Links help people get their bearings on a Web page. Screen readers and Google also use links to understand and navigate a page.

• Write link text: Don't put URLs on a Web page, but write link text. You can put keywords in a link text and a screen reader can read the link text properly. For example, "Research Radboud University" instead of "https://www.ru.nl/en/research" 
• Make link text meaningful: don't use link text like "click here," "more information" or "read more." Instead, tell people who click on the link what they are going to find. For example, "Check out our master's degree programs" or "Learn more about confidants."
• Match the link text with the link target: Make sure the link text matches the content the link is pointing to. If this differs, people quickly get confused. For example, "View our master's programs" refers to "Overview of master's programs and specializations."
• Avoid links in the middle of the sentence: people get distracted by links that interrupt a running text. Therefore, put links at the end of the sentence. For example, "See how to use Assignments in the Brightspace manual" instead of "See how to use the Brightspace manual for assignments."

Visitors find it inconvenient to have to download a document before they can read the content in it. Moreover, search engines are much less able to index content in PDF files, and PDFs are often poorly accessible to people with disabilities.

Do not use images with text, except logos. Images behind text reduce the readability of the text. In addition, search engines cannot read the text in images and therefore cannot index it, and text in an image is not accessible to people with disabilities.

Not everyone can see images (well), such as people who are blind or visually impaired, who have the content read to them by a screen reader. But also people who have a slow Internet connection. Moreover, an alternative text ensures better findability in search engines. A good text alternative:

• tells what you see;
• is short and powerful;
• does not contain words such as 'image' or 'picture of';
• contains keywords, if it is not distracting.

If an image contains a lot of text, such as an infographic, add a separate (basic) page with a text version of the information on the infographic. Place a link to the text version below the infographic. On the page with the text alternative, also include the URL of the page where the image can be seen. In fact, someone may find the text alternative first through the search engine.

A caption is a piece of text placed under a photo that tells you something about the photo. A caption is not mandatory, but sometimes you want to indicate, for example, who took a picture. Or you want to tell something about the background of an image, such as a historical drawing. If you write a caption, try to include a keyword in it.

Subtitle also in the language of the video itself. Not everyone can hear audio, for example because of a physical disability, but also if someone does not want to turn on the sound, such as in public transportation at a busy flex workplace.

This is called a transcript. Not everyone can hear audio, for example because of a physical disability, but also if someone does not want to turn on the sound, such as in public transportation or in a crowded flex workspace. Also, sometimes people prefer a text to video or audio because they can scan it faster, or because they have a slow Internet connection. Moreover, a transcript also makes for better findability in search engines.

Make sure you give media files a descriptive file name before you upload them. Afterwards, you won't be able to change it. A good file name is short and powerful, unique and describes the content of the media file. Include one or more keywords in the file name. Put a hyphen/dash (-) between individual words. 

For example: not "img006.jpg" but "portrait photo-Jeroen-Jansen.jpg," and not "regulation_new.pdf" but "regulation-employment-2022.pdf.

The text in the 'summary' field is displayed in internal views, such as the news overview and usually also in search results (when you do not add an alternative meta-description in the SEO tab). A summary is not the same as the introductory text: you do not give a content summary of what the page is about (and therefore you do not answer any content questions yet), but describes the main topics covered on the page. The summary serves to help a visitor make a choice among the various options shown on overviews and in search results.

• The summary should complement the page title, not repeat it.
• The summary should clearly distinguish the content of the page in question from the content of other pages that may also appear in search results.
• Keep the summary of functional pages (such as services) concise and functional in focus. Pages such as news articles may have a more thought-provoking summary and be a little more about the content to persuade the visitor to read the page.
• Avoid long-winded wording such as "On this page you will find..." and "Learn more about....".

Examples of not good summaries:

• "For each work day, indicate whether you traveled to campus or worked from home. You can claim this monthly. More information can be found on this page."
• "If you deregister from your studies, you can no longer attend classes, take exams or apply for your degree. Check out the other consequences of deregistering on the 'Consequences of Deregistering from study' page."
• "News report on the first picture of a black hole."

Examples of good summaries:

• "The amount of travel and home office reimbursement and how to claim them."
• "As of when do you have to stop your student loans if you deregister from college? And do you get tuition refunds?"
• "Astronomers from Radboud University and others have been able to take a picture of a black hole for the first time with the Event Horizon Telescope."
  

This ensures better findability of your content in search engines. Relevant places to place search terms are:

• page title
• (meta)description
• headings
• paragraphs
• link texts

Length: up to 65 characters (including spaces and ' | [site:name]').

The page title is the title you see in, for example, list views (such as news listings and search results) and in a browser's tab. The title concisely conveys the content of the page and ideally includes an important search term. 

The page title can be different from the main headline of the content on the page. For example, you can make the main headline longer and the page title more concise, or incorporate a different search term. Just make sure your title is neatly readable in the browser tab and above a search result. Keep in mind that ' | Radboud University' is always pasted behind it and counts toward the maximum number of characters.

See the page title 'Research' in the upper left corner of the browser:

For testimonials, we adhere to the following format: [Name] on [subject testimonial] | Radboud University. For example: 

• "Van Niftrik about female professors | Radboud University".
• "Duiveman about doctoral studies | Radboud University"

For research projects, use the page title to use alternative search terms. For example: 

• for the project Digital Good: "Health research and data privacy | Radboud University"
• for the project PREMIER: "Research on drug risk to environment | Radboud University."

Length: up to 160 characters (including spaces).

The meta-description is a short description of the subject of the page, intended for search engines, and is displayed below the page title in search results. If the keywords that your user types into the search bar are in your meta-description, the description is displayed in search results with the words therein bolded. The description should be a maximum of 150-165 characters. See this search result based on the search query 'SEO'.

• Try to include the most important search terms in the meta-description. This won't help you rank higher, but if the term the visitor uses in their search occurs in your meta-description, your meta-description is more likely to be shown in the search result. If not, a search engine may choose to use an excerpt from your page to display as an alternative to your meta-description. This is because when the search term returns in the meta-description, the visitor is more likely to click on the search result because it is then clear that this page is relevant to the search query.

Incorporate your search terms into page headings. Put search terms up front (instead of question words). So not: How is employee participation regulated at Radboud University? But rather: Co-determination at Radboud University.