Document Improvements
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File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
COMM/DG/AWD/2015/732 Annex XIV (Lot 3) Performances Subject: SEO Whitepaper 07 April 2015 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 3 2 METADATA IMPROVEMENTS ............................................................................................... 4 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 TITLES......................................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 DESCRIPTION .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.4 CANONICAL URL ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.5 OTHER METADATA ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.5.1 Schema.org Mark-up ........................................................................................................ 7 2.5.2 Video Mark-up .................................................................................................................. 8 2.5.3 Language targeting ........................................................................................................... 9 2.6 URL CONSTRUCTION RULES ....................................................................................................... 9 2.7 NAVIGATION ............................................................................................................................. 11 2.7.1 Breadcrumb links ............................................................................................................ 11 2.7.2 Avoid using JavaScript or Flash ..................................................................................... 12 3 PAGE CONTENT IMPROVEMENTS .................................................................................... 14 3.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 14 3.2 ONE PAGE = ONE FUNCTIONALITY ............................................................................................. 14 3.3 AVOID DUPLICATED CONTENT .................................................................................................. 14 3.3.1 301 Redirect .................................................................................................................... 14 3.3.2 Rel="canonical" ............................................................................................................. 15 3.3.3 Noindex, follow ............................................................................................................... 15 3.3.4 Additional Methods for Avoiding Duplicate Content ..................................................... 15 3.4 HEADERS .................................................................................................................................. 16 3.5 USE OF KEYWORDS ................................................................................................................... 16 3.6 LINKS ........................................................................................................................................ 17 3.7 USE OF IMAGES ......................................................................................................................... 17 4 DOCUMENT IMPROVEMENTS ............................................................................................ 19 4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 19 4.2 OPTIMISING DOCUMENT SIZE .................................................................................................... 19 4.3 GENERATE PDFS IN TEXT FORMAT ........................................................................................... 19 4.4 LINK RATHER THAN DUPLICATE ................................................................................................ 19 4.5 FILE NAMES............................................................................................................................... 19 4.6 VERSIONING .............................................................................................................................. 20 4.7 DOCUMENT PROPERTIES............................................................................................................ 20 5 TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS ............................................................................................ 21 5.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 21 5.2 CREATING A SITE MAP ............................................................................................................... 21 5.2.1 Important fields ............................................................................................................... 22 5.2.2 XML sitemap Maintenance ............................................................................................. 23 5.2.3 HTML Sitemap ................................................................................................................ 23 DV\1044316EN.doc EN EN 5.2.4 Video sitemap ................................................................................................................. 23 5.2.5 Other sitemaps ................................................................................................................ 23 5.3 USE OF THE ROBOTS.TXT FILE ................................................................................................... 24 5.4 CONFIGURATION OF INTERNAL SERVERS ................................................................................... 24 5.5 CUSTOM 404 ERROR PAGE ........................................................................................................ 25 5.6 PAGE SPEED .............................................................................................................................. 25 5.6.1 Enable compression ........................................................................................................ 26 5.6.2 Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML ................................................................................ 26 5.6.3 Reduce redirects ............................................................................................................. 26 5.6.4 Leverage browser caching .............................................................................................. 26 5.6.5 Improve server response time ......................................................................................... 26 5.6.6 Use a content distribution network ................................................................................. 26 5.6.7 Optimise images ............................................................................................................. 26 5.7 ERRORS AND REDIRECTIONS ..................................................................................................... 27 5.8 MOBILE DEVICES ...................................................................................................................... 27 6 CONTENT STRATEGY CONSIDERATIONS ....................................................................... 28 6.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 28 6.2 DETERMINE WHAT CONTENT YOU ALREADY HAVE.................................................................... 28 6.3 PLAN YOUR CONTENT ............................................................................................................... 28 6.4 CONTENT APPROVAL PROCESS ................................................................................................. 28 6.5 ORGANISE SCHEDULED CONTENT IN AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR ................................................ 28 6.6 IDENTIFY KEY CONTENT DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS ................................................................... 29 6.7 IDENTIFY KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS TO TRACK FOR EACH OF THOSE CHANNELS .................. 29 6.8 CHECK ANALYTICS REGULARLY ............................................................................................... 29 6.9 ARCHIVE YOUR CONTENT AND CAMPAIGNS FOR EASY RETRIEVAL AND ACCESS ....................... 29 7 LINK BUILDING STRATEGY ................................................................................................ 30 7.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 30 7.2 IDENTIFY “LOW HANGING FRUIT” ............................................................................................. 30 7.3 LOST LINK EQUITY ................................................................................................................... 30 7.4 SITE MENTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 30 7.5 TARGETED CONTENT ................................................................................................................ 30 7.6 LANDMARK CONTENT ..............................................................................................................