Make Content Findable

There are several things you can do to ensure your content is optimized for search engines

Avoid duplicating page titles

Every page on your website should have a unique title. This makes the user experience of site search easier, and it makes finding the right page in Google or other search engines easier. Pages you have to look out for, when it comes to duplicate page titles are:

Contact pages

Often there will be various contact pages for programs or departments. It is important to be specific when titling these pages. For example, instead of "Contact Us", title your page "Contact the Residency Program" or "Contact Admissions"

About pages

Because there is often multiple "About" pages for various parts of an organization, make sure to indicate what exactly the page is about. "About the Global Health Program" is better than "About Us"

People pages

In the event that multiple programs have listing pages featuring people, such as faculty or residents, make sure to indicate the department or program. For example, "Fellowship Faculty" is better than "Faculty"

Add a meta or SEO description

When using the RED platform, you have the option to enter a meta description. A meta description, also known as an SEO description, is what appears under the page title in search engine results. Meta descriptions should describe clearly and concisely what a user will find if they visit the page you’re creating. If you do not enter a custom meta description, search engines like Google will extract content from the body of the page.

Add an SEO title

You may even want to add an SEO title. For example if the regular title for your page is Admissions, you may want to enter an SEO title that is more unique. For example, College of Medicine Admissions or University of Illinois College of Medicine Admissions are better optimized for search engines.

Do not treat the public-facing website like a filing cabinet

Putting everything on the website makes it more difficult to find the important and frequently needed content. If you have web pages or large PDF or word documents that audiences need infrequently, keep it on your intranet or internal server or BOX and provide it upon request.

Avoid catch-all and FAQ pages

A catch-all page is one that is essentially a list of links to internal and/or external pages. It is tempting to create catch-all pages for resources targeting a specific audience, but here are some reasons why they are not user-friendly:

  • Too much content is as bad as no content. Catch-all pages overload users with a lot of information and are difficult to navigate.

  • Catch-all pages lack context. Often, the links within a long list are presented with no information as to what they are about or who they will serve.

  • They are difficult to maintain. Over time, the info and links become out-of-date, broken, or irrelevant.

These guidelines also apply to FAQ pages. FAQ pages attempt to put any and all information related to a group of topics in one place. Breaking this info up and putting it where it makes sense contextually is a better user experience.

Avoiding catch-all and FAQ pages is beneficial to search engine optimization because your pages are not competing with each other in search results. Your important pages with in-context content will rank higher and be more findable.

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