How to Connect Great Journalism with the Greatest Possible Audience Brent D. Payne Charlie Meyerson
What is SEO? What SEO is… • SEO = Search Engine Optimization • A division of online marketing with the purpose of building content that is more understandable and readable by search engines.
What SEO is NOT… • Building pages ONLY for search engines • Engagement of unethical practices to gain search engine favor. • An exact science
Who is Brent D. Payne? Brent D. Payne is NOT . . . • not a journalist in any way, shape, or form • not the best SEO for all fields of SEO • not a poised, professional speaker
Brent D. Payne is . . . • passionate about SEO and how it helps journalists • significantly experienced in SEO • dedicated to TEACHING people about SEO
SEO Jargon Top 10 Vocabulary Terms That’ll Be Talked About Today • Googlebot – The collective name for the thousands of servers crawling the web • PageRank – The factors Google uses to determine where a particular page should be listed in the search results • PageRank Number/PR# - The Google toolbar’s assigned number to a particular domain or page • Spider/Robot – Same as Googlebot above but not Google specific (i.e. could be any search engine) • White Hat/Black Hat – Whether you work with Google or against Google • Anchor/Anchor Text – The blue underlined link • ALT/Alt Text – The text you see when you scroll over an image • The Algo/Algorithm – All the engineering and coding that is the core of a search engine’s code • Microhoo – The theoretical search engine created by the merging of Microsoft and Yahoo! • 301/301 redirect – The process of telling the search engines a page has moved
Why the Obsession with Google? Yahoo! 15%
Microsoft 8%
Ask 3% All Others 2%
Google 72%
Why Should You Care About SEO? AOL 357,025,000
Ask.com 169,116,000
All Others 386,024,000
MSN/Live! 841,457,000 Google
Yahoo! MSN/Live! AOL Ask.com
Total Search Engine Traffic • Google 5.4 Billion Searches per Month • Yahoo! 1.4 Billion Searches per Month • MSN/Live! 841 Million Searches per Month Source: Nielsen Dec ‘08
All Others
Yahoo! 1,448,140,000 Google 5,421,943,000
Pwn’d!
That’s 2,024 Google searches per second!!
70% of Users Don’t Go Beyond the 1st Page of Search Engines! Well, looks like getting to that first page is REALLY important then.
Tribune SEO Statistics Tribune’s Search Engine Traffic
• 2007 – 22% of Visits from SEO • 2008 – 31% of Visits from SEO • Doubled SEO Visits Y/Y ‘08 to ‘07 • 2009 YTD – 36% of Visits from SEO 2007 SEO
Source: Omniture
2008 SEO 2009 SEO
What’s Driving the Growth • HTML Changes • CMS Enhancements & SEO Tools • SEO Planning of Future Events • Newsroom SEO Training Seminars • 100% of Newspapers Already Trained (Basic SEO) • Tribune Broadcast Sites 95% Trained • SEO Task Force Development Key SEO Wins
• Breaking News • Topic Galleries • Election/Inauguration • Oscars • Weather, Horoscopes, Trials
How Do Search Engines Work? Links
Popularity
Importance
Popularity
Trust
Similar Content
Importance
Relevance
What We Know and Don’t Know Authority Popularity
Relevance ( k 1) i
x
1 (k ) xj Bi N j
Page Rank j
The Psychology of Googlebot 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 01100010 01101111 01110100
Literal
• Googlebot doesn’t understand puns • Googlebot doesn’t get jokes • Googlebot is a robot not a buddy of yours
Context
• Googlebot only understands what you tell him • Get Lucky! • Laptop ‘case’ versus laptop ‘bag’ • ‘CompactFlash’ vs ‘Compact Flash’
Blind spots
• Googlebot can’t read iFramed content • Googlebot can’t read images (needs ALT text) • Googlebot can’t read javascript • Googlebot barely understands flash files
Media Companies are Treated Differently by the Search Engines We are different in a good way… • • • • •
Crawl rates are considerably more frequent Endless pipe of quality content Google likes us more (but still doesn’t need us) High authority Direct relationships with the search engines
We are different in a bad way… • • • • •
Expiring content Duplicate content Never ending changes to our content Horrid CMS/site structure Direct relationships with the search engines ;-)
SEO: Where Do I Start? Weather Local News
Fashion
What are people searching for? How can I find out?
