The Search Engine Optimization feature highlights the issues that exist across website pages and assigns a priority level. Click any issue for a summary of the recommendation and highlight errors with an icon for easy location and repair. We provide guidelines on how to improve search engine ranking and other optimization opportunities.
For a clickable walkthrough demo, see:
This section gives an explanation for the priority levels assigned to SEO issues.
Missing H1
The H1 header tag is typically the first header tag visible on a page. In order to make it stand out, H1 tags are formatted differently from other page tags. When search engines crawl pages, H1 tags are used to help accurately identify their content. Also, visitors are better able to navigate web pages that feature H1 tags. Having no H1 tags on a page makes it difficult for search engines to crawl your content with accuracy and for your visitors to navigate your content, negatively affecting SEO.
Title found on more than one page
Title tags allow both users and search engines to quickly understand what content they can expect to find on a page. More than one title tag on a page may confuse search engines and users as to the contents of a page, and therefore harm SEO.
Missing title
Title tags allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. Pages with no title tag can therefore adversely affect search engine rankings and the user click-through rate from search results. The recommendation is to always include a title tag that clearly communicates what the page is about.
Images missing ALT
As search engines cannot ‘‘see’’ images on web pages the way we can, an image with a missing ALT tag can cause the site to be ranked lower due to unintended keywords, or not being ranked at all. ALT tags on images should describe the image as accurately as possible.
Missing ALT tags for images can also have a negative impact on the level of ADA compliance on the website. Visitors who use assistive technologies such as screen readers rely on ALT tags to navigate and understand the website content.
For more information, see the user guide article:
Too short content on page
A page may be perceived as being ‘’thin’’ by search engines if it does not contain a certain amount of content. While there is no clear rule as to the amount of content a page should have, it is advisable to have a minimum of 300 words.
Multiple H1 on page
H1 tags allow both users and search engines to quickly understand what content they can expect to find on a page. A page with more than one title tag may confuse search engines and users as to the contents of a page, and can affect the SEO. Use only one Header 1 per page to increase SEO.
Missing subheadings
Subheadings allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A site with no subheadings can receive a lower search engine ranking and a low click-through rate from search results. Always include subheadings to identify specific sections of content and increase SEO.
(Identical) H1 found on more than one page
H1 tags allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A site with more than one page that has the same H1 tag may confuse search engines and negatively impact your rankings and your click-through rate from search results. Make all of the H1 tags across the domain unique and relevant to the on-page content to increase SEO.
Too short META description
Meta descriptions are important as they help users and search engines identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A short meta description may not contain enough characters to effectively communicate the content of a page accurately, and this can negatively impact SEO.
Too many internal links
Search engines use links to determine how relevant a page is to specific search criteria. It is therefore important to ensure that all of your internal links are useful for your visitors. While no absolute rule exists as to how many internal links a page should contain, it is advisable not to overload a page with internal links and to make sure all of your internal links are appropriate to the site content.
Too long URL
URL length is listed as #46 in Google’s top 200 ranking factors. Although there is no exact rule as to how long URLs should be, shorter URLs tend to rank higher on web searches. Shorter URLs benefit users as they are clearer and more attractive when copied in full.
Too long META description
In order to display fully in search engine results, it is generally considered best practice to keep meta descriptions between 150-160 characters. Meta descriptions that are longer than this can run the risk of containing text that provides no added value to users and search engines and negatively impact SEO. Acquia Optimize recommends that you keep your meta descriptions to below 160 characters where possible.
Pages with - No index
Pages with a no-index tag are listed here for review. As we cannot determine through scanning whether pages have been given a no-index tag intentionally, these results must be manually reviewed to see if any remedial action is required.
Links with - No-follow
Pages with a no-follow tag are listed here for review. As we cannot determine through scanning whether pages have been given a no-follow tag intentionally, these results must be manually reviewed to see if any remedial action is required.
For more information, see the user guide article:
The Search Engine Optimization feature is included in all Acquia Optimize packages. It requires no setup.
For a quick-start checklist to help users get started, see:
This section gives information on how to navigate to the SEO feature.
Click SEO (the chart icon), on the dashboard toolbar.
This is the landing page for SEO. The page has the following sections:
Most common opportunities found:
This section lists the most common opportunities discovered on your site and the number of pages potentially affected by the issues. From this view, it is possible to ignore a particular issue or to view the affected pages. The opportunities can include:
Issues that are set to Ignore are permanently omitted from future scans and compliance scores.
SEO diagnostics:
The Industry Average shows the industry-wide average of compliance. The results appear in the SEO Diagnostics section.
For more information, see the user guide article:
Affected pages by priority:
Affected pages by priority shows the distribution of SEO levels across the customers site. These results are broken up into high, medium, and low priority, and well as technical SEO issues.
For more information, see the user guide article:
This page shows the website pages with opportunities that can be edited to improve webpage performance.
From the menu on the left, select Pages with Opportunities. The page has the following sections:
Open page details (pages icon): View all issues for the page.
Ignore this check for this domain: Ignore the check for the entire domain.
The difference between Mark as Fixed and Mark as Ignored is that issues marked as Fixed are still included in future scans and can be flagged again if the error persists. Issues that are set to Ignore are permanently omitted from future scans and compliance scores.
This page shows the number of pages that are compliant with all SEO checks, as well as the overall number of SEO opportunities found across the entire domain and the number of pages with SEO opportunities.
Select SEO Checkpoints from the menu on the left. The page has the following sections:
The History Center stores all SEO issues and details from previous scans.
Click History Center (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar.
The History Center landing page opens.
The page contains the following layout:
Domain: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains.
Module: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules.
Viewing as Profile: This shows the performance profile that is being used.
For more information, see the user guide article:
Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
Important: The dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that changing the profile causes the numbers on all 3 sections inside the Performance module to update accordingly.
For more information, see the user guide article:
Sometimes also referred to as "SEO issues" or "SEO checkpoints".
The compliance score for SEO issues is calculated as follows:
The number of pages with issues divided by the number of total pages.
The following Technical SEO issues are not taken into account in the domain compliance score:
On the Reports page in the Reports module, locate the SEO section to see the reports available for this module.
The available reports for the SEO module are:
For more information, see the user guide article:
For Acquia SEO, see the following page:
If this content did not answer your questions, try searching or contacting our support team for further assistance.
Fri Nov 15 2024 08:12:29 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)