Search Engine Optimization

The page title (or H1) appears on your page, while the SEO title appears on Google’s results page. Most of the time these titles are the identical or similar, but if they do differ in some way, follow the same SEO best practices for each. Keep these titles under 60 characters, include your primary keyword, and align it with what people are searching for. Avoid generic titles or titles that don’t tell the user about what’s on the page, such as “home page.”

• If your primary keyword is “Nursing DNP Program,” your page title should be the same.  
• If you use “Nursing DNP Program” in your SEO title,  it will look like this: Nursing DNP Program | Loma Linda University 

A meta description is a short summary of your page content that can show up in search results under the page title. But for a meta description to help your page, it needs to follow best practices. All of your text needs to fit on the search results page, so write the most compelling summary you can in about 150 characters. Include the primary keyword and highlight what users will gain, such as how the page content can benefit or help users.

Meta Description Example

Write web-friendly meta descriptions with our quick guide.

Page headings create a clear content hierarchy that helps users and search engines understand how your content is organized. To best support readability and ensure you’re telling Google or other search engines how your page is constructed, break up content with clear H2s, H3s, etc. to help the user easily scan your page. 

Choosing Keywords

Keywords are the core terms or phrases that capture the main topic of a page or piece of content. Identify keywords can help users search our websites to easily find what they need, including our services, providers, staff, and more. Keywords can also help your page rank in organic search as well (Google, Bing, etc.). When identifying your keywords, be sure to:

• Limit the total number of keywords you want to target. Including too many keywords or repeating the same keywords multiple times can make your page sound spammy (which hurts search rank).
• Use your keywords naturally in the page’s title, URL, meta description, headings, and content. 
• Use a research tool like Google Trends or SEMRush to find the keywords people are using. Submit a ticket to DX for help. 

Adding Keywords to Content

Include target keywords naturally in:

• The first paragraph
• At least one subheading (H2, H3, etc.)
• Alt text for images
• The page title and meta description

For example, if your search term is “Doctor of Physical Therapy program,” naturally mention it in the first paragraph and again in the H2, “Why Choose Our Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.” Since this search term is a key point of your page’s narrative, it makes sense to give it its own heading — both to highlight for readability and to tell Google it’s an important topic on your page. 

Link to other relevant pages using descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text. For example, “explore all our graduate health programs for more options” is more helpful than “click here for more programs” and includes the key term "graduate health programs." When linking to external sources, choose high-authority, trustworthy websites. For example, .gov sites or national organizations. Writing links like this does three things: 

• Tells the user exactly where they’re going when they click
• Contributes to creating keyword-rich content
• Signals other highly relevant pages for the search term

Alt tags are short descriptions of images that display if an image fails to load. They help screen readers convey image content to visually impaired users and give search engines context about the image, enhancing accessibility and search engine visibility. It’s also important to write short descriptive file names to help web admins find images when searching the backend of our content management systems.  

Here’s an example of an optimized image tag file name and alt text  

• File name: llu-nursing-students-lab.jpg
• Alt text: “LLU nursing students working in lab” 

Compress images for faster load times using tools like TinyPNG. 

After publishing or updating a page, the URL needs to be submitted to Google Search Console to prompt faster indexing. This helps Google recognize changes faster and improves search visibility, especially for high-priority content like program pages, admissions updates, or event info. 

To submit to Google Search Console, submit a ticket to Digital Experience.

What to Include in Your Ticket

• Subject: Request to Index New/Updated Page in Google Search Console
• Page URL: [Insert URL]
• Update type: Please indicate if this is a new page, a major update, etc.