Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Guidance

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Guidance January 2013 1

Table of Contents [ 00 ] Introduction 04 [ 00a ] About This Document [ 01 ] Code 05 [ 02 ] Page Content 06 [ 02a ] Titles [ 02b ] Meta Descriptions [ 02c ] Header Tags [ 02d ] Tagging [ 02e ] Body Copy [ 03 ] Assets 10 [ 03a ] What are assets? [ 03b ] Why are they important? [ 04 ] Site Architecture 11 [ 03a ] What is it? [ 03b ] Why is it important? [ 05 ] Site Performance 12 [ 05a ] What is it? [ 06 ] Indexability 13 [ 06a ] What is it? [ 06b ] Why is it important? [ 06c ] Dynamic URLs [ 07 ] Robots.Txt 15 [ 07a ] What is it? [ 07b ] Why is it important? [ 08 ] HTTP Response Codes 16 [ 07a ] What are they? [ 07b ] Why are they important? [ 08c ] HTTP Response Codes Examples 2

[ 09 ] Sitemaps: XML & HTML 18 [ 09a ] HTML Sitemap [ 09b ] XML Sitemap [ 10 ] Breadcrumbs & Internal Navigation 20 [ 10a ] What are Breadcrumbs? [ 10b ] Why are Breadcrumbs Important? [ 10c ] What is Internal Navigation? [ 10d ] Why is Internal Navigation Important? [ 11 ] Internal Linking 22 [ 11a ] What is it? [ 11b ] Why is it important? [ 12 ] URL & File Naming Optimisation 23 [ 12a ] What is it? [ 12b ] Why is it important? [ 13 ] Client Side Code: JavaScript 24 [ 14 ] Health Checks 25 3

[ 00 ] Introduction Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the way we make sure our content is found on the internet by anyone using a search engine. By thinking about the way our sites are coded, the language we use and the way we structure our pages and information we can increase our impact and make sure the public finds us and what they need to know. [ 00a ] About This Document This document will help highlight opportunities for the improvement of online Healthwatch offerings and cover best practice for all aspects of SEO of websites (Please note that we cover the unique requirements for SEO of audio/video files in the accompanying audio & video guidance document). 4

[ 01 ] Code The first thing to do is ensure compliance with the W3C standard. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the definitive authority for the code used to build websites. They set the standard and provide an exhaustive code validation service to ensure that all websites have a consistent and homogenous code structure. Compliance to the universal W3C standards greatly assists in ensuring that online products are consistently and correctly displayed. It helps ensure your web pages work correctly for as many people on as many different systems as possible. This is very complex. There are multiple browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Explorer, etc.) on multiple platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) with varying operating systems (Windows XP, 7, ios Leopard, Lion, etc.) plus a diverse range of devices (desktops, mobiles, tablets, etc.). All of which is further complicated by new variations and versions of all of the above constantly being released albeit, and fortunately, to consistent W3C standards. For SEO, issues within your code can affect the process of a spider (a robotic computer program that is constantly trawling the Internet indexing content). Incorrect or ineffective code can disrupt the spider and therefore affect your search engine ranking. Keeping your code compliant should reduce the chances of this happening. (Note: The Local Healthwatch (LHW) websites will have content entered via a Content Management System (CMS) called Drupal. Adding content via the CMS will help avoid many code errors and will stop the replication of existing issues from your current websites.) Recommendations Validate code through W3C to highlight errors or issues of concern. Address any issues that are found. Committing to W3C standard compliance will help ensure your site is viewable in major browsers / systems / device combinations. Test on mobile devices, as their usage is increasing massively. The W3C provides definitive information and guides for coding standards here: http://www.w3.org/standards/ The W3C provide an online validation service for approved code for websites here: http://validator.w3.org/ 5

