Online Newspaper
Marketing
Scott Bateman
Feb. 22, 2012
Schedule
10:00 - Session 1: intro, SEO
10:55 - Break
11:05 - Session 2: other tactics
12:00 - Lunch with optional breakout
12:45 - Session 3: analyzing your own sites
1:45 - Wrapup, final questions
Background
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Indexed pages are growing 70% a year
Sites are growing 25% a year
Audience is growing 7.5% a year
Competition for eyeballs getting much hotter
Newspaper SEO
Newspapers historically have gained search
engine audiences in two important ways:
1.People do searches on the newspaper name
2.Search engines favor sites with new and highfrequency content (i.e., newspapers)
But everyone else is figuring that out ...
Market Share
The problem: Online newspapers are losing
market share.
The solution: Newspapers can adopt the same
tactics as their competitors.
Tactics
9 major online marketing tactics:
1.Search engine optimization
2.Link building
3.Social networking (Facebook, etc.)
4.Blogging (on other sites)
5.Email marketing (in decline)
6.Content marketing
7.Pay per click (Google AdWords)
8.Video marketing (YouTube)
9.Microblogging (Twitter)
Competition
Newspaper SEO
Tactic #1
What: search engine optimization
How: tweak the editorial production process
First Steps
What is the first thing a reporter does
when she or he sits down at a computer
to write a story?
Slugs
How many of you still use slugs?
Keywords
Both the file name and the slug
should use the same keywords. And
the keywords should be search
friendly.
Keywords
What makes a good keyword?
(Group discussion)
Article SEO
Identify one to three keywords and use them in
these ways:
1.File name
2.Slug
3.Lead (if possible)
4.Two to three times in the story
5.Headline
6.Photo file name (images.google.com)
Page SEO
Page SEO is related to article SEO, but it has
some distinct requirements.
1.Page title
2.Headline tags: h1 and h2
3.Meta description
4.Photo alt tag
SEO Results
Who is responsible for daily SEO
management?
If the answer is no one, getting
there will be much more difficult.
SEO Results
Which media outlet is No. 1 in news
in Charlotte, NC?
Online Newspaper Marketing
10-Minute Break
Link Building
Internal linking:
- Most important keywords on the most
important pages
External linking:
- Likewise, most important keywords
on the most important sites / pages
Link Building
There is a profound difference between
news stories with a short shelf life and
feature stories with a long shelf life.
Link Building
A link with relevant keywords is a vote.
A click on that link is another vote.
If the linking page is important, it’s a lot of votes.
And yes, the search engines track those clicks.
Social Media
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Facebook ... to a point
Twitter
Digg and Reddit
StumbleUpon
Google+ (writer profiles)
Think of links, not just branding.
Values: audience, branding and links
Blogging - on Other Sites
Why blog elsewhere? The links.
Target high-value feature content.
Major blog sites:
• BlogSpot
• Tumblr
• Live Journal
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the practice of publishing
your content on another site in order to put links
in that content back to your own site.
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HubPages
Squidoo
EzineArticles
Your newspaper partners
Profiles
Everytime someone registers on a
site, such as Facebook, Twitter,
Google+ or LinkedIn, they create
the opportunity for a profile with
invaluable links.
Profiles
Every byline should have a link to a profile page.
Every profile page should show articles by that writer.
They also should have links to Google+, LinkedIn,
Twitter and/or Facebook pages for that writer.
An RSS feed for every writer should update those
pages.
Those pages should have links back to keywordimportant pages on your site.
And the Rest
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Video marketing (YouTube)
Answers.Yahoo, Quora, Answers.com
Flickr
Pay per click
What's important is not to link to everything from
everywhere, but focus on critical pages and sections
of your sites.
And the Rest
Analyzing your sites
(Group brainstorming)
Wrapping Up
Online newspaper marketing is an extremely
complex subject with many iterations.
The key is developing a structure, a schedule
and a set of priorities to cover the most important
aspects: optimization and link building.
Wrapping Up
Organize tasks by:
1.Day, week and month
2.Type of site
3.Priority, i.e., rank of site, amount of audience
Use calendar reminders to complete the tasks.
Consistency is essential.
Wrapping Up
Final questions and comments