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Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is changing the fundamental tool of journalism – how we write.
Journalists now have to get their heads round the fact that they have to write with a reader’s possible Google search in mind.
This doesn’t necessarily mean basic journalistic skills go out the window. If anything, they are more relevant than ever.
But it does mean that beautiful journalistic joke, the pun, can only be used with very careful consideration.
As well as thinking about Orwell’s five rules for effective writing, journalists now have to consider the rules of SEO:
- The headline must be accessible.
~ Cryptic, punny headlines are not searchable. The article needs to do what it says on the tin.
- Key words are King.
~ What words are most relevant to the story? Pick them out and repeat them.
- The first 200 words are the most important.
~ Search engines look at the first 200-500 words of an article. This means key words should be placed right at the top.
- Accuracy is crucial.
~ Google doesn’t allow for your misspellings. Sharp and accurate copy is a must.
“If you type google into google…”
Some people call this the dark art of the web. Charlie Brooker is not a fan, and his ‘Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it’ article in 2008 successfully demonstrates how it can go wrong.
But really, SEO isn’t asking journalists to employ any new skills. When you boil it down, it’s about presenting information in the most simple, accessible way possible.
Which is what good journalism is all about anyway.
fionaroberts
November 2, 2010
As a sub-editor (almost), I would say that SEO theoretically shouldn’t change headlines on straight news stories all that much. Those should carry the most relevant, eye-catching words anyway.
But it could affect opinion and feature pieces where more creative headlines are an organic part of the whole thing. And it gets slightly crazy if the very first word has to be the most important.
However, a good headline shouldn’t really be cryptic. We had dear, dear Kelvin MacKenzie quoted at us – ‘that’s not a headline, it’s a crossword puzzle’. Innit.
God, that was a mini-essay. Bloody love the IT Crowd!
fionaroberts
November 2, 2010
Also, an excellent post Miss McGee. I mean Hebden. Ooops. The Mills & Boon alter ego….
Nicola Hebden
November 2, 2010
If anyone googles Mills & Boon and gets to this post, Fi…
But yes, feature and opinion articles don’t really fit into the SEO rules. But then, they’ve always been on the fringe of news anyway (kind of), so maybe people who are looking specifically for them will find them anyway.
But then you get into the debate on serendipity, and the real role of newspapers, and what journalism really means and… I just don’t have the answer!
fionaroberts
November 3, 2010
Features and opinion on the fringe of news? Miss Hebden! Surely they are what will keep newspapers alive in the age of tinterwebs? But that’s another argument… :p