Sonoma State University

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO

Good SEO makes your website more appealing to both search engines and users, so that when people search for relevant terms, your website appears prominently in the results. Search engines are a primary way people find information online.

Content

  • Identify keywords - what is this page about? Use keywords in the meta description, and in the content. 
  • Use clear and concise language, short paragraphs, and subheadings to improve readability. 
  • Incorporate bullet points and numbered lists to break up text.
  • Use descriptive alt text for images to help search engines understand their content.

Title

With search results, the title is often the first thing a user sees and a good title provides search engines with a clear indication of the page content.

  • For SSU Drupal homepages, the title will be displayed in a search result as Site Name at Sonoma State University. 
  • For the other SSU drupal pages the title will be Title of the page | the Site Name at Sonoma State University.
    •  Example: Web Office | Information Technology at Sonoma State University.
  •  Suggestions for crafting good titles 
    • Character Limit - 50-60 characters to ensure the title tag displays fully in search results. Longer titles may be truncated. 
    • The title should accurately reflect the content of the page. 
    • Avoid Duplication: Each page on your website should have a unique title tag. Duplicate titles can confuse search engines and users.

Meta Tags

The Meta tags are short snippets of text embedded within the HTML code of a webpage. They provide a brief overview of what the page is about.

Meta tag: Description

  • Search engines (like Google) will often display the meta tag description beneath the page title in search results. 
  • If the page currently does not have a Meta Description, the search engine will automatically create it from pages content. 
  • How to edit your meta description: 
    1. Log into Drupal and edit the page 
    2. On the right, select the Meta Data accordion, all the meta tags will appear. 
    3. Under Basic tags, The Description will contain [node:field_page_summary]
    4.  Replace [node:field_page_summary] with your custom description.
    5.  Publish the page 
  • 150-160 characters max 
  • After Google has crawled the updated page, the new description will display on Google Search results below the title. Submit a Drupal/Website ticket, if you want the site crawled faster. 
  • Every page on your website can have a Meta tag: Description. 

URL Aliases