Sports Movies
Politics
Food Horoscopes Travel
<Relevance>
Related Terms & Estimated Volume (Month Lag)
Provides long list of related terms (exports) Shows approx. search volume Shows advertiser competition for terms Shows keywords by URL
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Just Because YOU Search THAT Way . . . Compare multiple terms to determine which term receives the highest volume of search traffic. Use the drop down menus to change the date range and regional data sets. Export the data to a CSV (Opens in Excel, must be logged into Google Account).
http://www.google.com/trends
Google Trends: What is it?
http://www.google.com/trends
Get an Indication of Search Volume (Hourly)
Only chase after ‘Volcanic’ search terms, others don’t have the volume to justify the effort Watch graph, catch terms while they’re still spiking Note the related searches, use them in your body text
http://www.google.com/trends
Why the Search Term is Suddenly Popular (Hourly)
http://www.google.com/trends
Compare Differing Search Terms Volume (3 Day Lag) Compare multiple terms to determine which term receives the highest volume of search traffic. Use the drop down menus to change the date range and regional data sets. Export the data to a CSV (Opens in Excel, must be logged into Google Account).
http://www.google.com/trends
Find Top Volume Search Terms by Category (3 Day Lag) Discover the top volume search terms by category Discover fastest rising search terms by category
http://www.google.com/insights/search
Celebrity/Entertainment Keyword Research Trends Data • Updates multiple times per day • Graph of trend history Categories
Hmm. Gates, got xRank right at least.
• Celebrities • Musicians • Politicians Related Articles • News • Images • Videos
http://search.live.com/xrank
The Most Important HTML Elements Title Tag
• The most important HTML element • Communicate loudly but don’t spam • Must be unique!
Description
• Important mainly due to click through not SEO factors themselves • Should be unique,
H1
• Reiterate what the title tag states, one H1 per page • Beat up your designers that use if tor ‘style’ instead of SEO emphasis
H2 Bold, H3, Italics, URL, etc.
• Loosely reiterate what your H1 tag states, insert noise • 2x the number of H1 tags on the page
• H3 for breadcrumbs, featured areas, etc. • Bold tag, strong tag = same thing • URL is important for relevance with inbound links
Write ‘Boring’ Headlines REQUIRED
RECOMMENDED
DO NOT…
• Include targeted keyphrase
• • • •
Exact match keyphrase Place keyphrase in front Differentiate from SEO title Be succinct
• Use AP or other newswire headline • Use hyper-local buzz phrases • Be too witty at cost of search relevance
Write ‘Somewhat Boring’ Subheads REQUIRED
RECOMMENDED
DO NOT…
• Include core targeted keyword • Differentiate from headline and SEO title
• • • •
Include all words from keyphrase Use plural or singular version of keywords Use different tense for some keywords Be more verbose to create ‘SEO noise’
• Use of AP or other newswire headline • Use of headlines from other Tribune pages • Field usage for other purposes
If Your Slug Is Publicly Displayed . . . REQUIRED
• Use targeted keyphrase • Separate words with hyphens
• Avoid usage such as ‘story’, ‘sl’, ‘front’ RECOMMENDED
DO NOT…
• Abbreviate or omit vowels, etc.
Keyword Usage: Examples SEO Title
• Michelle Obama’s Dress: Who made Michelle Obama’s dress, plus photos -- Chicago Tribune
SEO Description
• Michelle Obama's dress and other wardrobe choices have been a breath of fresh air in the fashion industry. Learn about her dress at the …
Headline Subheadline URL/Slug
• Who made Michelle Obama’s dress?
• Michelle Obama’s dresses attract attention on Inauguration Day [not actually used]
• /chi-michelle-obama-dress-story
Linking Structure: Unorganized Article 2 Article 1
Section C
None of this content is that popular. I’m not going to rank it well.
Article 3
Links for ‘Topic X’
Section B
Blog 1
Blog 2
Section A
Blog 3
. . . and why it’s bad for SEO. The competitor is really popular for ‘Topic X’. I’m going to rank the competitor really well.
