Slides from a workshop I ran in Tel Aviv on June 30, 2013, providing best practices for SEO and Social Media for news organisations specifically.

1. Optimising Content
for Online News Audiences
SEO and Social Media Best Practices
be.linkedin.com/in/truusheremans
@trooogle
www.sociallyvisual.com

3. Journalists use their headlines to hook readers
into a story, to convince them of the importance
of reading a particular article

4. Great newspaper headlines – like
"Gotcha” – do not work online, it is said…

5. • Online, people search for news and information
• Using specific terms or keywords
• To find the information they are looking for
• On search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo

6. How do Search Engines work?
• Googlebot – Google’s web crawling robot
• Indexing the pages that are found
• In Google’s Index Database
• So that it appears in the Search results

7. When you enter a search
query into a search engine
using keywords, the engine
examines its index database
and provides a listing of best-
matching web pages
How do Search Engines work?

8. Google Algorithm
• A program used by Google to determine
rankings of pages in its search results
• A number of factors
– Keywords
– Freshness
– Links
– Content
– URL
– Social

9. How can you get people to best find YOUR
headlines and specific news articles online?

10. This is where SEO comes into play

11. What is SEO and how does it work?
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Improving the visibility of your content in the
search listings
• For relevant search terms or ‘keywords’

12. Why is SEO important?
85% of all traffic on the internet is referred to
by search engines
90% of all users don’t look past the first 30
results - most only view top 10

13. SEO is not the enemy of good writing!
The purpose of SEO is not to destroy your writing’s
artistic integrity, it’s to make sure people can
actually find your work better

14. Online, articles can have FOUR
headlines, that affect your search
engine rankings
1. Content (articles)
2. Connecting your story to other pages
3. How you appear in the search results
4. Social media

15. HEADLINE 1
CONTENT OPTIMISATION

16. Content
On-page
headline
Image

17. Content
• The content of a page is what makes it worthy of a
search result position
• It is what the user came to see and is thus extremely
important to the search engines

18. Use likely search terms in your
article content and headline
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

19. Riots in Stockholm
Likely searched
key terms?

20. Images
• Google cannot understand what the images are
about
• Use ‘text’ to describe what the image represents
• Caption
• Place near to the article’s headline
• Google Images Search

21. HEADLINE 2
INTER-LINKING

22. • Home page
• Channel pages
– International
– Sport
– Culture
• Tag pages (related content)
There are many ways to reach a news
story once on a news site…

24. • Google takes account of the words used to link to a page
• Another way you can target a page for certain keywords
• Write short versions of headlines for navigation pages
• Use Anchor text
Internal Linking

25. Link descriptively
• Latest developments in ongoing saga - link to previous
articles to give some background
• Use relevant keywords (i.e. headlines)
– NOT: ‘click here for my previous article’ or ‘for more information click
here’
• Search engines look at the hyperlinked anchor text to
help assess the relevance of a page

26. HEADLINE 3
HOW YOU APPEAR IN GOOGLE
SEARCH RESULTS

27. Title tag
Meta
description
URL

28. Title Tag
• Shown in Google Search Results and your Web Browser
• Ideally 60-70 characters
• Keywords are critical
• Make compelling so that people will click on them
• Can be different from your on-page headline, but
should both include most important keywords

29. Follow a "keywords: headline" format
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

30. Meta description
• Further explains what your article is about in the
search results
• Include keywords, but also make it compelling
• Optimally 150-160 characters

31. URLs
• Include keywords
• Avoid too lengthy URLs
– Lengthy URLs get cut off easily
– Diluted effect
• Make sure that the category hierarchy of the given
website is reflected in URLs

32. Types of Search

33. News Results
• Priority – fresh and original content
• Use format “keyword:headline”

34. And they will pick up even more traffic from the search
box in the normal web results…
News Results

35. • Use images
• Be quick publishing breaking news
– References from other sources
– Increases authority
– Publish immediately, and edit/elaborate later if needed
– Use social media as a support
News Results

36. Google Trends
Search insights – what are people looking for?

37. Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends

38. SEO Copywriting Best Practices
• Use explanatory terms people could be looking for
• Understanding typical users ‘search habits’ (Google Trends)
• Write unique content
• Spell out in detail the ‘what’ and ‘who’ of the story
• Link descriptively
• Consider keywords, without sacrificing quality

39. Consider keywords without
sacrificing quality
• Avoid keyword stuffing
• Don’t abbreviate, unless well known
– Use people’s full names
– Companies
• Cover likely terms searched-for to increase your
content’s relevance

