There are over 50 million Google searches carried out in Norway every day, and Google is where most people turn when they’re wondering about something (with the exception of Gen Z, who use TikTok). Being visible on Google is therefore important for anyone working with communication.
Google’s purpose in life is usability, and delivering what best answers what people are searching for. That’s why usability is also the best guiding principle for anyone working with websites.
Conclusion: Good for the user = good for Google
SEO is about how to best position yourself to be visible in search engines, and even though the overarching goal is usability, it can be broken down into four fundamental pillars:
1) Technical quality of the website
For example speed, how URLs and site structure are built, mobile-friendliness, etc. Long loading times on a website aren’t very user-friendly, and quickly cause people to give up and look elsewhere instead.
2) Relevance and credibility within the topic(s)
If a website has a lot of good content within a topic, this signals knowledge and authority in the field. That’s why it’s important to build up and cluster relevant content, so that you demonstrate you have a lot of knowledge and information about a topic.
3) Links from other websites with high credibility
Getting links from other solid websites acts like a good reference, and helps build domain authority and credibility. In the same way, links from questionable sites/sites with a poor authority score can have a negative effect.
4) Good, unique, and sought-after content
Good content is by far the most important thing, and Google is working to get better and better at recognizing content that is good and useful for users. So; write for people and think first and foremost about usability for people.
In addition to reading the content on the pages themselves, part of the assessment of whether content is good is also based on how visitors behave on the page: Do they read the whole piece? Do they watch videos? If most people click straight back out of the pages, that’s a sign the content isn’t very good. It’s also under this content aspect that keywords come into play.
How to optimize for a keyword
Google itself says that keywords are becoming less and less important, as Google gets better and better at reading context and understanding meaning than before. Still, there are a few things worth keeping in mind when optimizing for a keyword:
Don’t aim too broad:
Is it useful for all 40,000 people a month who search for Bergen to land on UiB’s pages? Probably not.
Or too narrow:
Even though the click-through rate is higher on longer search terms, it’s a poor use of resources to create content targeting search terms with 10 searches a month.
Avoid cannibalization!
Does a piece based on a keyword already exist? Optimize that one instead of creating a completely new one. If two pages overlap too much, they compete for the same spot in Google.
How to use keywords when publishing: (This doesn’t have to be followed 100% either, but can be used as a guideline)
- 1 x in the title
- 2–3 x in the article
- 1 x in the image name
- 1 x in the URL
- Links in the running text
Very simple but effective things you can do going forward
Any page can be a landing page for new visitors, so you should try to view the page and its content through the eyes of someone who has never visited uib.no before. That’s why you should also think through the following when creating new pages or editing existing ones:
- What practical information is important for the people reading this? If it’s an event, for example, make sure all practical information appears early and clearly.
- What is the visitor likely to want to read more about after visiting this page? Support this with linking and related content so they can continue reading more on the topic.
Keep old content up to date
Have an active relationship with existing content, and make sure important information is kept updated. Often an old page can be updated instead of creating a new one. Go through the text and optimize it, add new links, and swap out images.
Name image files
Google reads text better than images, so all text that can help clarify what the page is about should be used. This also includes file names for images being uploaded. Before uploading a file in the publishing tool, the file name should be changed to something relevant to the page/piece it’s being published on.
Use good internal links
Good internal links help the search engine understand what the link is about — feel free to include important keywords!
Example of internal linking:
- Click here to read more – Bad
- Here you can read more about the study programs in history – Bad
- Here you can read more about the study programs in history – A bit better
- Here you can read more about the study programs in history – Good
Summary
- Understand how the search engine works
- Put yourself in the reader’s position: What’s interesting to them? What information do they need?
- Think about keywords, but don’t get too hung up on them.
- Make practical information easy to find – don’t make the user hunt for important practical information.
- Good for the user = good for Google