Web
Digital Writing
Website copy communicates the heart of the University and provides the information our audience needs to achieve their goals. It attracts and empowers Clemson Tigers.
Web Copy Elements
Meta Title and Descriptions
Each webpage needs a unique meta title and description. These copy elements tell people who are searching online what the page contains, and they increase organic traffic to our site.
How to Write a Meta Title
The meta title is a ranking factor.
- It should be 60 characters or fewer.
- Format with the page name first, business unit or department second, and brand name after the pipe symbol if space allows.
Page Name - Business Unit | Brand Name (if under 60 characters)
How to Write a Meta Description
The meta description is not a ranking factor, but it does impact click-through rate to the page, increasing organic traffic to clemson.edu.
- It should be 150 characters or fewer.
- Describe the content and value of the web page.
- End with a call to action to visit the page.
Page Copy
Organize Web Page Content With Headings and Subheads
Website visitors come to clemson.edu with a purpose. It's our job to provide the information and resources they need to complete their desired action as easily as possible, and we do this by making information, steps and processes clear through copy formatting.
Use headings to make page content skimmable
Rather than writing in paragraph style, break your content up into topical sections. Write processes out with numbered steps. Use bulleted lists when appropriate. Write succinctly.
Organize headings hierarchically
Put the most important information at the top of your page and supporting content underneath.
Hyperlinks
Incorporate hyperlinks and calls to action on your page in accordance with the actions users will need to take to accomplish their goals.
Linked text on your webpage (buttons, hyperlinks, etc.) should be created accessibly. View link text accessibility guidelines for further instruction.
Image Alt Text
Image alt text is a crucial component of webpage copy. This text ensures that the page content can be consumed in its entirety by all of our website visitors and allows search engines to understand the full content on the page. Image alt text allows our content to rank for searches on both Google Images and Google Search, increasing our content’s reach and our organic site traffic.
On-Page SEO Checklist
SEO stands for search engine optimization and refers (in the case of digital writing) to the practice of writing and formatting copy in such a way that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing can easily understand the content on your webpage and provide it as a search result when people look for the information you provide.
Steps to Write Search Optimized Web Content
- Conduct keyword research to inform your writing.
- Use your primary keyword in your meta title, H1 and subheadings as appropriate.
- Incorporate related keywords in webpage copy.
- Use one H1 and subheadings from H2-H6 to organize your page content.
- Create valuable, unique web content using your expertise and experience.
- Do not duplicate content that exists in other sections of clemson.edu.
- If content that already exists supports your message, link to that content from your webpage rather than duplicating it.
- Write alt text for all the images on your page.
- Incorporate links to related content on your page.
- This helps search engines understand related content on clemson.edu and provides users logical next steps within our domain.
- Routinely check your webpage to ensure content is updated and links are not broken.
- Fix broken links regularly.
- Do not add events with specific dates directly to a page. Rather, load them into the University Calendar and pull them onto the page to protect your pages from outdated content.
- Write a unique meta title and description for each of your webpages.