Search Engine Optimization

How to Make Your Website Easy to Find and Easy to Use

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t just about getting to the top of Google. It’s about making your website useful, easy to navigate, and understandable—for both people and search engines. Using tools like Silktide, we regularly check our site to make sure we’re following SEO best practices that help students, faculty, and the community find what they need faster.

Here are some of the most important things we do—and that anyone can apply to their own content.

1. Use Clear Page Titles

Think of the page title like the label on a file folder. It’s the first thing someone sees in search results, and it helps Google know what the page is about.

Good example:
Admissions | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Not so good:
Welcome to our site!

Why it matters: Clear titles improve your visibility in search results and tell users exactly what to expect.

2. Write Descriptive Meta Descriptions

This is a required element. A meta description is a short summary that appears under your page title in search results. It doesn’t directly affect rankings, but it helps people decide to click.

Tip: Keep it under 160 characters, and summarize what’s on the page.

Silktide helps by flagging missing or duplicate descriptions so our content editors can fix them quickly.

3. Use Headings the Right Way

Headings (like the ones in this article) break up your content and help readers scan the page. They also help screen readers and search engines understand the structure.

• Use one H1 heading for the page title. (This is automatically done within our web system for you.)
• Use H2s for main sections, and H3s for sub-sections.

Avoid using bold text to fake a heading—use proper tags instead. Silktide checks this automatically.

4. Make Links Descriptive

Instead of linking text like “click here”, “read more” or “learn more”, use something meaningful like “Download the course catalog (PDF).”

Why it matters:
Descriptive links are better for accessibility and make your content clearer for everyone.

5. Keep Content Fresh and Focused

Google likes up-to-date information. So do your users.

• Review pages regularly and remove outdated info.
• Focus on a single topic per page and use keywords naturally—don’t cram them in.

Silktide scans help spot pages that haven’t been updated in a while or contain broken links.

6. Optimize Images (Without Slowing Things Down)

Images help tell your story, but they need to be done right:

Use descriptive alt text (required) for screen readers and SEO.

• Compress large image files to keep pages loading fast.
• Use proper file names (e.g., biology-lab.jpg not IMG_3498.JPG).

Silktide checks for missing alt text and oversized images so we can fix them before they become a problem.

Please read our article here for more details about optimizing photos. [link to blog article]

7. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

More people visit our website from phones than ever before. Google rewards mobile-friendly sites in search results.

What we do:

• Use responsive layouts that adjust to screen size.
• Avoid small fonts or buttons too close together.
• Test mobile usability regularly (Silktide does this automatically).

We provide a mobile device tool at the top right of your screen in the red bar. (You must be logged in as a content editor for access.)

8. Improve Page Speed

No one likes a slow website. Google doesn’t either.

Ways we improve speed:

• Compress images and files.
• Reduce the number of scripts and third-party tools.
• Use browser caching.

Silktide gives us a score for page speed and points out exactly what’s slowing us down.

9. Fix Broken Links

Broken links frustrate users and hurt your SEO. Silktide runs regular link checks and tells us what needs fixing.

10. Create Clean URLs

Use short, readable links like:

✅ utc.edu/admissions
❌ utc.edu/page?id=7382&ref=xyz

Clean URLs help search engines and people understand what the page is about.

Final Thought: SEO and Accessibility Go Hand-in-Hand

A well-optimized site is easier to find and easier to use. That’s why we use Silktide—it doesn’t just check for search engine stuff. It also flags accessibility problems, content issues, and mobile usability. Because a better experience for everyone is always the goal.