[ 02 ] Page Content SEO analysis reviews a number of content elements that are used to construct your web pages. These include Page Titles, Meta Descriptions, Header Tags and Body Copy. How these elements are used on your websites will significantly impact search engine placement. [ 02a ] Page Titles A title tag is the HTML code that creates the page title. It is one of the most important on-page elements for our purposes as it is generally the first thing users see on a search results page. The title tag also appears at the top of the browser when the page is open, is the Bookmark and is usually what appears on external linking websites. Figure 01 - the Title displayed in a search return page In this example, the Title is clear but wastes prime real estate by using Homepage first: ideally homepage would LAST in the Title if used at all as it has little value to the user. Recommendations Optimise carefully - think about the tone, branding, etc. Do not duplicate title tags exactly! Search engines can respond more effectively to a users query, and you can steer the user to the correct content too. Page title should be short and concise with no more than 70 characters, as anything longer will get cut off. The title should include the main keyword first, or near the front, as this is one of the strongest on-page ranking factors. Our recommended structure is: Primary Keyword Secondary Keyword - Page Name 6

[ 02b ] Meta Descriptions Although the meta description of a page does not directly affect ranking, it will impact clickthrough from search results. Meta descriptions are the little snippets of text displayed under the page title within search results. They are vital to engaging the user, by providing a succinct description of the page content. It also presents a call to action (CTA) for the user to click through to the website. Like titles, they are one of the first elements a user sees. Figure 02 - the meta description field Here the meta description is clear, concise and short they could even have more text. But it does not have a CTA (call to action) to encourage or engage the user to explore further. Note: they use The in the meta but not in the title (a content branding error); the tone is a bit terse, and Homepage is in title but not meta. Recommendations Optimise carefully - think about the tone, branding, etc. Meta Descriptions should be about 156 characters. Meta descriptions should be unique, specific to the page, incorporate keywords relevant to the page and include a call to action [ 02c ] Header Tags Header Tags are HTML code tags used to provide the structure of a website. Header tags run from a <H1>, the most important, to <H6>, the least important. They are often used for section headings on a page. They are used to indicate to the search engines which part of the text has the most prominence on any given page. Recommendations Do not overuse header tags as this will devalue the authority they provide. Ensure your headers have value to search engines, and to humans! E.g. not welcome to our site but Local Healthwatch Essex: welcome 7

[ 02d ] Tagging Tagging is a vital part of the structure of a web page that ensures both search engine and users understand what the page contains, and how it fits within the rest of the site. Meta Tags are used to tell search engines the content of a page and appear to users, either within the search engine results page, such as title or description tags, or on the page itself, in the form of header tags. Recommendations Meta tags are entered using the CMS (Content Management System). When you enter content via the CMS, ensure that you fill in the meta tags field with relevant and useful keywords. [ 02e ] Body Copy Literally how the copy of the website is written and presented. There are many simple but effective things to consider when writing your website copy. The various search engines consider keyword themes as part of their search. Each has a different mathematical equation regarding the use of keywords that is rewarded with higher search ranking placement. There is also a different level of tolerance between the different search engines as to the degree of repetition of keywords permitted before a penalty is imposed. Therefore avoid constantly repeating the same word (e.g. Local - rather use synonyms, e.g. Community ). Recommendations First 250 words - Important both for SEO (search engines give more weight to first words) and usability (internet users will read the first words and continue only if these words have caught their interest). Keywords - Place keywords in paragraphs. And you may also want to include your keywords in bulleted lists Variations - Don t use just one keyword over and over again: use many variations to avoid being penalised by search engines as a possible spammer. Bold and italic - When the word is part of a statement making a specific point, bold it or italicise it. 8

Focus on readability - The focus of the page should be readability. If the page does not make sense to human eyes, then it is no good for a search engine and it will not benefit you. You want to use keywords often, but not to the point where it sounds like you are writing for the search engine and not the user. 9

