Search engines rely heavily on heading and title tags to determine what a page is about, and therefore how high to rank a page in search results.

Follow these guidelines:

• Your H1 should align closely with your page title and should incorporate keywords. Max: 72 characters.
• Use H2s as section headers throughout your content. These should summarize the subject matter within each section and incorporate keywords.
• Use subsequent headers, H3s to H6s, as necessary to organize the information within subsections.
• Use APA style capitalization for all titles and headings used in digital content. You can use this capitalization tool to confirm the format of your heading.

The keyword phrase for content must be unique — no 2 pieces of content on our site should have identical keywords.

Follow these guidelines:

• Use synonyms on related/similar content so we can build out topic clusters and “own” the whole search space around a topic.
• Keyword phrase can be longer than 1 word. Often, “long-tail keywords” are more specific and easier to rank for.Examples:
  • Instead of “innovation” you might target “innovative leadership skills”
  • Instead of “talent management” you might target “talent management practices”
  • Instead of “coaching” you might target “coaching and mentoring”
    • Keywords are intentionally selected by the Content Team in the Global Marketing Department. If you’re not sure about which keyword to use, contact content@ccl.org.

The slug is the part of the URL that explains the page’s content, eg: www.ccl.org/content-type/slug.

Follow these guidelines:

• Slug should include the keyword phrase.
• Slug should include what’s unique or different about your article (even if that pulls from subhead instead of heading).
• Leave out unnecessary function words such as “the” and “and”.Example:
  • Page titled “3 Keys to U.S. Health System Success in the 2020s” becomes https://www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/us-health-system-success/ with “us-health-system-success” being the slug.

Every page on the site needs a meta description, which should be descriptive, concise, and unique — no 2 pieces of content on our site should have an identical meta description. Meta descriptions are an opportunity to “advertise” content to searchers, so create a compelling description that a searcher will want to click.

Follow these guidelines:

• Use a maximum of 160 characters (including spaces).
• Include the keyword phrase as well as variants of the keyword, if appropriate.
• Include/mention the content type (white paper, webinar, report, etc.).
• Include a CTA verb appropriate to the content type, such as “Watch” for webinars, “Download” for white papers, “Register” for events, “Learn more” about our solutions, etc.
• Follow this meta description formula:
• [CTA] + [title or keyword phrase] + [author’s name] + [content type if it’s a white paper, report, or webinar, but not article or blog post] + [subtitle or additional detail]. Examples:
  • Watch this webinar to learn the 7 emerging trends in leadership development featured in CCL’s Talent Reimagined trends report, plus strategies to respond.
  • Download the white paper, Stay Ahead of Change with Talent Portfolio Agility, to learn how talent is being redefined in the gig economy.
  • Learn more about the Center for Creative Leadership’s flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP), offered over 100 times per year around the world.
  • You need Future Fluency to lead your organization into the future. Join CCL in a series of webinars and white papers on Future Fluency and innovation.

The excerpt is displayed on site search results pages and content or listing pages. Follow these guidelines:

• The excerpt should be a 1–2 sentence summary of the takeaway/overview of the content.
• The excerpt can reuse part or all of the meta description, but it’s more flexible (can be longer than 160 characters, can provide more of an overview of takeaways).
• Be succinct and descriptive so that it can be reused for social media, too.

Follow these guidelines for naming photo, icon, infographic, video, and PDF files:

• Should include keyword
• Should use all lowercase letters
• Should not use spaces or underscores (separate words with dashes instead)
• Should mention our organization name (center-for-creative-leadership)

Follow this filename formula:
[campaign name if applicable] + [content title] + [content type if whitepaper, report, infographic, or webinar, but not article or blog post] + [center for creative leadership]

Examples:

• future-fluency-digital-transformation-white-paper-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• when-she-leads-challenges-facing-women-leaders-infographic-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• talent-reimagined-disruption-2020-trends-report-center-for-creative-leadership.pdf
• maximize-leadership-potential-center-for-creative-leadership.mp4

Filenames must be unique – no 2 images on site can have an identical name. If a subsequent file would have same name as an existing file, move the placement of [content type] in the name or append -ccl to distinguish it:

Examples:

• future-fluency-white-paper-digital-transformation-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• future-fluency-digital-transformation-white-paper-center-for-creative-leadership-ccl.jpg

Follow these guidelines for naming photo, icon, infographic, video, and PDF files:

• Should include keyword
• Should use all lowercase letters
• Should not use spaces or underscores (separate words with dashes instead)
• Should mention our organization name (center-for-creative-leadership)

Follow this filename formula:
[campaign name if applicable] + [content title] + [content type if whitepaper, report, infographic, or webinar, but not article or blog post] + [center for creative leadership]

Examples:

• future-fluency-digital-transformation-white-paper-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• when-she-leads-challenges-facing-women-leaders-infographic-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• talent-reimagined-disruption-2020-trends-report-center-for-creative-leadership.pdf
• maximize-leadership-potential-center-for-creative-leadership.mp4

Filenames must be unique – no 2 images on site can have an identical name. If a subsequent file would have same name as an existing file, move the placement of [content type] in the name or append -ccl to distinguish it:

Examples:

• future-fluency-white-paper-digital-transformation-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg
• future-fluency-digital-transformation-white-paper-center-for-creative-leadership-ccl.jpg

Hyperlinked text should describe what it’s linking to for optimal SEO and user experience.

Follow these guidelines:

• Optimal anchor text length is 2–7 words. The first 2 words or 11 characters of the hyperlinked text are the most important and should make the link destination (where a user will be taken if they click) crystal clear.
• Never use “click here.” Instead, make the link text descriptive, such as “Learn about our new Boundary-Spanning Workshop Kit.”
• Unless linking to shop.ccl.org, set links to open in a new tab. Links to shop.ccl.org should open in the same tab. 
• Use links throughout webpage body copy and PDFs as appropriate.
• Make sure all references in copy to CCL solutions, products, and programs are clickable links.
• Make sure citations, footnotes, endnotes, etc. with source URLs displayed are clickable links.
• Make sure all links in PDFs are functioning/clickable.
  • Make sure all links in PDFs are trackable hyperlinks. The Global Marketing team will provide you with trackable UTM links. If you’re not sure about this, contact content@ccl.org.
• Exclude the “https://www” and the UTM codes in any visible or displayed/printed URLs: Should display like this: ccl.org/subscribe, not https://www.ccl.org/subscribe.
• Display the most aesthetic URL, while linking the tracked URL.Example:
  • Display text should read: ccl.org/leadership-solutions while the linked URL contains the full UTM code: https://www.ccl.org/leadership-solutions/?utm_source=case-study&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=media&utm_content=abs-cbn&utm_term=custom

Make your webpages as accessible as possible for blind and low-vision people who use screen-reading apps and other adaptive tools.

Follow these guidelines:

• Specify alt tags for all images.
• Use highly contrasting colors for ease of readability. Don’t rely on intuition; use an online contrast checker tool.
• Don’t make font sizes smaller than 16px.

You will need to mark the following taxonomy fields for your content:

• Categories — choose up to 3
• Audiences — is this most appropriate for Executives & C-Suite, HR & Consultants, or Leaders & Managers?
• Impact Levels — who does this relate most to? Individual contributors/leading yourself; Frontline or new managers / leading others; Middle managers / leading other managers; Senior leaders / leading the function or department; or Executives / leading the organization?
• Industries — choose up to 2 (if applicable, primarily for case studies)
• Regions — if appropriate for a particular geographic area (default is global)