--- title: "How to use Web Governance SEO" date: "2021-10-19T07:50:42+00:00" summary: "Learn how to use the SEO feature to improve your website's search engine ranking with priority-based recommendations and detailed reports." image: type: "page" url: "/web-governance/how-use-web-governance-seo" id: "1d493baf-0403-4e42-8d06-8f3d7b2bdfeb" --- **Introduction** ---------------- Acquia Web Governance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) identifies highlights SEO issues that exist across website pages and assigns a priority level. Select any issue for a summary of the recommendation. This allows your team to locate specific issues and improve them for a better SEO score. The platform provides guidelines on how to improve search engine ranking and other optimization opportunities. Setup ----- Web Governance SEO is included in all packages. It requires no setup. Priority rankings ----------------- This section provides an explanation for the priority levels assigned to SEO issues. * **High priority alerts**: These issues are rated as high priority: * **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. * **Medium priority alerts**: These issues are rated as medium priority: * **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, visit: * [Accessibility introduction](/node/58686) * [Provide a text alternative for images and graphics](/node/59491) * **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. * **Low Priority Alerts**: These issues are rated as low priority: * **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 your SEO. The recommendation is to keep meta descriptions below 160 characters where possible. * **Technical SEO Issues**: This section provides an overview of technical issues that may be harmful to your SEO. The issues listed here require manual review to determine if they need to be fixed. * **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, visit [Issue priority](/node/58621). Checklist --------- For a quick-start checklist to help you get started, visit [SEO cheatsheet](https://www.acquia.com/resources/guide/essential-seo-cheatsheet). **History center** ------------------ The History center stores all SEO issues and details from previous scans. 1. Select **History Center** (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar. ![The location of the History Center button on the domain menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/99c7c82b-6912-4aaa-8a27-b6e0698f2069/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-HistoryCenterButton) The _History Center_ landing page opens. ![The history center landing page. The fields are described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/cbc1c0b8-62f0-46f4-90c7-061cd4444973/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard.png) The page contains the following layout: 2. **Domain**: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains. ![The Domains selection menu. Your domains appear in the drop-down list.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/dde969d2-5087-4d12-b90c-fc0f09c43b2d/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-DomainsDropdown.png) 3. Click to select a domain from the list or switch to another domain. 4. **Module**: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules. ![The location of the Modules selection drop-down on the History Center landing page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/f7004dc9-afe5-4ab5-b975-a171a65bcf0b/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-ModulesDropdown.png) 5. Select SEO from the expanded list. The SEO page of the History Center opens. The top section provides information on the profile that is being used for the results shown. * **Viewing as Profile**: This view informs you which performance profile is being used. For more information, visit [Performance setup](https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-optimize/add-ons/performance/setup). * **Device**: The type of device used. * **Measure from**: Distance from the server location. * **Network speed**: The speed of the network. * **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). When you change the profile,  the numbers on all 3 sections inside the Performance module will update accordingly. * Graph with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score. * **Scan history results**: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans. * **Crawled at**: Date and time of scan. * **Pages crawled**: Number of pages scanned. * **Domain compliance**: Percentage of compliance achieved. * **Comparison to average**: The score of the website as compared with the average score within the industry. * **SEO Opportunities**: The number of opportunities for improvement, broken down into category icons. * **Changes since previous crawl**: Percentage of changes made since the last scan. For more information, visit [History center](/node/58646) SEO score --------- 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: * Pages with no index * Links with no index * SEO issues that the user has manually ignored. For more information, visit [Issue priority](/node/58621). SEO reports ----------- 1. Select Report Center (a report icon) on the main toolbar. 2. Locate the _SEO_ section for a list of the available reports. The available reports for the SEO module are: * Search Engine Optimization Summary report * Pages with SEO opportunities report * SEO opportunities report * SEO high priority opportunities report * SEO medium priority opportunities report * SEO low priority opportunities report * SEO technical opportunities report. 3. Click **Schedule This Report** (calendar icon) on the same row as the report to receive the report as an email attachment. Multiple selection is allowed. 4. Click **Open Report** (eye icon) to get the newest report. 5. Click **Report Administration** (gear icon) to add other users to receive the report. For more information, visit [SEO reports](/node/58846).