News item SEO

Whenever a new news story is added to the University website, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

Headline

  • Should include keywords from the main article.
  • Should be between 1-6 words in length.
  • Should tell the reader what they are clicking through to read.
  • Should be unique and not used already on the site (this will mean adding the month so headlines such as Fond Farewell and other items that appear on a regular basis).

Main subheading

  • Should include further keywords from the main article.
  • Should be between 5-15 words in length.
  • Should give the reader a more detailed summary of the article content.
  • Not always necessary or relevant for every news article.

Opening paragraph

  • Should include some of the keywords that have been identified.

Page length

  • Ideally pages should be between 150-400 words in length.

Subheadings within the main body

  • As well as the main subheading, articles should be broken up using further subheadings if the copy is over 300 words in length. This gives the readers eye a break and picks out key elements of the article.
  • Use keywords in all subheadings.
  • Use the appropriate size of subheading from the T4 dropdown menu (Heading 2 to 6).

Pictures

  • All images should be given alternative text – this is a description of the image and should focus on users who may have a visual impairment. This is the description you apply to the image when you add it to the Media library under the heading Description (the best way to add an alternative description is to imagine you are describing what is in the image to a blind person i.e. Image of two University of Huddersfield students being presented with an award and certificate from head of department Steve Smith.
  • All images should also have keywords included when adding to the media library so any keywords that relate to the image or the article that the image will feature in. These are added and separated by commas within the Keywords box.

External links

If you are linking to an external website, you need to add the ‘No follow’ code to that link following the instructions below:

  1. Within a T4 content box, highlight the text which you wish to link.
  2. Either click the icon ‘Insert/edit link’ or right click and select the same option.
  3. Enter the URL of the site you are linking to.
  4. Make sure you include a title for the link detailing where the link will take the user.
  5. Click on the advanced tab at the top.
  6. Click on the drop down ‘Relationship page to target’.
  7. Select ‘No follow’.
  8. Click insert.

 Also ensure that you add a description of the link so that people know where they will be directed i.e. the name of the website or webpage the link will go to.

Facebook like button

  • The Facebook like button should be added to all news stories.
  • Add a reference in the Facebook like box within T4.
  • The reference should be unique (i.e. the headline of the news item).
  • Any spaces within the title must be separated by underscores.

Other factors to consider (we are looking at how to implement these are present)

Keywords

  • Need to identify 4-8 keywords for each individual news item.
  • These could include the name of prominent people, events, specific words relating to the article etc.
  • These should be different from the keywords already identified for all news items (see separate document).
  • These will be added to the article to help people to search for the information contained within the news piece.

Meta description

  • This is a short summary that appears in a search engine results page.
  • This should be a summary of the news article and should be no more than 25 words.
  • This should include keywords relating to the article.