Website Publishing Guidelines How to write website content to optimise traffic

2 Purpose of these guidelines Help web publishers to…  Understand how to easily create / structure quality content  Understand the importance of the writing style guide  Optimise content for target audience and maximise results

3 Topics  How to write engaging content and SEO fundamentals Five steps… 1.Plan - Establish your department’s purpose and objectives 2.Understand - Make it easy to digest and understand 3.Find – Make it easy to find 4.Action – Give a clear Action 5.Share - Invite them to share your content

4 1. PLAN Establish your departments purpose and objectives  Objectives What are we trying to achieve?  Messages What are we trying to communicate?  Actions required What/ how do we want our audience to respond?

5 1. PLAN Profile your users Understand for whom and why you are creating content  Who are they?  What are their needs and wants? User lifecycle  Understand their current circumstance  Present only relevant and timely key messages Multiple audiences and messages  Prioritise the importance of your audiences  Identify any common messages  Prioritise messages based on audience priority

6 1. PLAN How to profile your user... Primary usersExample: Future Domestic U/G Students - School leavers Age GenderMale and Female Internal vs. externalExternal Where they live?Regional, State, National Language - culturalEnglish – Australia only Language - stylePersonal, concise and informative NeedsGraduate with a degree, establish a career WantsAn adventure filled experience Undertake industry placement RolePurchaser

7 2. Easy to UNDERSTAND "We don’t read pages. We scan them.” -Steve Krug

8 2. Easy to UNDERSTAND Make it easy to digest Building relevancy for users and search engines  Get to the point upfront  Use headings and sub headings – increase readability and scanability  Keep sentences short – 15 to 20 words per sentence  Language style – remember who you are talking to  Use everyday words and positive language  Consistency is important – tone, page structure, naming conventions

9 2. Easy to UNDERSTAND Make it easy to digest Building relevancy for users and search engines  Use bullet points  Prune and to get to the point quickly, don’t add unnecessary padding  Logical order  Proofread and proofread again  Spell Check Tip: Squiz will correct spelling and grammar if you have an Australian-English dictionary installed in your browser. UoN Writing Style GuideUoN Writing Style Guide helps with all aspects above – pg 05 and 09

10 2. Easy to UNDERSTAND Consider the content type  What types are most suitable – text, image, video, infographic or a mix Support with images  Images support the key messages of your page content In the right format  Don’t use bold and capitalise unnecessary copy. Be creative  Try to communicate content in new and exciting ways Relevant content only  Host content in appropriate areas inter-department content = shared drive cross-department content = closed login access

11 2. Easy to UNDERSTAND Don’t duplicate it, link it  Never copy and paste content  Duplicate content is problematic for both user/s and search engines  Unique content is always more interesting  Search engines may rank individual pages, but these pages support rankings for the entire site Interlinking benefits...  Adding relevant internal links – helps users to the next step / action  Increases the amount of time a user spends reading

12 Step 3. Easy to FIND

13 3. Easy to FIND Optimise your results with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics... Add unique page title  Unique, each page should have specific focus  Correctly reflect content within page – use keywords  Keep short and descriptive  Optimal length approximately 2 to 3 words e.g. ‘Give to UoN’ or ‘Research fellowships’

14 3. Easy to FIND Add unique page description  Create a unique description for all pages – describes contents of page.  Optimal length approximately characters (max 160)  You will add this into the Metadata in Squiz.  Keywords may appear bolded in search results  No spelling mistakes!

15 3. Easy to FIND Page description shows up on a Google search – it may be the first information a user sees so it needs to be accurate! Subject = backwards URL Description = sentence describing page, using keywords

16 3. Easy to FIND

17 3. Easy to FIND Headings  When you create a new page a H1 will automatically generate. (also known as a page title).  H1 headings should be clear & engaging and relevant to the content on the page.  Include a primary keyword or phrase.  All other headings you then create should begin at H2.  Headings should always follow a logical structure. Do not use headings to style your content.

18 3. Easy to FIND Headings  Tip: if you're using Word to write text for your new site, use the Styles tab (Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2) and that way when you copy this over into Squiz, the formatting should carry over with it.  Tip: When copying over info from Word into Squiz, use Ctrl V to paste text, instead of right-click paste (for PCs).

19 3. Easy to FIND Keywords  The keywords for your section of the site should be established with the help of our Web Content Team. They should not be duplicated from another section of the current site. What you should include:  Use your keyword throughout your content i.e. intro, body, conclusion. As a rule, 2-3% of every 500 words of your content should contain your keyword. What you should avoid:  Avoid keyword stuffing. This is frowned upon by Google and sites that overuse their keywords to improve SEO can be penalised.

20 Step 4. Easy to ACTION

21 4. Easy to ACTION Include clear call to actions  Call to actions tend to be the primary action you wish your readers to undertake and helps users find out more. Prominent placement  Don’t hide them, highlight them instead. Hyperlinks to relevant content  Tip: do not use ‘click here' when creating a hyperlink. It should be as clear as possible to the user where the link will take them. For example: For more information click here = NO View our three year plan for research innovation in the NeW Directions Strategic Plan - YESNeW Directions Strategic Plan

22 Step 5. Easy to SHARE

23 5. Easy to SHARE Inspire and motivate  Give your readers a reason to share the content  May improve objective targets e.g. number of attendees or applications Offer and invite users the option to share content easily  Give your readers a reason – in support  In some cases, it is acceptable to invite

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25 Five steps – summary 1.Plan 2.Understand 3.Find 4.Action 5.Share

26 Any questions?