SEO: Helping PeopleFind Your Work

Steve ButtryBennington Banner

March 21, 2013

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Keys to SEO• Relevance• Keywords in headline• Keywords in story (best in lead)• Understand how people are searching• Relevant links

Relevance rulesKeep SEO in mind as you write, but …• Relevance matters; popular but

irrelevant keywords can hurt you• Quality matters• Social matters, too, and people share

good reads• Relevance matters in links

Keywords in headline• What words would you use to search for

this post?• Use those words in headline• If possible, start headline w/ key phrase• Check Google Trends• Use full names• (VIDEO) in headline

Keywords in headline• Use location names:(Vermont, not

“state”• No puns (unless you can do it with

keywords)• Headline needs to be enticing w/

keywords• Google stops reading after 65 characters

Keywords in lead• Most important: good lead• Sharing drives traffic, too, so don’t write

for search engine• Edit for search engine; would search

terms help or hurt original lead?• If keywords don’t work in lead, be sure

head is strong & use them high

Fill in metadata• “Blurb” field in NGPS• Fill in keyword-rich SEO descriptions,

cutlines, etc. for photos, videos• Alternate text for images

Links help people find you• Relevant outbound links boost

Googlejuice• Pingbacks bring you inbound links &

boost Googlejuice• Add links as you do research• Use relevant anchor text (not “click

here”)

Don’t forget internal links• Link to earlier stories on your site• Go back and link earlier stories to

updates• Internal links drive more views directly • Internal links help SEO

Links provide:• Attribution• Context• Authority• Credibility

Consider whether context implies endorsement of linked views/content

Reach a wider audience• Effective use of social media (Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, etc.)• Relevant comments (w/ links) on related

blogs• Emails/tweets/#hashtags call to attention

of influencers

Write 2 headlines• Write a headline for a story you’re

working on• Find an ineffective headline on your site

& strengthen its SEO

Read more about it• stevebuttry.wordpress.com (#twutorial)• slideshare.net/stevebuttry• @stevebuttry• sbuttry@digitalfirstmedia.com • zombiejournalism.com