1. SEO/SMO
for Journalists
The Gazette • Oct. 22, 2012
Teresa Schmedding • tschmedding@gmail.com
AME Daily Herald Media Group • ACES president
How to get web hits, engage readers
without sounding like a machine

2. Who is online?
 83% of 18-29 are online; 70% of 30-49;
51% of 50-64; 33% of 65+
 89% of women 18-29
 “No significant difference”: race,
ethnicity, income, education,
urban/suburban/rural
 Faster growth among older users
 1 billion FB users; 36% get news on FB
Source: Pew

3. SEO, SMO – Display type
 SEO stands for search engine
optimization, which means using
words to get a higher ranking on
Google/Bing search engines so more
people click on.
 SMO stands for social media
optimization, which means using social
media to draw readers in (FB, YouTube,
FourSquare, Delicious, Twitter, Flickr,
etc.).

4. The basics
 Big, secret spiders
 High school rules
 Keywords, metadata
 Keywords in URL

5. Words you control
 What you can control is how well your
words match the relevance of a query
 Capturing readers’ attention
 Compelling them to click on your item

6. Matching queries
 Use key terms
 Use proper
names
 Use unique
terms
 Know your
audience

7. The nitty gritty
 What keywords are in your content?
 What are people searching for?
 Will it draw your audience, back your
brand?

8. Figuring out those keywords
 Easiest way is start typing in search
bar, follow suggestions

9. Figuring out those keywords
 Google Trends (google.com/trends) lets
you enter terms, see which is trending
higher

10. Figuring out those keywords
 http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends or
http://www.google.com/trends/explore

11. Figuring out those keywords
 http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends or
http://www.google.com/trends/explore

12. Figuring out those keywords
 OpenCalais (http://viewer.opencalais.com/)
lets you go even deeper

13. OpenCalais

14. What not to do
 Worry about repeated words
 Use puns
 Count on the art
 Worry about bad breaks

16. Don’t forget
 Your main goal is to help people who
want to read your content find it. Once
they find it, you want them to click on it.
That’s where your brain kicks in.

17. Critical elements
Correct +
Concise +
Consistent +
Complete
And, in social media world
Conversational + Genuine

18. Social media common themes
 Don’t be coy, don’t oversell
 Consistent voice
 Your audience, your voice
 Write tight
 Write in context
 Identify yourself

19. Know your audience
 Reflect philosophy of your company
 Use proper tone, taste
 FB, twitter, Pinterest, web not the same
 Never
tweet
more than
100
characters

20. Know your goals
 Do you want to engage?
 Do you want to draw clicks?
 Do you want to build brand awareness?
 How many times are you going to tweet
a day?
 How many times are you going to FB?

21. How will it look?

22. How will it look?

23. How will
it look?

24. How will it look?

25. What to do with words
 Stick to seven words or less
 Write to an individual
 Be clear
 Use “key” terms in the summary (vs.
generic words)
 Be specific
 Use proper nouns
 If the story updates, update the display
type

26. Two things not to forget
 Ask yourself, if you were googling this
subject, what words would you type into
a search engine?
 Don’t tie yourself up in knots writing a
gibberish summary to appeal only to a
search engine. Use your writing skills
and write a straight, clear lead
paragraph.