SEO/SMOfor Journalists
The Gazette • Oct. 22, 2012
Teresa Schmedding • [email protected]
AME Daily Herald Media Group • ACES president
How to get web hits, engage readers without sounding like a machine
Who is online? 83% of 18-29 are online; 70% of 30-49;
51% of 50-64; 33% of 65+ 89% of women 18-29 “No significant difference”: race, ethnicity,
income, education, urban/suburban/rural Faster growth among older users 1 billion FB users; 36% get news on FB
Source: Pew
SEO, SMO – Display type
SEO stands for search engine optimization, which means using words to get a higher ranking on Google/Bing search engines so more people click on.
SMO stands for social media optimization, which means using social media to draw readers in (FB, YouTube, FourSquare, Delicious, Twitter, Flickr, etc.).
The basics
Big, secret spiders High school rules Keywords, metadata Keywords in URL
Words you control
What you can control is how well your words match the relevance of a query
Capturing readers’ attention Compelling them to click on your item
Matching queries
Use key terms Use proper
names Use unique
terms Know your
audience
The nitty gritty What keywords are in your content? What are people searching for? Will it draw your audience, back your
brand?
Figuring out those keywords Easiest way is start typing in search
bar, follow suggestions
Figuring out those keywords Google Trends (google.com/trends) lets
you enter terms, see which is trending higher
Figuring out those keywords http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends or
http://www.google.com/trends/explore
Figuring out those keywords http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends or
http://www.google.com/trends/explore
Figuring out those keywords
OpenCalais (http://viewer.opencalais.com/) lets you go even deeper
OpenCalais
What not to do
Worry about repeated words Use puns Count on the art Worry about bad breaks
Don’t forget
Your main goal is to help people who want to read your content find it. Once they find it, you want them to click on it.That’s where your brain kicks in.
Critical elementsCorrect +
Concise + Consistent + Complete
And, in social media world
Conversational + Genuine
Frank Russell, University of Missouri
Social media common themes
Don’t be coy, don’t oversell Consistent voice Your audience, your voice Write tight Write in context Identify yourself
Know your audience
Reflect philosophy of your company Use proper tone, taste FB, twitter, Pinterest, web not the same Never
tweet more than100characters
Know your goals
Do you want to engage? Do you want to draw clicks? Do you want to build brand awareness? How many times are you going to tweet
a day? How many times are you going to FB?
How will it look?
How will it look?
How willit look?
How will it look?
What to do with words
Stick to seven words or less Write to an individual Be clear Use “key” terms in the summary (vs. generic
words) Be specific Use proper nouns If the story updates, update the display type
Two things not to forget
Ask yourself, if you were googling this subject, what words would you type into a search engine?
Don’t tie yourself up in knots writing a gibberish summary to appeal only to a search engine. Use your writing skills and write a straight, clear lead paragraph.
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