While looking up information on the Spire in Toronto, I stumbled across the Web site for real estate company Context Development, Inc. (The company has expensive condos near downtown.)
What popped up fourth on Google was the page below: Not Context Development’s home page, but rather a page “designed to assist search engines.” (The text is: "This page is not meant to be viewed, it is meant to assist search engines. To enter the main Context Development site click here.")
Well, the technology worked – the search engines found the site. But there are much better ways to do search engine optimization, like through keywords buys, meta tags and intelligent headline writing.
Quick fact from our soon-to-be-released Newspaper Online Operations Performance Report: The newspapers surveyed that said they could identify the source of their Web site traffic reported an average of 20 percent of their traffic came from Google. Yahoo drove about 7 percent of traffic to newspaper Web sites, followed by MSN at 4 percent and AOL at 1 percent. So on average, about 30 percent of traffic to your newspaper’s Web site may be coming from search engines.
In light of that, I wanted to point out a mini-case study on The Houston Chronicle (click on the pdf icon for the full report), which revamped its search engine optimization strategy to significantly grow traffic to its Web site.
The case study is included in The NAA Online Gallery includes best practices and case studies from the past 18+ months and all the Digital Edge Award and ACME Award finalists and winners from the past four years. It’s a great tool.
And speaking of the Digital Edge Awards (come on – you knew I was going to write that): You have four days left to enter! There will be no deadline extensions this year.
New Innovation in Action Report
Ill Winds: Newspapers Use Latest Technology to Help Put Human Face on Tragic Stories
Covering an international crisis that happens in your backyard – if you do it well and respectfully – can be a way to bind a paper and its community together. The national attention can also lift your paper’s profile and bring in new readers. The Roanoke Times covered the shootings at Virginia Tech; the Lancaster New Era covered the shootings at an Amish grade school. They used online multimedia resources to expand their coverage in ways that both told the story better and served their communities.
Nobody wants to be crass and say they’re trying to figure out the best way that their paper can capitalize on someone else’s tragedy.
But think of it this way: if you do a good job, your community will get the truth of whatever has happened, which helps stop the fear-inspired rumors and wild tales that spring up in the wake of a great tragedy. Poor coverage, or coverage that your readers interpret as being disrespectful or exploitative could turn the community against you.
Moreover, the lessons learned from these papers’ reaction to the violent tragedies can also be applied to events that are not so tragic in nature – such as a local sports hero winning a gold medal in the Olympics.
Continue reading Innovation in Action: Ill Winds...