Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves using specific practices to improve the odds that your website will display in public search engine results.

Note: No single SEO practice can guarantee that your website's ranking will improve. However, following the standard guidelines below helps search engines read and categorize your content more accurately.

Understanding metadata attributes

The built-in Content Management System (CMS) allows you to add hidden information, called metadata, to your webpages (articles). Search engine tools, called robots or crawlers, read this hidden text to index your website.

You can set up 4 optional metadata attributes for your pages:

1. Keywords: A comma-separated list of words highlighting the main topics of your page (for example: "conference, training, registration"). Note: Due to past abuse of this setting across the internet, modern search engines rely very little on keyword lists when ranking sites, but you can still include them for internal system organization.
2. Description: A short, clear summary of the page content. Search engines often display this description text directly beneath your page title in public search results.
3. Author: An optional credit text that identifies the specific person or organization that created the content.
4. Robots: This field allows you to give strict, custom commands to search engine crawlers. Common examples you can type into this field include:
   • "noindex" — Tells robots not to include this specific page in search results.
   • "nofollow" — Tells robots to index the current page, but blocks them from following or checking any web links listed inside the text.
   • "noarchive" — Tells search engines not to save or display an older, cached copy of the webpage.

Adding metadata to an article

1. Go to Website > Articles.
2. Click the name of the article you want to update to open the text editor.
3. Locate the settings panels on the right side of the screen and click Metadata Information to expand the section.
4. Enter your custom text into the Keywords, Description, Robots, or Author fields.
5. Click Save.

Additional SEO strategies

• Request a Google crawl: Once your website's domain name is fully set up and live, you can submit your web address directly to Google and request that their systems crawl and index your site. You can find official instructions on Google's Webmaster support site.
• Content is key: True search engine optimization relies heavily on the actual text visible on your website. Writing clear, high-quality content that naturally uses terms your members search for is the most effective way to improve visibility. You can read more tips and strategies on the MC Professional's blog.