[ 03 ] Assets [ 03a ] What are assets? Assets are anything other than text on a page. Every website will have many images, as well as videos, audio, documents, downloadable tools, games, etc. all of which are considered assets. And which can help increase visibility to search engines as well as the usability and enjoyment of users. [ 03b ] Why are they important? Images may appear within search results. Google in particular presents the Search Images option very effectively. Can help to increase click through rates from search engines. Provides additional web site traffic. Increase user engagement. May increase social media sharing As search engine crawlers cannot see images, keywords need to be both: within the image ALT tag and in the image file name itself Recommendations (images) Add relevant file names to the assets when uploading them to the CMS. Optimising image ALT tags help search engines understand what the image is. Recommendations (video)* *Please note that this is covered exhaustively in the AV document Create a separate video XML sitemap. All videos should have keyword rich titles, descriptions and tags. Videos should be hosted on their own, separate page with keyword rich content. Use internal links with keyword anchor text to link to the videos. Don t use pop-ups or iframes to display videos. 10

[ 04 ] Site Architecture [ 04a ] What is it? Site architecture defines the overall structure of a website, including its vertical depth (how many levels it has) as well as its horizontal breadth. It includes the URL structure of the pages within the site and the hierarchy of the different sections from a search engine point of view. [ 04b ] Why is it important? Well-designed site architecture makes the user experience more enjoyable. The better the user experience, the more likely it is that users will stay. They will spend longer on the site and in turn are more likely to return and use the service again. A well-designed site will also make it easier for search engines to crawl the site and process the information that is there which will affect ranking for certain terms. Recommendations Do Not add pages or sections without considering the overall architecture We have provided a strong, expandable basic architecture Review any decisions to change the architecture carefully Use the included IA (Information Architecture) maps and diagrams to help you consider any changes to the site architecture 11

[ 05 ] Site Performance [ 05a ] What is it? This is how long your site takes to load, as measured by Google, and the aim is for a site to be as fast as possible. If your site takes too long to load, users will leave. Similarly, search engine crawlers have a limited amount of time that they can allocate to each site on the Internet. Consequently, sites that load quickly are crawled more thoroughly and more consistently than slower ones. Therefore, speed is a factor in the search engines algorithms. Recommendations: Reduce code. Compress images. Use video/audio sparingly. Streamline the CSS and ensure the cascade is correct. 12

[ 06 ] Indexability [ 06a ] What is it? When a search engine crawls a website the pages of content it successfully finds are called Indexed Pages. A search engine should be able to naturally crawl every page on a website. However, sites with poor architecture, a poor site map or thousands of pages may experience problems with indexing, as the search engine cannot find all the pages. [ 06b ] Why is it important? Pages that are not indexed will not appear in search engine results and mean a loss of site traffic from natural search. Pages located deep within the website architecture can be missed by search engine crawls due to poor indexation. Additionally each time the site is crawled new pages can be included and pages that were previously indexed may be missed and so dropped. In some cases this can cause website rankings and traffic levels to fluctuate. Recommendations To maintain a consistently high level of indexation and online visibility for longer search terms a website should have the following site features; Consistent tiered architecture HTML sitemap XML sitemap Links from the home page to important pages within the site Backlinks from other websites to important pages on the site [ 06c ] Dynamic URLs Dynamically generated URLs are created when a webpage displays the results of a database query. They are recognisable because the URL has a question mark and as they are the result of a specific query, the content of the page changes. An example of a dynamic URL is when a user uses the Search box by entering text (e.g. ambulance services ). A new URL is created to display the search results - something like: http://www.yoururl.com/?q=ambulance%20services&lang=2057&cc=gb. Another dynamic page example could be the page you get after you login to a site. It s a one-off. Pages like this have little or no value to anyone else and are usually only helpful once. Having them appear via a search engine search is not good usability, nor is it useful. Also, dynamic URL 13

pages could prevent search engine robots from crawling content that does have value (as robots would be wasting their limited time on your site). 14