40. You can still write great on-page headlines while
benefitting from search engine traffic

41. HEADLINE 4
SOCIAL MEDIA

42. “If searching for news was the most important
development of the last decade, sharing news may be
among the most important of the next”
- Amy Mitchell, Tom Rosenstiel & Leah Christian

43. Where social media links come from
http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/mobile-devices-and-news-consumption-some-
good-signs-for-journalism/what-facebook-and-twitter-mean-for-news/

44. Where social media links come from
Facebook
• Friends and family
• News they might well have gotten someplace else if
Facebook did not exist
Twitter
• A more even mix of family and friends and news
organizations
• Most of these users also feel that without Twitter, they
would have missed this kind of news

45. • Social media platforms continue to emerge as
newsgathering tools
• They offer exciting opportunities
• for reporters to collect information
• for news organizations to expand their reach
Social media for News

46. But they also carry challenges and risks
And that’s why its important to identify best
practices and policies

47. Engage in two-way communication
Social media isn’t
broadcasting, it’s interacting
and responding
USA TODAY responds and interacts
successfully

48. Be careful
• There are often limits to the value of engagement
• Social media opens the door to dialogue with readers and
viewers – but not all dialogue is friendly
• Participate in conversations but avoid arguments and angry
responses
• Sometimes it’s better to not respond

49. Be Accurate and Verify
• Social media is instantaneous and in real-time
• Reporters should maintain similar investigative standards
for material obtained by means of social media as to any
other information source
- Is it accurate
- Is the source reliable?

50. Boston Bombing
Different platforms, different purposes
Twitter
• Rapidly aggregated information and images
from everyday people at the scenes
• #BostonStrong
• Less personal
Facebook
• Care and support
• Friends and family
• Facebook Page
• Social media, a great supplier of information for many
• However, a source of inaccurate information and frustration
for some

51. Break news on your site, not Twitter
Social Media
• A great way to drive traffic and increase reach
• Include links where possible
Careful, as competitors
• Could snap up your scoops first hinted at on Twitter
• To accelerate the publication of a story
• Moving forward with your story, receiving all the traffic
However, there are times when it is advisable to post on Twitter
before a story posts on your website…
• Press releases
• Press conferences

52. Be transparent and correct mistakes if
you make them
• Quickly admit when you’re wrong…
- Mistakes happen, just like in print
- Issue a correction tweet or Facebook post thereafter
• Only delete the post if you have noticed the mistake right away
- If interaction has already occurred, do not delete it!
- Instead, respond and provide the correct info

53. Optimise your profiles
• Fully complete your profiles
• It’s your first impression
• It’s how people can find you

54. Twitter Best Practices
• Include Twitter bio
• Optimise visuals, including header image
• Use hashtags, to help people discover your content
• Follow others

55. • You have 140 characters, use 120 of them. This
allows your followers to easily RT you
• Retweet, but do it wisely
• Automated tweets
- Do it, but in moderation
- Also craft your own messages
Twitter Best Practices

56. Use Hashtags
Make sure they are relevant!
Don’t hashtag everything!

57. Twitter for News
https://twitter.com/TwitterForNews

58. Choose a compelling cover photo
Add custom tabs
Facebook Best Practices

59. Fill out the ‘About’ section

60. • Include compelling images
• Ask questions to generate interaction

61. Storytelling
Share breaking news
• People want to be informed about news as it happens
• Included terms such as “breaking” or “breaking news” for higher engagement
• Keep people updated as the story develops

62. Storytelling
Use a Conversational Tone
• Facebook is a people-driven
platform.
• Let your audience know there’s a
person behind the posts

63. Storytelling
Reward Your Audience with Exclusive Content
• Post "sneak peeks" or behind-the-scenes content that rewards your audience

64. Storytelling
Share Behind-the-Scenes Photos & Videos To Grab Attention
• Provide a glimpse into the newsgathering process
• Show your audience that you’re on the ground

65. Monitor
• Monitor key terms
– Hashtags
– Events
– Ongoing stories
• Monitor your brand
• Monitoring tools
– Hootsuite

66. Hootsuite
• Set up and track relevant keywords and hashtags
• To keep up to date with the latest – all easily accessible in one place
• Connect to your social profiles
– Monitor mentions
– Retweets
– DMs

67. Social media alone doesn’t close the deal…
• Social media for news
– Still relatively small audience
– Not frequently
• Other methods of getting news are still popular
– Going directly to websites
– Via Apps
– Via search
http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/mobile-devices-and-news-consumption-some-
good-signs-for-journalism/what-facebook-and-twitter-mean-for-news/

68. be.linkedin.com/in/truusheremans
@trooogle
www.sociallyvisual.com