Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Identifying relevant keywords that users are searching for and including them in the content of your webpage can help the page rank for those terms. The video above describes how to use the (opens in a new window)Ahrefs free keyword generator tool to target keywords related to the topic of your page. 

You can also use the autocomplete suggestions in Google's search bar to identify related terms that people are searching for. If you scroll to the bottom of the Google search results page you will also see a list of related searches that can provide ideas for keywords to target.

When you have chosen a keyword to target try to include it in the page title, meta description, headings and body text of your page. However, it's important to avoid overusing keywords in the content of your page. This is known as keyword stuffing and search engines can penalise this practice resulting in a lower ranking. The key is to only include a keyword if the content still reads naturally.

Page titles, otherwise known as title tags, are an important SEO ranking factor. They appear in your browser tab and as the title of your page on the search engines results page. They inform both users and search engines about the expected content of the page. If your site uses the Design Library template the title will be generated automatically as follows: Section Name - Site Name. For example, the generated title for https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jobs/  is Jobs - Work at UCD. This is generally sufficient, however it is possible to have a custom page title.

There are some instances where you might want to add a custom title. For example, the generated title might exceed the recommended 60 characters, or you might want to include a keyword you are targeting.

If your site uses the Design Library template you can add a custom title in the Title Tag field under the General tab for the section you are editing in Terminalfour. This field is limited to 60 characters. Enter your custom title ensuring it is unique and descriptive, then click Save Changes.

If your site does not use the Design Library template or you need a title tag slightly longer than 60 characters you can still enter a custom title by going to More > Metadata for the section you are editing. You can then enter a custom title in the DC.title field on the second page and click Save Changes.

A meta description is the short description that appears under a page title on a search engine results page. Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, however creating your own can better describe to the user what your content is about and potentially encourage them to click through to your page. It also allows you to include a keyword you might want to target. When writing a meta description it's important to keep the character count below 160 because Google and other search engines will generally truncate longer descriptions.

If your site uses the Design Library template you can add a Meta Description under the General tab for the section you are editing in Terminalfour. This field is limited to 160 characters. Enter your description ensuring it accurately describes the topic of your page and click Save Changes. It might not be practical to do this for every page on your site if it already contains lots of pages without meta descriptions, but you could consider adding meta descriptions for your top performing pages and then adding one for any new page that you create.

If your site does not use the Design Library template or if you need a slightly longer description you can add one under More > Metadata. Enter the text in the description field on the second page and click Save Changes. Not all templates in Terminalfour use the same metadata values so you may need to check with your developer which field is used.

The H1 tag is the main heading of your page. It's generally the most prominent text at the top of the page and helps users and search engines understand what the content is about. If your site uses the Design Library template the H1 is sometimes generated by the section name in Terminalfour.

If you use a slider or banner at the top of your page you can add a custom H1. When using a slider the H1 will be taken from the first slide. Whether the H1 is generated from the section name or you add your own it's important that the page only has one H1. When adding other headings the structure should be hierarchical, so include H2s and H3s etc. You could also consider including a keyword you are targeting.

Image alt text (alternative text) is an important accessibility factor. It helps screen readers to describe images to visually impaired users. It's also the text that displays if an image fails to load. Adding alt text to your images can also have SEO benefits. It helps to surface your images in search engine results and can generate more traffic to your website. You can consider including a targeted keyword in the image alt text, but only if it helps to describe the image since the primary function of alt text is to help visually impaired users better understand your content.