SEO heads without losing your soul

Teresa Schmedding

ACES, May 2009

What is it?

Search engine optimization

Getting technicalElements that drive traffic?

PopularityMetadataLinks

But forget all that; focus on what you can control -- making your content popular

Why do I care?

You want to draw readers to content and stay in business

● 50% of Web traffic can be drawn by search engines

● Boston.com is the fourth-most trafficked site vs. 15th in print circulation

● Hearst Magazine said traffic increased by 150%

Who are headlines for?

● Regular readers● Search engine spiders

Can one headline reach both?YES

Headlines 101

What's different: We pick the best words with the right tone, right count, the most illuminating. For SEO heads, we need to pick the most searched words.

What's the same: We want people to understand what the story is about and read it.

Google is like school

Popularity rules

What’s popular?

How prominent is termThe location of term in textHow often it appears*How new is it?

* Beware of keyword spamming

Keywords are critical

Proper namesPlacesBrandsThe more specific, the better

SEO headline example

“Wikipedia row escalates as Internet watchdog considers censoring Amazon U.S. over Scorpions image”

What’s good

Wikipedia at the beginning of the sentence

Specifics of Amazon, Scorpions are better than web site or rock group

Let’s rewrite

Murder suspect seemed “All American”

BOSTON, Massachusetts -- Friends and acquaintances of Philip Markoff, a medical student accused of killing a woman he may have met through a Craigslist online ad, described the 23-year-old as a model student.

Suggested rewrite

Craigslist murder suspect seemed “All American”

Why is this good?

Let’s rewrite

Officials defend vote to end talks

HALLOWELL -- City councilors said they would have been "gambling" with taxpayer dollars had they not terminated negotiations between the city and state over the purchase of a historic campus in the heart of Hallowell. On Jan. 6, city officials announced they had submitted a proposal and bid of $600,000 to purchase the Stevens School complex from the state. The plan was to buy the campus, then lease it back to the state, which currently uses it for offices.

The decision was made during a regular City Council meeting Jan. 12 to cease those negotiations. Four of seven councilors -- Charlotte Warren, David Bustin, Stephen Vellani and Andrew McPherson -- voted to halt negotiations.

Suggested rewrite

Hallowell council defends Stevens vote

Let’s rewrite

School board to discuss proposed tourism tax district

The Clark County School Board at Thursday's meeting is scheduled to weigh in on the city of Las Vegas’ plan to create a tourism improvement district on 4.5 acres downtown where Mayor Oscar Goodman wants to see a mob museum built.

The tourism district would direct 75 percent of sales tax revenue generated from a proposed retail and casino development on the site back to the city, which plans to use the money to create a public parking garage and open space or plaza.

Rewrite

Board weighs Las Vegas plan for mob museum

The other 50%

Once you get a viewer, how do you keep them? Basic headline writing.

Users read 25% more slowlyon computerscreens thanthey do in print.

Be succinct

Stress left

Eyes of Web usersbounce around.Rarely dothey read anentire line.

Dump the puns

There is no context on the Web – rarely with search engines.

How to make it work

Integrate into workflowPut SEO concepts in journalistic termsStress that it’s not manipulative

Special sections

Tired of seeing Christmas in every headline? Don't want to repeat words in sidebar headlines? Think again for the Web, especially with evergreen material.

Keyword research tools

Pondering a word choice? ● Thesaurus● Free keyword site:https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

● Paid keyword site: Keyworddiscovery.comWordTracker.com

Testing it out

Google Adwordshttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Coffee v. Cup of JoeBaseball, Chicago v. Cubs

Keyword map

Shows you keyword variations, the more relevant is in the middle

http://www.kwmap.net/

Just for fun

http://www.visuwords.com/

Last thought

Content is king – and it's close to God online.

Links to learn morehttp://knol.google.com/k/gerald-weber/search-

engine-optimization-rules-to/4rv03mlx5yqx/2#http://www.cyberjournalist.net/basic-search-

engine-optimization-tips/#more-4467http://www.cyberjournalist.net/hearst-magazine-

increased-web-traffic-by-150-with-seo-and-wordtracker/

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/hearst-magazine-increased-web-traffic-by-150-with-seo-and-wordtracker/