Whenever we publish content on a page, especially if it contains vital info for our users, we want to make sure it gets found. One way to do this is to optimize our content so it shows up in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).
On-page SEO is the important process of optimizing the content on your webpage to be “searchable”. It includes optimizing your visible content as well as your “invisible” content, also known as your page’s metadata.
SEO plays a major role in determining which information shows up in search engine results. Statistics confirm that people rarely scroll past the top five results delivered after they type in their search query. If your page doesn’t show up in those results, you likely need better SEO to help direct people to information readily available on your CT.gov pages.
Redirects are like detours on a highway. When your original route is closed, a detour guides traffic to a new path. This ensures a smooth, safe passage.
Redirects are a tool used to automatically send users and search engines from one web page to another. If a website’s structure changes or a page is removed or relocated, it’s a good idea to add a redirect. This way, users will be re-routed to the correct page, instead of running into 404s, broken links, and other roadblocks. Using redirects effectively will improve user experience and maintain the health, SEO, and authority of your website.
If you follow the guidelines above, you will have given your content the best chance of being discovered and visited by customers who are searching for your services. This section lays out two common areas of issues that can negatively impact your SEO. Keep these in mind so you quickly identify and fix needs in your new or existing content.
If your new page content looks too similar to existing content on another one of your pages, (duplicate content) this can cause the wrong page to rank, or worse – keep your page out of the rankings altogether.
On the other hand, duplicate title tags can really confuse a user. If a user gets to a search results page and you have two pages on your site with the same title, which one should the customer click? They may skip over it, choose the wrong link, or head elsewhere.
Thin content can also hurt your rankings. Often, thin content fails to address your customer’s intent. Keep in mind that Google's main goal is to satisfy the searcher, so you can see how a page with light content could hurt rankings and traffic.
Slow load times are the best way to drive searchers away from your site. And Google knows this, which is why they put an emphasis on page speed in their ranking algorithms.
Lastly, keyword-rich headlines (H1s and ideally H2s) absolutely must be present on your page. H1s tell Google what your page is about and H2s add context. If you don’t have headers or aren't using them correctly, Google may not get a clear understanding of what your page is about. Also, proper use of page heading tags plays a big role in site accessibility, which is critical for your customers who use screen readers.
6 Quick SEO Tips from DAS BITS on Vimeo.
Make it easy for the user to find what they need by structuring content clearly.
Build inclusive websites that are accessible to people with diverse abilities.
