO Search Engine Optimization Best Practices

SEO is a process for making your site more visible in search engines.

SEO Good SEO focuses on improving the user experience. • • • Write compelling and useful content Include words someone might type in search to find the type of content on your page Make it easy for users to navigate your site

SEO How to measure SEO effectiveness • • • Organic search traffic Keyword rankings Authoritative referring sites

Organic Search Traffic

SEO Organic Search Traffic In Google Analytics Acquisition>All Traffic>Channels Food. unl. edu Last 30 days report

SEO Quality Organic Traffic • Bounce rate • Pages/session • Average Session Duration • Goal conversions

SEO In Google Analytics BEHAVIOR>Site Content>Landing Pages Good Quality Traffic Poor Quality Traffic

Keyword Rankings

SEO Keyword Rankings (Average Position) In Google Analytics ACQUISITION>Search Console>Queries food. unl. edu URL appeared in the 3 rd or 4 th position, on average, for the search query “how to cook beans”

SEO 0 Food. unl. edu 1 2 3 Google’s featured snippet box displays an answer to a user’s question (zero rank)

SEO If the average position is on page one but the click through rate is low, check how the meta tag description and page title display by searching for the keyword phrase.

SEO I’m not a writer, I can only work with what you give me Google Bot

SEO If your site doesn’t rank for expected keywords, review your content and make sure it’s relevant to the keywords.

SEO Can someone tell me what content these go to? 58 BG 9%20 x. jpg read more /fcnt click here /current Google Bot

SEO That’s much better! /images/cooking-beans. jpg /food-center cooking with dry beans /current-students Google Bot black beans and rice salad

SEO Include relevant keywords in your content: • Browser title <title></title> descriptive, not vague like welcome or home • Meta Tag Description <meta description=“…> describes the page content • URLs include recognizable words separated by hyphens • Anchor text describes the content you’re linking to

SEO • Headings <h 1>-<h 6> use in proper order and for structure not styling • Image names include recognizable words separated by hyphens • Image Alt text <img alt=“…>describes the image, if the image is a link it describes the content it links to

SEO Browser title <h 1> heading Cooking with Dry Beans | UNL Food Cooking with Dry Beans Page URL Image name http: //food. unl. edu/cooking-dry-beans. jpg Anchor Text Alt text Related Recipes for Cooking Dry Beans Cooking dry beans in pot on the stove

Authoritative Referring Sites

SEO Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important. ” -- Google Support https: //support. google. com/webmasters/answer/40349? hl=en&ref_topic=3309300

SEO Authoritative Referring Sites In Google Analytics Acquisition>All Traffic>Referrals

SEO food. unl. edu Authoritative Referring Sites (. edu and. gov) snap. nal. usda. gov dhhs. ne. gov healthymeals. nal. usda. gov wicworks. nal. usda. gov extension. iastate. edu fnic. nal. usda. gov extension. psu. edu blogs. extension. iastate. edu ncfreshproducesafety. ces. ncsu. ed u depts. ttu. edu edis. ifas. ufl. edu fns. dpi. wi. gov foodsafety. wisc. edu fsrio. nal. usda. gov he. k-state. edu ksre. ksu. edu msue. anr. msu. edu nal. usda. gov nda. nebraska. gov sites. psu. edu worklife. columbia. edu wserver. scc. losrios. edu

SEO Resources Google Search Console https: //www. google. com/webmasters/tools/home? hl=en Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide https: //static. googleusercontent. com/media/www. google. com/en//webmasters/ docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide. pdf Google Webmaster Guidelines https: //support. google. com/webmasters/answer/35769