SEO Writing Guide

SEO Checklist

Aim for the highest quality

Plain and simple: Google can tell good writing from bad writing. Google’s algorithm can detect sentence structure, spelling errors, comma splices, punctuation issues, and more. That’s why it’s always best to have someone with professional writing experience creating your content or an editor looking over your content. Furthermore, each web page should have focused information. For example, if Reed offers a program with three different specializations, we would want to have a page for each specialization.  

Consider your audience

We speak to a lot of different audiences across the Reed website. For example, the way we present information to prospective students, who are unfamiliar with Reed, is different from the way we speak to current students, who feel a sense of belonging at Reed, or alums, who may remember Reed from a specific decade. 

EXAMPLES:

Prospects

Informative, descriptive, use of full building names and other references, like “senior thesis” instead of just “thesis”

Once an authentic Renaissance Fair, Renn Fayre is now a themed celebration at the end of the academic year. It begins with the Thesis Parade, in which seniors march from the steps of the Eric V. Hauser Memorial Library to the registrar's office in Eliot Hall to celebrate turning in their senior theses, and includes music, softball, art, and a flurry of fireworks.

Current Students

Use of first person, shortened building names, possibly obscure references, like “maybe a beverage or two”

Soon it will be Renn Fayre! It’s time to celebrate! For those of us in and around Eliot, the celebrating has already begun. We love this time of year, when seniors begin turning in their theses and are showered with love (and maybe a beverage or two) by their friends.

Alumni

Use of first person, shortened building names, this one is written in the present tense, as if to bring alumni back in time to a moment they remember well

It’s the Saturday before Renn Fayre. Everyone crams into the SU. The movie never starts on time, but when it finally gets rolling, we stomp the battle-scarred wooden floor just a little too soon before David Byrne strums the opening flourish of “Psycho Killer.” The momentum builds as the band plays “Heaven,” and we link arms and sway back and forth. When they perform “Once in a Lifetime” we shout in unison, “My god! What have I done?” No place on earth is louder.

Our website is filled with pages that are aimed at unique audiences, and we need to speak each one’s language. Content has the power to create that “sense of belonging” that prospective students are looking for, current students expect, and alumni remember. If you’re not speaking the language of your audiences and not providing the information they’re looking for, then they’re bound to leave our website.

Have at least 500 words per page

The more content you have on a web page, the more likely you are to increase your search engine visibility. And, when you have more content on your webpages, you’re answering more questions. When current and prospective students land on our website, we want them to be able to find the information they are looking for. This is also why it’s important that our on-page content matches our meta descriptions. (When editing a page in Cascade, click the Metadata tab and look for the Description field.) That way, when someone clicks on a result for your website in either Reed’s search results or Google, the page they are taken to matches the information presented in that search engine result.

Use headings

While more content is better, you want that content to be easy to digest. Breaking up content with section headings, which range from heading 1 (H1), reserved for the page title or site banner, through heading 6 (H6) makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for. Not only that, headings are important for accessibility and search engine visibility (which is why it is also important that your headings contain keywords). For information on using headings, see Reed’s web accessibility guidelines.

Weave keywords into your content

A keyword in SEO is a word or phrase that someone types in Google to find information—for example, “liberal arts colleges.” Keywords can be broken into two types: short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are one-to three-word phrases that generally focus on a broad topic, like “liberal arts colleges.” Long-tail keywords are phrases that are four words or more. Higher education examples include “What are careers for a mathematics major?”

Keywords should be used in your headings, meta descriptions, and your on-page content. This helps from both an SEO and a user experience standpoint: current and prospective students want the content on your website to match the search query that got them there. However, be sure not to overdo it. In other words, don’t make your content sound unnatural so that you can get more keywords in. A user should be able to read a webpage and not think that it sounds strange. Use natural language, but weave your keywords in where appropriate. It’s also good to start the first and last paragraph of a webpage with your top keyword.

EXAMPLE:
The business office supports current students, parents, faculty, and staff with a range of services. The most popular search terms for their pages can be researched and then used—naturally—to (1) ensure Google knows what information can be found on this website and (2) to help users know immediately that they’re in the right place. Because people search for “tuition,” “phone number,” “payroll,” and “IRIS,” these words should be included, as appropriate, in headings, navigation labels, and body copy.

Use meta descriptions, internal links, and link text

Meta descriptions

Internal links

Internal links are a key component of on-page content. They give you the opportunity to promote other pages on your site and they also create a positive user experience by making it easy for visitors to learn more about a certain topic. That said, you don’t want to overdo it. We recommend using about two to three links per page. Select the copy you want to link, click the link icon, and under "Link Type" select "Internal." Browse to find the page you want to link to, and then select "choose."

Link text

It’s important to think about what link text you use, as well, because Google and other search engines take this into account. Each link’s anchor text should contain a keyword. For example, a link with the anchor text of “graduate assistantships and financial aid” is more valuable than “click here.” This is also important for accessibility. See Reed’s web accessibility guidelines.

End with a call-to-action

When a user is done reading a web page or even a section, you want to make it easy for them to take the next step. That’s why you should always include a call-to-action at the end of any page’s content.

Our web template allows you to craft a button as a call-to-action. See Reed’s custom formats guidelines or click the button below for more.

Learn How to Add Buttons

Even if you have a button, it’s still a good idea to provide a linked call-to-action in your closing paragraph. You might even have multiple calls-to-action to speak to users in different phases of the funnel. 

EXAMPLE:
You could have a closing paragraph that says, “To learn more about our program, request more information” and direct them through the link to more content. Below a paragraph that describes your event, you could include a button that says “Register now!

Tools and Plugins

• Google Search Console - contact wss@reed.edu to inquire about access
• Google Analytics - contact wss@reed.edu to inquire about access
• Keywords Everywhere
• Answer the Public
• SEOQuake Plugin
• SERP Preview Tool