Writing for the Web: SEO for News Content

Comments | Posted by Lee Odden on Dec 20th, 2008 in Online Marketing, Online PR, Press Release Optimization, Public Relations

At TopRank Online Marketing, we’re keen on matching content and therefore optimization efforts with the right audiences. News is a perfect candidate for optimizing by intent. Below is a presentation I did recently as part of a PR News webinar on the topic of writing for the web, optimizing online PR communications.

As part of the presentation, I included insights from a recent poll of journalists and editors from a mix of print and online publications we conducted. The poll was designed to get a better understanding about their use of search to find sources, conduct research and any other search function that helps them do their job.

The responses were enlightening. Since the budgets that drive most search optimization work come from marketing and focused on consumer search behavior, there’s not much information about other audiences that use search. Most SEO advice centers around lead generation or sales and justifiably so, because reveneue is what pays the bills.

Search is one of the most useful resources to a journalist or reporter and that presents an opportunity for companies with compelling news. Whether it’s optimizing the text of web pages, press releases or a newsroom plus digital assets like audio from interviews, images and video, there are opportunities for optimization. If a document or media asset can be searched on, it can be optimized.

Take a look at the presentation and let me know what your impressions are. Would you like to see more of this type of content on Online Marketing Blog?