Importance
SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization,” makes your website stand out on a search engine results page and can improve your organic traffic. By improving your ranking in a search engine results page, you can showcase your content and draw higher engagement from webpage viewers.
- Search Visibility and Organic Traffic
- SEO increases your website’s visibility on search engines, ensuring potential visitors can find your content when they search for relevant keywords. This boosts organic traffic, meaning users find your site naturally rather than through paid ads.
- Credibility and Trust
- Websites that rank well are often perceived as more credible. Good SEO practices can position your website as an authority in your field, driving higher engagement and better conversion rates.
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Unlike paid advertising, SEO offers long-term benefits. Investing in SEO can continue to bring traffic without ongoing costs once your site starts ranking well.
Target Audience
- Marketing
- Web Dev/IT
- This is not just for technical professionals, but any MarCom professional who updates their website(s).
Definitions
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving a website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and more.
- Keywords: The words and phrases people type into search engines.
- On-Page SEO: Optimizing content on the website itself (e.g., meta tags, headers, keyword usage).
- Off-Page SEO: Building authority through backlinks and social signals.
- Technical SEO: Optimizing the backend of your website for better performance (site speed, mobile optimization, etc.).
Information:
How Search Engines Work
- Search Engine Algorithms
- Google and other search engines use complex algorithms to rank content based on relevance, quality and user experience. Key ranking factors include Content Quality, Backlinks and Technical SEO.
- Crawling and Indexing
- Search engines use “crawlers” (robots) to discover content and “index” it for search queries. Ensuring your website is crawlable is essential for good SEO.
Example(s)
Which would you rather click on a search engine results page?
Example 1:
- Home (link)
- Learn more about the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
or
Example 2:
- Strategic Communications and Marketing | Illinois (link)
- Find out how StratCom shares the Illinois story and brand while supporting campus communicators and marketers every day.
Just by improving your Title Tag and Meta Description, your website looks more appealing and may lead to a click. This is also your chance to include a call-to-action to entice viewers to learn more.
Contact
- Rashmi Tenneti, Director of Analytics and Alignment in StratCom, rtenneti@illinois.edu
- Maggie Evenson, Analytics Specialist, evenson@illinois.edu
- StratCom Analytics, stratcomanalytics@illinois.edu