Website Publishing Guidelines
How to write website content to
optimise traffic
Purpose of these guidelines
Help web publishers to…
 Understand how to easily create / structure quality content
 Understand the importance of the writing style guide
 Optimise content for target audience and maximise results
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Topics

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How to write engaging content and SEO fundamentals
Five steps…
1. Plan - Establish your department’s purpose and
objectives
2. Understand - Make it easy to digest and understand
3. Find – Make it easy to find
4. Action – Give a clear Action
5. Share - Invite them to share your content
1. PLAN
Establish your departments purpose and objectives
 Objectives
What are we trying to achieve?
 Messages
What are we trying to communicate?
 Actions required
What/ how do we want our audience to respond?
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1. PLAN
Profile your users
Understand for whom and why you are creating content
 Who are they?
 What are their needs and wants?
User lifecycle
 Understand their current circumstance
 Present only relevant and timely key messages
Multiple audiences and messages
 Prioritise the importance of your audiences
 Identify any common messages
 Prioritise messages based on audience priority
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1. PLAN
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How to profile your user...
Primary users
Example: Future Domestic U/G Students - School
leavers
Age
15 - 21
Gender
Male and Female
Internal vs. external
External
Where they live?
Regional, State, National
Language - cultural
English – Australia only
Language - style
Personal, concise and informative
Needs
Graduate with a degree, establish a career
Wants
An adventure filled experience
Undertake industry placement
Role
Purchaser
2. Easy to UNDERSTAND
"We don’t read pages. We scan them.”
-Steve Krug
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2. Easy to UNDERSTAND
Make it easy to digest
Building relevancy for users and search engines
 Get to the point upfront
 Use headings and sub headings – increase readability and scanability
 Keep sentences short – 15 to 20 words per sentence
 Language style – remember who you are talking to
 Use everyday words and positive language
 Consistency is important – tone, page structure, naming conventions
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2. Easy to UNDERSTAND
Make it easy to digest
Building relevancy for users and search engines
 Use bullet points
 Prune and to get to the point quickly, don’t add unnecessary padding
 Logical order
 Proofread and proofread again
 Spell Check Tip: Squiz will correct spelling and grammar if you have an
Australian-English dictionary installed in your browser.
UoN Writing Style Guide helps with all aspects above – pg 05 and 09
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2. Easy to UNDERSTAND
Consider the content type
 What types are most suitable – text, image, video, infographic or a mix
Support with images
 Images support the key messages of your page content
In the right format
 Don’t use bold and capitalise unnecessary copy.
Be creative
 Try to communicate content in new and exciting ways
Relevant content only
 Host content in appropriate areas
inter-department content = shared drive
cross-department content = closed login access
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2. Easy to UNDERSTAND
Don’t duplicate it, link it
 Never copy and paste content
 Duplicate content is problematic for both user/s and search engines
 Unique content is always more interesting
 Search engines may rank individual pages, but these pages support
rankings for the entire site
Interlinking benefits...
 Adding relevant internal links – helps users to the next step / action
 Increases the amount of time a user spends reading
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Step 3.
Easy to FIND
3. Easy to FIND
Optimise your results with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics...
Add unique page title
 Unique, each page should have specific focus
 Correctly reflect content within page – use keywords
 Keep short and descriptive
 Optimal length approximately 2 to 3 words e.g. ‘Give to UoN’ or
‘Research fellowships’
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3. Easy to FIND
Add unique page description
 Create a unique description for all pages – describes contents of page.
 Optimal length approximately 150-160 characters (max 160)
 You will add this into the Metadata in Squiz.
 Keywords may appear bolded in search results
 No spelling mistakes!
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3. Easy to FIND
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Page description shows up on a Google search – it may be the first
information a user sees so it needs to be accurate!
Subject = backwards URL
Description = sentence
describing page, using
keywords
3. Easy to FIND
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3. Easy to FIND
Headings
 When you create a new page a H1 will automatically generate. (also
known as a page title).
 H1 headings should be clear & engaging and relevant to the content on
the page.
 Include a primary keyword or phrase.
 All other headings you then create should begin at H2.
 Headings should always follow a logical structure. Do not use headings
to style your content.
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3. Easy to FIND
Headings
 Tip: if you're using Word to write text for your new site, use the Styles
tab (Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2) and that way when you copy this
over into Squiz, the formatting should carry over with it.
 Tip: When copying over info from Word into Squiz, use Ctrl V to paste
text, instead of right-click paste (for PCs).
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3. Easy to FIND
Keywords
 The keywords for your section of the site should be established with the
help of our Web Content Team. They should not be duplicated from
another section of the current site.
What you should include:
 Use your keyword throughout your content i.e. intro, body, conclusion.
As a rule, 2-3% of every 500 words of your content should contain your
keyword.
What you should avoid:
 Avoid keyword stuffing. This is frowned upon by Google and sites that
overuse their keywords to improve SEO can be penalised.
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Step 4.
Easy to ACTION
4. Easy to ACTION
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Include clear call to actions
 Call to actions tend to be the primary action you wish your readers to
undertake and helps users find out more.
Prominent placement
 Don’t hide them, highlight them instead.
Hyperlinks to relevant content
 Tip: do not use ‘click here' when creating a hyperlink. It should be as
clear as possible to the user where the link will take them.
For example:
For more information click here = NO
View our three year plan for research innovation in the NeW Directions
Strategic Plan - YES
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Step 5.
Easy to SHARE
5. Easy to SHARE
Inspire and motivate
 Give your readers a reason to share the content
 May improve objective targets e.g. number of attendees or applications
Offer and invite users the option to share content easily
 Give your readers a reason – in support
 In some cases, it is acceptable to invite
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Five steps – summary
1. Plan
2. Understand
3. Find
4. Action
5. Share
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Any questions?
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