Best Practices for Web and SEO
SEO, Ranking, and Search Visibility
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results.
Ranking refers to the process search engines use to determine where a particular piece of content should appear on a search engine results page (SERP). Search visibility refers to how prominently a piece of the content displays in search engine results.
We can increase our SEO ranking and content visibility by implementing SEO best practices throughout the fews.net website. Our goal is to help Google and other search engines understand the resources we offer so we can attract visitors who are genuinely interested in our content, data, and analysis products.
SEO Best Practices for URLs
A well-crafted URL (web address) provides both humans and search engines an easy-to-understand indication of what the destination page will be about.
Tips for SEO:
URLs should be definitive but concise. By seeing only the URL, a visitor (and search engine) should have a good idea of what to expect on the page or within a file.
Using a meaningful filename that includes 2 to 3 relevant keywords is more useful to site visitors and provides context for what the file contains.
Example: fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-2020-10.pdf
Keyword effectiveness in URLs decreases as URL length and keyword position increases (distance from the website’s root URL).
In our case, the distance from https://fews.net/.
Please read below to learn how file naming best practices lead to well-crafted URLs.
File Naming Best Practices for Images and Documents
A short, understandable filename that provides context makes it clear what visitors will see if they click the link, which gives visitors confidence in our website. Filenames of no more than four or five words or 30 to 50 characters are ideal.
Good filenames improve website usability and SEO. Consistent filenames are easier to remember and make sense within a website's structure.
When we upload media (i.e., document or image files) to our website, we must consider that we might reference that media again within our own website or, that another website might wish to reference our media file. Following these guidelines will help us make fews.net content easier to find, share, and maintain.
Standardize File Naming
Keep filenames as short as possible. Longer filenames increase file size and are more difficult to remember and share.
Include two to three keywords for SEO.
Use all lowercase letters.
Use hyphens (-) to separate words.
Filenames should never contain spaces, special characters, or punctuation marks (e.g., ?, %, $, #, *, &, /, :, or ‘).
Remove dates or version control notations (i.e., v1, FINAL, 7-18-edits). Version control is helpful before content is published to the website but once it’s ready to post, remove dates, version numbers, or other arbitrary editing notations.
Note: It is understood fews.net often posts time-sensitive content. Still, every effort should be made to include clear, concise date structures when necessary and to exclude dates entirely from filenames whenever possible.
Do This:
fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-202010.pdf
Not This:
FEWS NET Afghanistan IPC Minority Report 2020_10.pdf
Because This:
fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-202010.pdf
Becomes This URL:
https://fews.net/sites/default/files/fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-202010.pdf
While This:
FEWS NET Afghanistan IPC Minority Report 2020_10.pdf
Becomes This URL:
https://fews.net/sites/default/files/FEWS%20NET%20Afghanistan%20IPC%20Minority%20Report%202020_10.pdf
Tips for SEO:
Including spaces in filenames causes problems. Depending on how the links to the file are used or shared, there are situations where the spaces are ignored, and people could be left following a broken link.
Mixed uppercase and lowercase letters are difficult to read and some web servers are configured to interpret uppercase and lowercase separately, which can lead to confusion and technical issues.
Hyphens as separators better enable search engines to index the individual words in a filename and they don’t get lost visually when links are underlined on websites or in emails.
SEO Best Practices for Images
Image optimization can boost our SEO efforts, site speed, accessibility, and overall user experience. Follow these best practices to prepare images files before uploading them to the website.
Relevant Images
Images and web content should support each other. Including a contextual image helps our site visitors understand the context of the content ensuring a more cohesive message is shared.
Naming Image Files
Image filenames alert Google, other search engine crawlers, and screen readers as to the subject matter of the image. When crafting an image filename,
ask yourself: “What does this image actually show?” and follow the Standardize File Naming steps listed above. When possible, keep image filenames to 5 words or fewer.
Do This:
afghanistan-seasonal-calendar-typical-year.png
Not This:
Seasonal Cal.png
Do This:
afghanistan-daily-covid-cases-feb-20-jan-21.png
Not This:
Fig 1 COVID.png
Image Size (Dimensions)
Use original image sizes (dimensions) that are close to the actual size as rendered on the webpage. Meaning, upload an image that’s close to the display size (width x height) in the content. Make sure to consider the larger dimensions for images using the expand feature as in the example to the right.
If you have a large image and you can afford to reduce it in size to match the page content and design, make that a priority, but never at the expense of the resolution and quality of the image.
File Size (KBs, MBs, GBs)
File size can have an effect on page speed. Optimizing images to decrease the file size helps with page-load times. There isn't a standard file size for images, but they should be as small as possible without affecting the image quality. As long as you keep the majority of images around 500kb, depending on the image dimensions, you won’t impact webpage load times.
ALT Text
ALT text is a text alternative to images. Well-crafted ALT text ensures search engines are able to read and understand the contents of the visual content on our website. Here are some tips for crafting effective ALT text.
Keep it short – no more than 12 words.
Write ALT text in sentence case, except for acronyms.
Capitalize acronyms, but remove ampersands. Take the brand name AT&T as an example. In ALT text, AT&T is written as AT and T.
ALT text should describe the image, not the surrounding content.
Keep the text natural and descriptive. Imagine if the image didn’t load or someone couldn’t see the image. Ask yourself: “What short line of text would accurately describe the context of the image?”
Use the Correct File Type
While there are many image formats to choose from, PNG and JPEG are the most common for the web.
PNG: Produces better quality images
JPEG: Typically, used for bigger, more visual images like a photo
For the majority of fews.net images, PNG is the best format.
Learn more about...
Customized Short Link URLs
A customized short link URL is a descriptive, memorable, and pronounceable URL used to redirect a URL (web address) from one location to another. Short link URLs can be used in a multitude of places, such as social media posts, emails, print publications, webinars, briefings, and other offline activities such as presentations.