[ 07 ] Robots.Txt [ 07a ] What is it? A Robots Text File (robots.txt) allows you to specify any areas of the site you do not want crawled and blocks any spiders you do not want to crawl your website. [ 07b ] Why is it important? A well-written and refreshed robots text file will keep Google from crawling pages you don t want to appear in the search engine results. Pages that should be de-indexed are any pages that contain personal information, dynamic pages, password protected pages and any pages which do not add value to the user s journey on the site. This is done by adding a disallow command to the robots text file that tells them to ignore a particular page, or folder. However, this can also be a site killer because a misplaced disallow tag can result in your site being de-indexed. It is best to write this carefully, then maintain the text file regularly. Recommendations Implementation of robots.txt files and then regular refreshing and maintenance of these files are highly recommended. This can be done by your hosting service provider. Only pages that add value to users should be indexed. Disallow any pages that shouldn t be indexed such as password protected sections and admin areas of a website as well as dynamically generated URLs. 15

[ 08 ] HTTP Response Codes [ 08a ] What are they? HTTP status codes are response codes given by website servers. They identify the problem when a page does not load correctly so that it can be fixed. There are over 50 different server response codes: the most important status codes are explained below. [ 08b ] Why are they important? Status codes help the owner understand and redirect any broken pages, thereby lowering the bounce rate, or, rate of lost/broken pages. [ 08c ] HTTP Response Codes Examples 200 OK: The ideal response code to receive; the page was correctly located and loaded with no issues for the server. 404 PAGE NOT FOUND: This code is given when a user tries to access a page that does not exist. This could be due to an incorrect URL or an old page that has been removed. When a user tries to access a page that cannot be found the server will produce this response code and can display a specific message to the user. 301 PERMANENTLY MOVED: When migrating to a new CMS or making a significant change to a site, it is important to consider exactly what content will be moved to the new system. For users who have bookmarked their favourite pages to return later; this can cause a problem if redirects are not in place. Recommendations Use 301 redirects rather than 302 (temporary) to ensure that link equity is passed between pages. Create or commission a customised 404 page with recommended navigational options so users do not leave the site. Optimised 404 errors pages should contain: Please note that we have provided a standard 404 page with the LHW website. Notification that the user has reached a page that does not exist A search box and a link to the homepage 16

Easy to understand navigation to help the user find their way back Figure 03 - Examples of Custom 404 pages: Example 1: Cute, Not Useful Although this is a delightful and rather charming page design, it offers no help to the user. It simply says 404 robo no find. This has no value to a user who is expecting a page on the site. Particularly confusing to an inexperienced user what do they do next? What happened? Example 2: Decorative, Useful On this 404 page, the user is: - presented the same brand as the rest of the site - told what is wrong (page ending /smashing_magazine is missing) - offered a positive message ( don t give up ) - presented a link back to homepage to start over - invited to email the site - offered a phone number (not recommended unless you have the resources for this.) - offered a link to a similar category of information (link to the catalogue) - the tone and mood is light and positive and welcoming 17

[ 09 ] Sitemaps: XML & HTML [ 09a ] HTML Sitemap This is a page containing links to the website's most important pages. Having one is considered to be good usability as users expect to find a link to a sitemap either within the footer or header of a page as a way to navigate the website. One of the most effective ways of encouraging visiting and indexing of a site by search spiders is to integrate a sitemap (or maps). They are an easy way for web masters to represent the structure of a site and inform search engines about pages on the sites that are available for crawling. Human visitors also appreciate site maps as navigation aids. Recommendations - HTML Sitemaps Ensure that your sitemap is at the root. This means that the URL would be www.yoururl.com/sitemap.html NOT www.yoururl.com/section/sitemap.html. Place a link to the sitemap on the homepage. Limit the number of links on the main sitemap to 100-150 pages. HTML sitemap with separate video and image xml sitemaps. Organise the sitemap so it s easy to navigate and users engage with the important content. Use relevant keyword-rich text in the link - this is a must! Keep all sitemaps up-to-date - check for broken links and correct URLs. Make the sitemap a static page: don t place in an image, Flash file, i-frame, etc. [ 09b ] XML Sitemap While a HTML sitemap is a list of the important pages for users, an XML sitemap is a separate version specifically for search engine spiders. An XML sitemap is in place to assist search engines in finding pages of a website that they might not find otherwise. In addition to assisting spiders discover pages of your website to index, XML sitemaps can include more information such as how often the page is likely to change, the importance of the page, when the page was last modified, and when the sitemap was last updated. Unlike a user-facing HTML sitemap, an XML sitemap can contain all of the pages within the website. For news, blogs, videos and images, a separate XML sitemap can also be placed within 18

