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Online
Getting there, staying there
How to get people to see, read and enjoy
your stories
Michael Baker, Local Editor of The Oklahoman
July 9, 2009
Maynard Institute
Reno, Nev.
Why the Web
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Print circulation in decline
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Web circulation new hope
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Numbers TK
Numbers TK
We want people to see our work
What we will learn
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How to drive people to Web stories by writing
headlines that use effective search engine
optimization (SEO) strategies
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How to write for online so that people stay with the
story
Bad headlines
Another questionable head
The story goes on - and on and on ...
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Readers on the Web want information quickly
And they want it broken up
Not like this recent story on NewsOK.com
But something more like this story, also from
NewsOK.com
It’s a new world
It’s a sideways world
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Users don’t browse — they search
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Traffic also comes from other Web sites
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80% of Internet sessions begin with a search engine
About 40% of traffic comes from search engines;
50% of that from Google
Drudge, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, blogs
Visitors come to a story sideways, bypassing the
homepage
What Google looks for
Google crawls, searches for and indexes words in the title bar of homepage,
URL, headline and tops of articles
Say what?
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Web heads are often
displayed out of
context. They need to
stand on their own
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Ask yourself: Can
you tell from the
headline what the
story is about?
Avoid puns and
clever headlines
perfect for print —
be straightforward
online
In print there is context
A good headline for print
A better headline for Web
One more example
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When the pope died, The New York Times
had this headline:
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‘Thousands flock to Vatican’
Nobody flocked to the Web page
Then, an SEO expert saw it
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‘Pope dies’
People slammed the servers
Headline rules and regs
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Start with keywords
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Such as “Pope dies”
First 11 characters, about 60 characters long
Use names, not descriptions, in headlines
when a famous person is involved
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“(Oklahoma) Governor Henry,” not just “Gov.”
“Michael Jackson,” not just “Pop icon”
Michael Jackson or Pop Icon?
A few more rules and regs
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If the person is not a celebrity, use keywords
not names
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“Woman gives birth to eight children” (until the
name becomes well-known, then you can use
“Nadya Suleman” or even better, “Octomom”)
Put company names in headlines
More rules and regs
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Use city names
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Yes: “Oklahoma City fire kills three”
No: “Fire kills three”
City names should be used with sports teams
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Yes: “Oklahoma City Thunder win home opener”
No: “Thunder win home opener”
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For columnists, put names upfront
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OKC is not a well-known abbreviation outside Oklahoma.
“Painter: Tulsa looking for a new hospital”
Know your readers
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Oklahoma: Oil, Sooners, Cowboys, Underwood
Helpful tools
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Finding effective keywords
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http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
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Example: “weather forecaster” used in 9 searches.
“Meteorologist” 435
http://google.com/trends
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Example: No ranking for “weather forecaster” vs. 1
for “meteorologist.”
About articles
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Hard news ledes outperform feature ledes because of
front-loaded keywords
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Who, what, when, where and why — the old inverted
pyramid
Remember the first reader is likely a Web spider
Remember how Google searches: title bar, URL,
headline, tops of articles
What goes up first, gets picked up first
File short and quick, then update
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Wire service thinking with constant updates
Make a new article when there’s enough to merit it
Write for the scanner
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On the Web, it’s even more important to serve the scanner (F-shaped:
Nielsen Norman Group, 2006)
What makes a good Web story?
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Good writing is good writing
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Pages with many references to location, rank higher
in search engines
But avoid local jargon
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Don’t change the text just to stick in keywords
Don’t use nicknames for locations like “Big Apple” for
N.Y., or “Charm City” for Baltimore
Disconnect briefs and letters to post them separately
so they can be indexed individually
What would Google think?
Web writing is good writing
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10 tips to writing on the Web
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Having a good story always helps
Break up long blocks of copy with subheads
One thought per paragraph
Paraphrase long quotes
Avoid listing numbers and stats in the text —
make a box instead
Web writing (cont.)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Write for the eye — Not just scanners, but look
for some white space and get rid of long blocks
of text. Use boxes, timelines and other devices
Be obvious
Active voice
Strong verbs
Look at the art while you’re writing — they
could be right next to each other online
But that’s just good writing?
Yes,
it is
Head games

IF IT’S A GROUP FROM DIFFERENT
PLACES, PUT EXAMPLES OF THEIR
WEB PAGES HERE AND GO THROUGH
AND CRITIQUE
Other exercises
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Let’s go to the handouts
Summary
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Front load headlines and text — 11, 60
Think about keywords
Control what you can — headlines, subheads,
breakout boxes
Online readers are scanners, grab their
attention and don’t let go
SEO sources
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SEOmoz.org: http://seomoz.org
SEOmoz Blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google & SEO:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
SEO Browser.com: http://seo-browser.com
PPC Blog: http://tools.ppcblog.com/
Wordtracker.com:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Google.com/trends: http://google.com/trends
Google Webmaster Tools:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
ReelSEO: http://www.reelseo.com/
SEO Egghead:
http://www.seoegghead.com/blog/
Search Engine Journal:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
Search Engine Watch:
http://searchenginewatch.com/
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Search Engine Watch Blog:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/
John Battelle’s Searchblog:
http://battellemedia.com/
SEO Chat: http://www.seochat.com/
SEO Chat’s SEO Tools:
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/
SEO Scoop: http://www.seo-scoop.com/
Natural Search Blog:
http://www.naturalsearchblog.com/
Applied SEO: http://www.appliedseo.com/
Mashable – The Social Media Guide:
http://mashable.com
Micro Persuasion – Steve Rubel:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/
Website Analytics Toolbox (great list of tools):
http://designm.ag/resources/website-analyticstoolbox/
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Compiled by Gil Asakawa
Manager of Audience Development,
MediaNews Group Interactive
[email protected]
My sources
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Outside the obvious in this presentation, the
following sources where used:
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Gil Asakawa, Manager of Audience Development with
MediaNewsGroup (June 29, Maynard Institute in Reno,
Nev.)
Dennis Joyce, an editor of the Data Circle in the
newsroom of The Tampa Tribune, News Channel 8 and
TBO.com (June, Maynard Institute)
Amy Eisman, director of writing programs, School of
Communication, American University (June 15, Maynard
Institute)