Module 3 – Anatomy of A Website

URL

Your page URL should be short, clear, and descriptive, and should not be cryptic in any way. Stay away from upper-case letters and underscores. Use hyphens to separate words.

Headings

Each page should have a main heading (H1) and sub-headings (H2-H6) to help search engines understand the page structure and the relative importance of the content.

Images

Images are important to your website visitors, and – if indexed and optimized– can also play an important role in getting people to your site.

Some best practices to keep in mind:

• • Reduce the size of every image as much as possible to help to speed up your site’s load time. The page should load in no more than about 3 seconds to provide the best user experience.
  • Choose a descriptive file name for each image, and add a caption to provide additional context.
  • Every image on your site should include alternative descriptive text  (also known as “alt” text). Alt text is used to describe images to visitors who are unable to see them. They are not visible on the page but can be read by assistive technologies, such as screen readers.
    • ‘Alt’ text should succinctly describe what information the image contains. 
    • Good ‘alt’ text provides a reasonably accurate description of the image. It should be as descriptive, specific, and concise as possible.    
    • Don’t include “image of“, or “picture of” in ‘alt’ text.
    • Use keywords only when it makes sense (i.e. no keyword stuffing).
    • Aim to keep ‘alt’ text shorter than 125 characters, as some screen readers cut off the text after a certain number of characters.

Valuable, Relevant Content

High-quality content is a major driver of website’s ranking in search engine results. When your content is well-optimized, relevant, and engaging, it signals to search engines that your website is a valuable resource.

Accessibility Considerations

Websites that prioritize accessibility tend to offer better user experiences, leading to increased engagement, lower bounce rates, and improved SEO performance indirectly. Learn more.