the website for each of these separate elements. This can assist with the indexing of content and help achieve visibility for this content within Google results. In its simplest form, an XML sitemap is a 'behind the scenes' XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site). Recommendations - XML Sitemaps Within the list of site URLs it is possible to include the priority of each page and how regularly the page is updated. This helps search engine crawlers to understand the hierarchy of the site. For very large sites that are clearly split into sections, it is best to use XML sitemap indices. This involves creating one overarching general XML sitemap which makes reference to other XML sitemaps which are specific to a subdomain or subsection. Keep XML sitemaps short. (Search Engine Crawlers get bored easily.) 19

[ 10 ] Breadcrumbs & Internal Navigation [ 10a ] What are Breadcrumbs? Also known as a breadcrumb trail or breadcrumbs, breadcrumb navigation is designed to help users take a step back in their journey, and allowing them to go back to previous pages without repeated clicks of the back button. Implementing breadcrumbs ensures it is possible for both a user and a search engine crawler to move back and forth in their journey around the site. Breadcrumbs are great for SEO, allowing spiders to crawl the site both up and down the website s architecture. And they are increasingly common, especially on larger or information heavy websites as they are signposts, useful, usable and easily understood. Figure 04 - Breadcrumb trail example [ 10b ] Why are Breadcrumbs Important? Pages deep within the site architecture which receive high numbers of quality links are also able to pass Page Rank and value to closely related sections of the website. Usually this is back along the site s architecture to the most important categories. Recommendations Use Breadcrumbs to repeat the downward site architecture, just like a smaller version of the overall Sitemap. Because they need to be simple and clear, this is a great way to ensure keyword anchor text is used for the internal links with the priority pages of the website. And using good keyword text is a very good thing for SEO. 20

This emphasises the importance of ensuring your page names always incorporate keywords. [ 10c ] What is Internal Navigation? Internal navigation is the system in which internal links target deeper pages on the same domain. It is all about ensuring that your pages all link up logically and usefully, and that the deeper, lower pages are easy to get to. And don t get lost by users or the spiders. Internal Links are most useful for establishing site architecture and spreading link equity. On an individual page, search engines need to see content in order to list pages in their massive keyword-based indices. They also need to have access to a crawlable link structure - structures that let spiders browse the pathways of a website - in order to find all of the pages on a website. Hundreds of thousands of sites make the critical mistake of hiding or obstructing their main link navigation in ways that search engines cannot access, thus impacting their ability to get pages listed in the search engines' indices. [ 10d ] Why is Internal Navigation Important? To make it possible for the major search engines to find the deeper pages on websites it is important that your site has good internal navigation. If a search engine can t get at your sites pages, there s no hope for them showing up in search engine results. On an individual page, search engines need to see content in order to list pages in their massive keyword-based indices. They also need to have access to a crawlable link structure - structures that let spiders browse the pathways of a website - in order to find all of the pages on a website. Recommendations Keep your navigation as simple as possible Carefully consider whether you really need to make a new navigation path Review the included IA maps to help you visualise how the information on the pages are all intertwining 21

