Where's Your Website?

Simple SEO Tweaks to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine's "organic", or unpaid, search results. In general, the earlier and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

The process of completely "optimizing" your website to appear (and perform well) in search engine results is quite complicated, but there are some easy ways to make improvements using the GovOffice CMS.

Here are some simple steps you can take to get started, and well on your way to improving, the search engine ranking of your GovOffice website. You’ve work hard to build and maintain your awesome municipal website. Make sure this valuable resource is available for everyone!

Essential Steps

1. Add a Title, Description, and Keywords to the backend of your website. We have seen many instances where a GovOffice website went from non-existent to the top of the heap in search engine rankings by making these changes alone.


2. Create Friendly URLs for sections. These are shorter Web addresses that are easy for search engines to understand, e.g. GovOffice.com/design.


3. Add Alt text and title text, to images and icons. This step is often overlooked as it is for more “advanced” users but fear not, this image text how-to guide will walk you through the process. Adding this text gives a label (a text identity) to graphic images which search engines love. Search engines don’t recognize images on their own. It also improves site usability and conforms to ADA Web standards.


4. Keep your site content current, dynamic and relevant. Create links to local organizations, businesses, etc. in your community or surrounding area. Like Friendly URLs, your links should be descriptive. Descriptive links are also easily understood by search engines and will help visitors find specific content they are looking for more quickly.

Extra Steps

1. Purchase a custom URL for your local government website, for the same reasons Friendly URLs are beneficial. They are descriptive and help identify your site. 


2. Done with applying the SEO fundamentals above and ready for the next level? Go nuts with MOZ's very concise, yet thorough Beginner's Guide to SEO.


3. After you have completed the implementing the first steps above, keep up with what what pages are being visited and what pages aren't. Our get started with Google Analytics guide will help you configure this "behind the scenes" monitoring of your municipal website activity. It's a great way to see your work in action!

So where is your website? It’s somewhere out there, but making these few simple SEO tweaks can bring it much closer to your intended site visitors.

Can you help these people find your city's website?

Need some additional SEO guidance? Contact us today, we can help!