HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO SEE, READ AND ENJOY YOUR STORIES

OnlineGetting there, staying there

What we will learn

How to drive people to Web stories by writing headlines that use effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies

How to write for online so that people find and read your stories

It’s a sideways world

Users don’t browse – they search 80% of Internet sessions begin with a search

engine About 40% of traffic from search engines (SNO:

30%); 50% of that from Google (SNO: 75%)

Traffic also comes from other Web sites Facebook, Twitter, Drudge, blogs …

Visitors often come to a story sideways, bypassing the homepage SNO: 25% typed in or bookmarked; 75% from other

sites

What Google looks for

Google crawls, searches for and indexes words in the title bar, URL, headline and tops of articles (includes summary in Publicus)

An example

When the pope died, The New York Times had this headline: ‘Thousands flock to Vatican’ Nobody flocked to the Web page

Then, an SEO expert saw it ‘Pope dies’ People slammed the servers

Responding ≠ pandering

In print there is context

Say what?

Web heads are often displayed out of context. They need to stand on their own. (For some, head is the story.)

Write for the scanner

On the Web, it’s even more important to serve the scanner (F-shaped: Nielsen Norman Group, 2006)

Headline rules and regs

Start with keywords Such as “Pope dies” First 11 characters, about 60 characters long

Use names, not descriptions, in headlines when a famous person is involved “(North Carolina) Governor Perdue,” not just “Gov.” “Michael Jackson,” not just “Pop icon”

Michael Jackson or Pop Icon?

A few more rules and regs

If the person is not a celebrity, use keywords not names“Woman gives birth to eight children” (until the name becomes well-known, then you can use “Nadya Suleman” or “Octomom”)

Don’t forget to use company names in headlines

Write a metatitle for stories that will update with a keyword-filled headline that won’t need to change

Points in Publicus

More rules and regs

Use city namesYes: “Southport fire kills three”No: “Fire kills three”

City names should be used with sports teamsYes: “Wilmington Sharks win home opener”No: “Sharks win home opener”

“Port City” is not a well-known option people search for.

For columnists, put names upfront“Master Gardener - Birds help your garden grow”

Know your readersHurricane, home sales, heroin

Helpful tools

Finding effective keywords http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Example: “weather forecaster” used in 43 searches. “Meteorologist” in 294

http://google.com/trends Example: “meteorologist” far outranks “weather

forecaster” https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExt

ernal Example: “weather forecaster” has 8,100 searches/month

vs. 165,000 for “meteorologist.”

About articles

Hard news ledes outperform feature ledes because of front-loaded keywords Who, what, when, where and why – inverted

pyramid Remember, the first reader is likely a Web spider

Remember how Google searches

What goes up first, gets picked up first

File short and quick, then update Wire service thinking with constant updates Make a new article when there’s enough to merit it

Write for the scanner

On the Web, it’s even more important to serve the scanner (F-shaped: Nielsen Norman Group, 2006)

Write for the Web

Good writing is good writing Don’t change the text just to stick in keywords

Pages with many references to location rank higher in search engines

Avoid local jargon (like “Port City”)

Use keywords in links

Avoid all caps (resembles spam)

What would Google think?

Exercises

Let’s go to the handouts

Web writing is good writing

10 tipsHaving a good story always helps

Break up long blocks of copy with subheads

One thought per paragraph

Paraphrase long quotes

Avoid listing numbers and stats in the text – make a box instead

Web writing (cont.)

Write for the eye – Not just scanners; look for white space and get rid of long blocks of text. Use boxes, timelines and other devices

Be obvious

Active voice

Strong verbs

Look at the art while you’re writing – they could be right next to each other online

But that’s just good writing

Exactly

Summary

Front load headlines and text – 11, 60

Think about keywords

Control what you can – headlines, subheads, ledes

Online readers are scanners, grab their attention and don’t let go

Sources

Gil Asakawa (@GilAsakawa)Manager of student media for the University of Colorado’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication; previously manager of audience development with MediaNews Group Interactive

Dennis Joyce (@DJoyceTBO)Metro editor at The Tampa Tribune

Amy Eisman (@aeisman)Director of media entrepreneurship and interactive journalism at American University

Presentation based on one by Michael Baker, editor of STATE Magazine, Oklahoma State University, and former local news editor for The Oklahoman

SEO sources

SEOmoz.org: http://seomoz.org SEOmoz Blog:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google & SEO:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ SEO Browser.com:

http://seo-browser.com PPC Blog: http://tools.ppcblog.com/ Wordtracker.com:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com Google.com/trends:

http://google.com/trends Google Webmaster Tools:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/ ReelSEO: http://www.reelseo.com/ SEO Egghead:

http://www.seoegghead.com/blog/ Search Engine Journal:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/ Search Engine Watch:

http://searchenginewatch.com/ Search Engine Optimization 101:

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/search-engine-optimization-101/

Search Engine Watch Blog: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/

John Battelle’s Searchblog: http://battellemedia.com/

SEO Chat: http://www.seochat.com/ SEO Chat’s SEO Tools:

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/ SEO Scoop: http://www.seo-scoop.com/ Natural Search Blog:

http://www.naturalsearchblog.com/ Applied SEO:

http://www.appliedseo.com/ Mashable – The Social Media Guide:

http://mashable.com Micro Persuasion – Steve Rubel:

http://www.micropersuasion.com/ Website Analytics Toolbox (great list of

tools): http://designm.ag/resources/website-analytics-toolbox/ Compiled by Gil Asakawa Manager of Audience Development,

MediaNews Group Interactive