Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, can grow your online audience, but it's hard to know what the best practices are for how to use it. It isn't a popular technique in the nonprofit news sector, but the Shorenstein Center is trying to change that.
The past year, the Shorenstein Center has worked with participating nonprofit newsrooms to incorporate SEO best practices to increase their search visibility. In a year, the news sites have seen an increase in web traffic, some as much as about a 60 percent increase.
When using SEO techniques and targeting already-engaged readers with emails, newspapers can grow their audience base. And although there has been success using SEO, newsrooms still want to know how to choose the best keywords for people to search so their sites will come up as a result. Newsrooms that have the most trouble with SEO are ones that publish policy and investigative stories because such content might not include popular keywords of the day or week, especially if it is more of a niche topic.
However, expert Kelly DeLay, has some tips for how all newsrooms can benefit from SEO. These include picking broad keywords that relate to your story so that when readers type general words in the Google search bar, your story becomes more visible in the results section.
Keep reading to find out how to choose specific words that will optimize your news stories.