Competitor
Story 1 Story 2 Story 3
Blog 1
Blog 2 Blog 3
Linking Structure: Organized Blog 1
Blog 2
Blog 3 Section A
Story 3
Section B
Story 2
Story 1
Predetermined landing page for ‘Topic X’
Now this is popular content. I’m going to rank it well.
Section C
. . . And why it’s good for SEO. Your site has some really popular and relevant content. I’m going to rank it better than CNN, MSNBC, etc. Your site!
CNN MSNBC FOX News
Reuters
NY Times NPR
Google News: It’s About the One-Box
Google News One-Box • Appears on first page of Google Web for breaking news content • Is piped into several other Google products Google News Homepage
• Decent traffic (though not like Yahoo! Homepage) • Increases crawl and indexing in alternative search engines
Google News: Inclusion Submission
Google News Inclusion Submission Form • Google News is by submission only. Furthermore, the site must be approved by Google to be in Google News. Submission Form URL • http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/request.py?contact_type=suggest_content
Google News is a Different Animal URL Differences Traffic Trends Less Understood Robots Activity
• First impression is REALLY important. Slow to recrawl • Prefers Fresh URLs (i.e. new URLs) • MUST Have at Least a 3-digit Number in the URL (or sitemap)
• Greater Peaks & Valleys • Easier to Win But Evaporates Quickly • Google News ‘One-Box’ in Google Web is Unpredictable
• More a Script Than a Spider • Change to Site Requires Notification to Google News • Google News Homepage = Uncertainties
• Much More Reliant on Sitemaps (Specifically News Sitemaps) • No Separation of Googlebot from ‘Gnewsbot’ • Causes Control Issues for Webmaster
Google Webmaster Tools
Top Nine Things to Pay Attention to in Webmaster Tools • Be granular in your site submissions to Google Webmaster Tools • Download crawl errors at least weekly, look for patterns to fix • Track changes to how many sites are linking to your top pages • Compare top search query impressions to top search query clickthroughs • Watch for generic terms in your keywords list, minimize unwanted • Watch crawl errors, specifically News crawl errors • Monitor crawl stats for both pages crawled and kilobytes downloaded • Increase your crawl rate (if Google will let you) • MAKE SURE YOUR SITEMAPS ARE ALL WORKING PROPERLY!
Twitter Account Types: News Feed Create a News Feed from RSS • Use your most frequently updated quality content • Do NOT ‘at reply’ users from this account • Do NOT follow people back from this account; follow your own accounts
Twitter Account Types: Celebrities
Force Celebrities to Create Accounts • Make it a job requirement to have a Twitter profile • Give them freedom to be human (i.e. complain about their commute) • Get them to interact with their followers (follow them back, at reply, DM, etc.)
Twitter Account Types: Employees Allow Employees to Tweet • Set some ground rules about proprietary information • Underscore that company grievances should be addressed with Human Resources • Provide information to employee about libel/slander and the consequences • Allow them to promote the company and the competitor • Allow them to be genuine and personable • Give them freedom to be themselves in all aspects of their lives • Understand and accept that mistakes and issues will occur • Do NOT officially endorse them
Twitter Account Types: Brand Persona Create a Brand Persona • Create a character that your audience can connect with personally • Spend time to create a decent avatar • Mimic your brand perception or mimic the target audience demographic • Create a detailed personality, writing style, interests, etc. for the persona • Be sure to have the persona engage with the audience via ‘at replies’, ‘direct messages’, and even send event invites • Keep who’s behind the ‘veil of Oz’ private, always • Do NOT allow those behind the veil to inject personal opinions inconsistent with the brand persona • Make it your brand’s social media face
Get Big Fast: Promote Your Profiles
Make Your Audience Aware • Use your readership of print media to promote your twitter profile • Use your viewership of television to promote your twitter profile • Promote your twitter profile to your listeners via radio • Don’t forget the easiest of them all… your website visitors!
Get Seen: Use Twitter Directories Use Twitter Directories • List yourself in the top Twitter directories • WeFollow, Twellow, Muck Rack, etc.
