SEO a necessity for online news

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a must for online news websites if they want their stories to be found and read.

In a recent issue of the British Journalism Review, Shane Richmond (Editor of telegraph.co.uk communities) stated that there was no room for argument when it came to adopting SEO techniques. He also explained that journalists were concerned that their copy may be adversely affected by exploiting SEO techniques such as keyword insertion. He added that this would not be an issue, provided that the writers continue to view SEO as a tool for making the stories more interesting and relevant to the readers.

Mr Richmond stated that SEO was strongly focussed upon relevance, and he claimed that the use of irrelevant keywords would cause an unnecessary consumption of time, which would also serve to confuse the search engine.

Earlier this year at the WAN World Digital Publishing Conference, Ilicco Elia stated that SEO should be considered for news websites. The Head of Mobile for Reuters added that it was the cheapest way to increase incoming traffic.