Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

| This News Blog is dedicated to bringing news, information and innovations targeting the Search Engine Optimisation industry.

SEO at centre of journalism

Search engine optimisation has become an essential element of journalism at TimesOnline and integral to its operations, according to the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Anne Spackman.
 
She said that it was inconceivable that TimesOnline would start a new project without the search team being involved at every single stage.
 
And search, she added, was woven through the fabric of journalism and culture at the paper.
 
She said that search became central to the paper's strategy when it overhauled its internal search engine as part of the TimesOnline revamp last year.
 
Spackman described the team of search editors, which the paper appointed following its relaunch, as the hub of digital operations.
 
She said that analysis of its website traffic showed that 60% of users arrived through search and external links.
 
TimesOnline has nevertheless emphasised to its journalists, who have been trained in writing content for the web, that their writing should not simply revolve around the purpose of search optimisation.
 
Spackman said that the paper needed to make sure that, whether it was a web manifestation or a print manifestation of its journalism, it was still staying true to its brand.
 
Search was informing its journalism, she added, but it was not using it as the guiding star to tell it what kind of journalism it should think was important.
 

Comment: