Chris Snider

I had the pleasure of speaking to journalists about writing for the web and search engine optimization today at Drake University.

Here are the slides from my presentation. I’ve also set up a workshop page so you can find out about future workshops (I plan to keep offering them at Drake). If there are certain workshops you would like to see offered (or offered again), please share your ideas in the comments area.

Interested in attending future workshops on related topics? Get more information on my workshop page.

The way people consume information online is different from the way they consume information in print. And more importantly, the way people get to your information online is very different than in print.

Below is a preview of what I will be talking about at Drake University Saturday for a session titled Writing for the Web. I’ll also be giving an introduction to search engine optimization. Here’s more info on the session Writing for the Web and Intro to SEO.

1. How people read online

• They don’t read every word
• They scan (quickly), looking for information they want
• If they don’t find it fast, they click on something else
• They jump from site to site (meaning they expect you to link to great content on other sites)
• They avoid ads (and anything that looks like an ad)
• They read across the top, then down, then across, then down, like an F…
• They don’t scroll

2. What gets read online

• Short paragraphs
• Bulleted lists
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• Literal headlines

3. The web is very literal. Be straightforward. Those pun headlines that work great in print won’t work online – especially when we consider how much of our traffic is coming from search engines (searches are straightforward … Iowa football, Des Moines newspaper, Britney Spears naked).

4. Use links. They’re the currency of the web. They’re a great way to add context to what you are writing for readers who want more information.

5. Explore alternative story forms. Not everything should be a 15-inch story. In fact, not everything should be a “story.” We have a wealth of tools online to use to present information to readers.

• Lists
• Photos
• Videos
• Thought posts
• Interviews
• Live chats
• Live videos
• Slideshows
• Best of posts

6. Link to your related content. Don’t assume today’s readers have been with you from the start. Help them easily find your previous content.

7. Comment back to people. The story doesn’t end when you hit “publish.” The web is social. When someone leaves a comment on your site, comment back and keep the conversation going.

8. Make it easy to share your content and easy to subscribe to your content. In addition to offering an RSS feed, use Feedburner to let people subscribe to your new posts via e-mail.

9. Comment on other people’s blogs. Do you really expect others to comment on your posts when you’re not commenting on other blogs yourself?

10. Know your metrics. Use Google Analytics to see which of your content is most popular and which isn’t getting read at all. Do more of the popular stuff and less of the unpopular stuff.

Photo by dbdbrobot via Flickr

Ranking high in Google News search results is a great way to drive more traffic to your breaking news stories. And jumping to the top of the Google News list isn’t as difficult as you may think.

We’ve been experimenting with getting our content higher in Google News search results for the past few months. Here are some tips to get your content ranked at or near the top:

Google News likes content that is: Original, recent, from a source close to the event and from a trusted source. So focus more on your local stories instead of trying to rank high for big, national news that happens outside of your coverage area.

Use keywords in headlines – preferably at the beginning. If you want people to find your article by searching “Iowa Hawkeyes football,” then ideally your headline will start with the words “Iowa Hawkeyes football.” At the very least, be sure to get all three words somewhere in your headline.

Not sure which keywords or key phrases to use? Tools like the Google keywords tool and Google trends are a great place to see what words people actually search.

Use your keywords in the first paragraph. You’ll want to repeat your keywords in the first paragraph of your story. Again, these will ideally go at the beginning of your story. Try to avoid feature lead-ins and stick to news leads online.

Use a photo. Preferably a jpeg that appears near the headline and is between 250×250 and 400-400 pixels. Make sure your image has a caption and alt text.

Include a video. Google likes multimedia, so embedding a video helps your ranking.

Include links. Make sure you are linking to other content – whether on your site or on other sites. Google likes links. And make sure those are in-text links (links from actual words within the article).

Get other people to link to your story. OK, so you can’t really control this, but the more other people link to your story the more authority Google gives that story. If you’re part of a network of sites, try to get others to link to your story.

Point internal links to your new story. Add in-text links from sidebar stories to point to your main story. This helps build the authority of the main story.

Include a dateline. Google news groups stories by location.

Keep your story organized. Google likes well-organized content that is logically divided, easy to scan and read. Google also likes bulleted lists and stories chunked into small parts with subheads.

More tips:

• Having trouble ranking high for your keyword? Use keywords tools to find alternative keywords. They may not drive as much traffic as the main keywords, but you’ll increase your chances of getting to the top.
• Make sure your URLs have at least three digits – which helps Google News determine it’s an article and not a static page.
• Don’t break up the body of your story with related links, multiple pages or user comments.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for my March 27 workshop on SEO and writing for the web?