Engage the Locals: Have a Tweetup Tweetup = Local Engagement • Invite top referrers or bloggers specifically • Pick a decent venue that can handle 2x expected turn out • Utilize event sites like EventBrite or Meetup.com • Have one or two celebrities attend to create a draw • Clarify dress code, theme, location, food or no food, etc. • Promote the Tweetup from all profiles POUH YOUR • Have large nametags available and plenty COMPETITOR of pens • Take lots of pictures and post them publicly • Remember to MINGLE! • Do NOT buy the alcohol!
Take Off The Gloves: Poach Poach Your Competitor’s Followers! • Follow those that follow your competitor…and engage with them
POACH YOUR COMPETITOR
Get A Little Dirty: Cheat Twitter Automation
POUH YOUR COMPETITOR
• Auto-follow all followers of a particular user • Auto-follow all those that a particular user follows • Auto-follow those that follow you • Auto-follow those that tweet a particular keyword • Auto-follow by geography • Auto-unfollow anyone that isn’t following you • Only follow those that have x number of followers but under y number • Only follow those that have tweeted at least x number of times • Only follow those that have a non-default profile image • Setup a tweet for a later date and time • MUCH, MUCH, MORE!! • NOTE: I do NOT condone cheating!
Google Blog Search
Google Blog Search Quick Tips • Use RSS Auto-Discovery • Submit your blog URL to Google • Compare your blog vs. your non-blog content Google rankings/traffic Submission Form URL • http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?hl=en
SEO for WordPress Blogs Plugins!
SEO Overview
• How a Webpage Ranks Well in Search Engines • Search Engine Market Share • User Search Behavior
Keyword Research
• Google Trends/Hot Trends/Insights for Search • Google Keyword Research Tool • MS/Bing xRank
Site Structure
Site Visibility Essential Plugins to Do It!
• Linking Structure • Duplicate Content Mitigation • HTML Elements for SEO Emphasis • Sitemaps & Google Webmaster Tools • Google News Site Submission/Nuances • Google Blog Search Site Submission
• all-in-one-seo-pack, get-recent-comments, googlenews-sitemap-generator, google-sitemap-generator, page-links-to, redirection, seo-automatic-links, etc.
SEO Plugins: All in One SEO Pack
All in One SEO Pack â&#x20AC;˘ Allows for significant flexibility on the most important SEO aspects such as: title tag editing, flexibility to enter additional metas, duplicate content mitigation, canonical URLs, etc. Download this Plugin
â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
SEO Plugins: Get Recent Comments
Get Recent Comments â&#x20AC;˘ Best for smaller blogs because the links to the posts with the most recent comments get linked to from the homepage. Increasing freshness in the Google index. Download this Plugin
â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/get-recent-comments/
SEO Plugins: Google News Sitemap Generator
Google News Sitemap Generator â&#x20AC;˘ Generates a sitemap in the proprietary Google News Sitemap format. Download this Plugin â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-news-sitemapgenerator/
SEO Plugins: Google Web Sitemap Generator
Google Web Sitemap Generator â&#x20AC;˘ Generates an XML Sitemap that is compatible with Google and most other major search engines. Increases ease of crawlability for the search engines and also improves frequency of crawl. Download this Plugin â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
SEO Plugins: Page Links to
Page Links to â&#x20AC;˘ Allows you to redirect any page/URL to any other page/URL of your choice. You can even choose a 301 redirect or 302 redirect option. Note: Always use 301 redirect though. Download this Plugin
â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/page-links-to/
SEO Plugins: Redirection
Redirection • Unlike ‘Page Links to’, this plugin allows you to find 404 pages and redirect them to other locations. Download this Plugin • http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/
SEO Plugins: SEO Smart Links
SEO Smart Links â&#x20AC;˘ Allows for consistent inline links in posts, comments, etc. to specified destination URLs. Helps to drive consistent anchor text to landing pages of your choice. Download this Plugin
â&#x20AC;˘ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/
Contact Info Brent D. Payne • Director, Search Engine Optimization • Tribune Company, 435 N. Michigan, Chicago, IL 60611 • Phone: 312.324.3344 • Email: bpayne@tribune.com • Instant Messenger/Personal Email: bpayne@gmail.com • Twitter: @BrentDPayne (follow w/ caution) • Driver’s License Number: BDP24456U8 • Passport Number: 46645347666