Headlines and SEO Assignment

Headlines & SEO/ Web-‐original Story Types

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Headlines make or break the story

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  Parsability -‐Is it easy to understand?

-‐Do you understand the story without addi8onal context?

  Promise -‐What the reader will get?

  Proper Nouns -‐Words that the reader seeks.

Three P’s of a great web headline

“A joke that works is complete knowledge in a nanosecond.” Steve Martin

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5 Steps to a great web headline

1.  Iden8fy relevant words and informa8on (proper nouns) 2.  Iden8fy what’s interes8ng about the story

3.  Write, then rewrite 4.  Find beKer verbs

5.  Check with a colleague o  Bonus: Is it Tweetable?

Relevant words: Budget Deficit Super CommiKee Women Debt Ceiling Congress $1.5 trillion

Relevant informaDon: Women should make up half of the commiKee

What’s interesDng about the story? -‐ Women, who represent half the popula8on, should make up half of the super commiKee. -‐ A commiKee that decides our tax obliga8ons should represent the popula8on by gender.

Women missing from Super CommiKee on deficit deal Women absent from Super CommiKee on deficit deal Call to ac8on: Super CommiKee Must be Half Women Super CommiKee Must be Half Women Super CommiKee Should be Half Women Budget Deficit Best Solved by Women Budget Deficit Best Solved with Women Why the budget deficit should be solved with women* Is the budget deficit gender biased?* Women: Deficit in the Super CommiKee Female Deficit in the Budget Super CommiKee Deficit: Women in Budget Budget crisis needs a league of extraordinary ladies* Secret weapon for the budget crisis: women The case for a half-‐woman Super CommiKee

Relevant words: water peril rain drought global warming climate change infrastructure Central Valley California

Relevant informaDon: -‐Drop in precipita8on by 4 -‐ 5 % -‐Will be 5 -‐ 6 degrees warmer in the Central Valley -‐Exis8ng infrastructure can't keep up with changes to climate

What’s interesDng about the story? -‐Something has to change in order to break even -‐Exis8ng infrastructure can't keep up with changes to climate

Report: Less rain, more pain this century for California water supplies Rivers and dams can't keep up with California climate Rivers and dams fall behind California's warming climate* 6 degrees of separa8on between… 6 degrees in Central California: The difference 6 degrees of heat in Central California may pinch water supplies 6 degrees of heat in Central California: the state is not ready 6 degrees of heat in Central California: state water supply not ready Central California temps to rise by 6 degrees... California s8ll has no water California s8ll has water issues California yet to overcome water crisis For California water crisis, glass s8ll half empty* Why California rivers need more rain

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SEO likes

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  Crawls text, imita8ng user behavior -‐Google crawls from lec to right

-‐Google crawls from top to boKom

  Headlines rule

How does Google work?

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  Fresh content – news rules   Text, Text, Text

  Relevant proper nouns   Linking out to quality pages

  Being a credible established source of news   Quality sites linking to you

What does Google like?

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SEO dislikes

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  LiKle or no text   Bad headlines

  Abbrevia8ons   New domains

kplunews.org vs. news.kplu.org

What does Google dislike?

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Titles Exercise

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QuesDons?

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  Select three stories   Write five different headlines for each story

  Highlight the best headline with an asterisk

  Due: Thursday, May 3, COB

  KUNC, WFPL, WSKG, WNIJ to Ki: [email protected]

  Delmarva, KETR, WFSU, KCUR to Eric: [email protected]

Assignment

Headlines and SEO Assignment

Technology

Transcript of Headlines and SEO Assignment