SEO – 5 steps to search engine optimization

We have the advantage that our pages are part of Aarhus University’s site and thus have high credibility and value. However, we still need to consider how users are directed to the page. Who can we ask to link to the page?

Internal Links (Internal Link Building)

Links help Google understand which pages are related to each other and the overall structure of your site. The more links to a page, the more important it is considered. Subpages should always link up to parent pages in the structure to indicate which pages are most important in your hierarchy. Parent pages should also link to subpages to maintain a clear structure.

Additionally, there are cross-links. When you create a new page, make sure it is linked from 3-5 other pages, in addition to any parent or subpages.

Link texts should reflect the content of the page and should not be identical across all 3-5 links. Consider your keywords here. Use them in the link texts—it counts for Google.

Linking with a sentence or word that you have already optimized your site to rank well for will add extra value and increase the chance of a higher ranking for that specific word or phrase.

• Create 3-5 incoming links to your page from other pages on your site.
• Link texts should include keywords/terms.
• Link texts should not be identical.

External Link Building

It’s always a good idea to get other domains to link to your page. This is valuable for Google. If you have good partners where it makes sense content-wise, take advantage of it. Otherwise, let it be. Focus your efforts on internal link building and other good SEO practices.

Remember to also optimize your images for search engines—this will also make your site accessible to everyone, as screen readers use these texts to describe what’s on the page to visually impaired users.

File Text and Format for Images

Google also reads the titles of your images, so name them with meaningful and not too long names. Remember to use approved web formats such as JPG and PNG. PNG should only be used for images with transparency, as they are larger in file size compared to JPG. For a regular image to be placed on a webpage, save it as a JPG.

Alt Text for Images

Google does not read images; it reads the alt text of images. Therefore, always include alt text for your images.

Alt text should describe what the image communicates, but while optimizing for keywords, you should also consider including some of your page’s keywords in the alt text. You need to balance keywords with what logically makes sense for the specific image.

• Use JPG or PNG.
• File names should be short and precise.
• All images should have alt text.
• Include keywords in alt text.
• Compress Images

Images on websites should be compressed to avoid large file sizes. Large images can affect page load times and significantly impact how search engines view your site.

As a rule of thumb, your image should never be larger than 200 KB and preferably smaller. There are many tools available for compressing images, and you don't need Photoshop. You can use an online service such as Kraken.io https://kraken.io/web-interface

To check if your pages have too many large images affecting load times, use Google PageSpeed Insights, which will quickly analyze your site and highlight load time issues.
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Image Checklist

• Images should be compressed to the smallest size possible and ideally under 200 KB.
• Use online photo compression tools like Kraken.io.
• Check your site with PageSpeed Insights.

If you have scientific articles, an invitation to an event, or a guide to an IT system in PDF format that you want to be found on Google, it’s a good idea to follow these guidelines:

• Give the file a relevant name with keywords before uploading it to TYPO3. Google looks at the file name to determine which keywords the content is relevant for. For example, a guide to search engine optimization could be named “SEO-on-au-websites.pdf.”

• Fill in the title field in the document properties (Files > Properties > "Description" tab > Title). It should be no longer than 65 characters and should ideally include keywords. This is the title that Google displays in the search results.

• Link to the PDF from several different places. Google discovers that the PDF exists by following these links.