SEO and Journalism Forever Converge

The field of Journalism is forever changing and it is likely one day soon that journalism students everywhere will find Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) courses engrained in their core curriculum at universities.  Consumer consumption of news and media has been rapidly changing over the past decade from traditional media outlets like television and newspapers to more interactive and consumer driven content on the Internet.   The advent of devices like Amazon’s Kindle and the Apple IPad will only increase the speed of this change and if a journalist hopes to win an audience for their content they must understand SEO tactics to ensure it appears in search engine results.

Nikki Usher recently wrote a piece titled ‘What impact is SEO having on journalists? Reports from the field’ which explored the various sentiments today’s journalists had on SEOs involvement in journalism.  Many in the field expressed concerns that the focus on SEO in the newsroom has caused them to change their writing style and impacted the very stories they investigate and report.   For example, journalists have to ensure titles of their articles and the word choices in their article are conducive to being returned by search engines.  Unfortunately for individuals opposed to SEO tactics in the news the debate on this topic is over and any new journalist hoping for a long and successful career needs to understand how to employ effective SEO in their reporting. 

In this video Julian Sambles discusses the importance of this at the Telegraph in the U.K. and how they are transitioning from a newspaper environment to a multi-media company.

The new reality is that journalists need to make their content easy to find for the people searching for it.  Some tips from Lisa Born to help journalists in this area include learning how to write an SEO-friendly headline, write your content and then revise it to SEO it and learning how to push content via social media.   The barriers to entry are becoming increasingly lower to get into ever crowded field of online journalism but there is plenty of opportunity for journalists willing to take the time to learn SEO and deliver well written content that people want.