being aware of seo in journalism
DESCRIPTION
While optimizing search is critical, so is good content. Learn how to produce good content with SEO in mind through this presentation.TRANSCRIPT
SEO & JournalismPresented by
Arnie Kuenn (@ArnieK)
&
Michael Schwartz (@ValleyoftheSuns )
Optimizing for Search is Critical
When someone types a keyword into the search box, there are only two possible outcomes: They will find you. They will find your competitor.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Search Marketing Reality
Organic search traffic can be so valuable, it can sustain an entire business.
Organic search rankings are something you can work to influence, but ultimately you do not control them. The search engine algorithms make that call.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Why Be Concerned About Search?
- The #1 position will get clicked 43% of the time!
Source: Did-it, Enquiro, and Eyetools.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
How Does Search Work?
Bot or Spider
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Title tag
ContentH1 tag
Bold
What Do the Search Engines Look For?
Meta DescriptionAward winning SEO Link Building Services. Vertical Measures is a reputable, USA Internet marketing company helping businesses get more website traffic thru higher search engine rankings, link building, social media, local search, and search engine optimization.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Search Engine Results
Indented Listing
Local Listing
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Create Good Content
Build articles around your keywords Add real value to the reader
Unique Informative Entertaining
Who do you link to? Good neighbors It’s your reputation Get links back!
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Proper On-Page Optimization(in order of importance for 2010)
1. Links - internal & external
2. Freshness of content & keyword usage
3. Title tag (viewed in results)
4. Image Alt text
5. H1 tag
6. Description meta tag (viewed in results)
7. URL structure
8. Page load times (Google Caffeine)
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Biggest Factor is Still Inbound Links
The best links: Are from trusted sites Have proper anchor text Have varied anchor text Are from many different domains (new 2010) Determined editorially
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
How Does Social Influence Rankings?
Real-time links (Twitter & Facebook) Social news links (Digg, Reddit, Delicious) Can influence the actual rankings for your
articles Provide Backlinks (but short term value) Mentions & Signals
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
How to Appear in Google News
Need to submit your URL to Google first Article URLs must be:
Unique Permanent Display a three-digit number
To see if a site is already included in Google News, type [ site:url.com ], into the search box and click "Search News."
http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Recommended Plug-Ins
All-In-One SEO Pack Feedburner Feedsmith (RSS feed) Google XML Sitemaps Social Bookmarking Reloaded (or similar) Wordpress Mobile (or similar) Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (adv.) podPress (podcasting)
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
An Example of a Linkworthy Article Links are the currency of SEO. Interview the people who would create the buzz/get
you links and tweets. For me that included Peter Robert Casey, a top-10
NBA tweeter, and Suns VP of digital operations, Jeramie McPeek.
Results 40 backlinks (ESPN.com, DallasBasketball.com,
AlexisGentry.net, PeterRobertCasey.com) 43 tweets (including one from the @NBA account) PR4 page
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Headlines for SEO Consider using different headlines for print and
online (LA Times). Sprinkle keywords into your headlines, especially
at the beginning of them. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – shows what
people are searching. BUT use your knowledge of the news cycle to
understand when a keyword/topic is hot, it might get a much larger amount of searches.
Think ahead of what people will be searching.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Different Ways to get on Page 1
For some keywords, it could be impossible to rank on Page 1 for an article.
For example, I can get an article to rank on Page 1 for "Amare Stoudemire trade rumors," but not "Amare Stoudemire."
The former search is valuable NOW (timely), but not usually.
News Results at top, Social Circle Results at bottom (HUGE for traffic).
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
An Average Month, Nothing Targeted
Dec. 27-Jan. 26 28,167 unique visits (900/day) 16.7 percent from search (about 4400, or 140/day)
Got one day of nice traffic from "Tracy McGrady," for a trade story involving him.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
A Focus on Amare-Related Keywords Jan. 27-Feb. 9
28,290 unique visits in 13 days (2150/day) 25 percent from search (about 6776, or 500 a day)
Top 3 and 7 of the top 10 relate to Amare. When people are searching a hot topic, make sure they find you and
not your competitor.
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns
Free SEO Resources
SEO Educational Videos: http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-t
utorial-videos/
Online Marketing & Related Webinars: http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars/
Expert Interview Series: http://www.verticalmeasures.com/expert-interview
s/2010-predictions-from-10-internet-experts/
Twitter: @ArnieK @ValleyoftheSuns