[ 11 ] Internal Linking [ 11a ] What is it? Interlinking is the process in which an owner of multiple sites links them up to one another. It is also the process of linking different pages of one given website to each other. Linking Local Healthwatch websites to each other or to Healthwatch England, for example, would increase the ranking for all the interlinked sites. [ 11b ] Why is it important? In the same way a website benefits from external links from other websites, it also benefits from keyword focused internal links to its other pages. The best links in SEO are keyword links nestled in good quality content, and this goes for on-site content too. It is vital to link to the important pages on your website from other relevant pages using keywords. These keyword links can be used to improve the search engine rankings of another page and to advance the customer journey through the website. Interlinking can help increase the visibility of your different domains. It can help get pages indexed more rapidly and can help pass the link equity from one domain to another. Recommendations Instead of text like more info or click here, proper keyword links (i.e. Watch Anna Bradley of Healthwatch England s message to Local Healthwatches) not only improve the Google relevancy of the pages they link to, but are more likely to be clicked on as they are relevant. Using the keyword of the page gives the user and the search engine an idea of what to expect at the other end of the link. Google has begun to punish poor quality and shallow content. So we recommend no more than 1 link per 200 words of content for the best results. And the most important links should appear first to receive the most SEO value. 22

[ 12 ] URL & File Naming Optimisation [ 12a ] What is it? Using SEO friendly naming conventions can assist in optimising each page on the site to be keyword rich, descriptive and unique, cutting down the amount of duplicated content on a website. Also, many users define relevance of a page within Search Engine results pages by the URL. [ 12b ] Why is it important? If a page subject is mentioned in the URL or file name, it will reinforce the relevancy of the page in the search engine rankings. Because Google is like an index, it is more likely to rank web pages that exactly or closely match a search query higher in the results than pages that do not. For the LHW websites, top-level URL structure is defined by CMS: this has been hard-coded to assist you. Recommendations: Keep site architecture flat Use same language throughout URL Keep sections of URL short and snappy Put main keyword at the beginning Separate words using hyphen - Don t use special characters (only a-z and 0-9) Don t use abbreviations (or other elements which are not self-explaining) Don t use underscores _ (they get hidden in the underline) Don t use capital letters, only lower case Don t stuff URL with keywords 23

[ 13 ] Client Side Code: JavaScript Although search engine crawlers have become much more intelligent over the years, it is still best to avoid JavaScript. For example, when a search engine lands on a homepage, it looks for links to follow to index the site and content to understand what the website is about. Websites that use JavaScript within their top navigation make it difficult for search engines to crawl the navigation of their site, making it difficult to index. Ideally, you want to avoid Flash and JavaScript navigation completely. 24

[ 14 ] Health Checks Offsite external links from the outside to your site (including social media) On site: Technical behind the scenes of the site, its code & structure On site: Content elements of the site viewable by users Accessibility the site from a search engine crawler point of view Offsite 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e Are links coming from a variety of link types? Number of inbound links vs. competitors? Has content been shared and distributed across social platforms? Is there a good variety of anchor text in links pointing to the site? Are social platforms optimised to bring maximum SEO benefit to the site? Onsite: Technical 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e Does the site have SEO friendly URLs? Does the site have both user and XML sitemaps? How is the site speed compared to other websites? Is there a lot of Flash, documents or other content that is not visible to search engines? What is the code to text ratio? Onsite: Content 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e Are the headers correctly implemented, and do they target appropriate keywords? Does the site have unique meta titles and descriptions on all key pages, where possible? Does the body copy include the correct ratio of keywords? Is there a blog, or any other form of regularly updated content? Are image alt attributes optimised across all images where possible? Accessibility 25

4a 4b 4c 4d 4e Are there a significant number of 404 error pages? Are redirects leveraged best for SEO purposes? Is internal linking SEO friendly? Are there any orphaned pages? How many pages have been indexed vs... submitted in the sitemap? Is the site structure coherent, logical, and easily crawlable? 26