Add a Comment

SEO and Social News Organizations (part 2)

May 4, 2010
by

Yesterday, in the first installment of our series on Social News Organizations (SNOs) we examined how newspapers’ core product offer is not obsolete, but rather their distribution and revenue model is.

In this installment, we’ll examine the vital role that search engines play in the SNO business model. Essentially, SEO is an integral part of an SNO’s distribution model because it helps increase the visibility of SNO content so that SNOs can attract new users.

Newspapers, on the other hand, have had a less explicit connection to search, with some newspaper owners outright accusing of scraping their content for profit. In fact, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation recently blocked Google from indexing its newspaper content altogether.

Given how users navigate the web, however, shutting out search engines is an impractical approach to content delivery. As the Pew Internet & American Life Project recently found, the internet has surpassed national and local print newspapers to become the 3rd most popular news platform in American, with 6 in 10 (59 percent) Americans getting “news from a combination of online and offline sources”. And navigating the near infinite expanse of online content without tools such as search engine is near impossible. So by shutting out search engines, newspapers would essentially shut out new readers.

First Click Free & Social News Organizations

By using SEO tools such as First Click Free (FCF), SNOs can can maintain their search engine and still drive new user registrations. Through FCF, newspapers can allow search engines in behind their registration wall to index their content. Then, if users click on a story in Google’s search results, they can access that one story, but have to register if they want to consume additional content. As Google’s Webmaster Central explains, FCF is designed to:

  1. To include highly relevant content in Google’s search index. This provides a better experience for Google users who may not have known that content existed.
  2. To provide a promotion and discovery opportunity for publishers with restricted content.

To further assist publisher such as newspapers, moreover, at the end of 2009, Google even recently modified FCF to allow publishers to limit access to their content though FCF to five accesses per user per day. This allows SNOs to attract new readers looking for authority, journalistic content, and potentially convert them into new subscribers.

Once these users are logged in, SNOs have an opportunity to access user data and hyper-target advertising. The value of these more targeted ads, moreover, will allow SNOs to bolster their ad revenues.

News networks that operate several portals and sites have even more of an opportunity to leverage FCF. Such news networks can merge the user databases of their various portals/sites and offer users universal access to all their content with a single login. This will both help increase user registration across all portals by reducing the need for multiple registrations by the same user. But more importantly, it will also give the SNO more opportunities to gain user data and insight into user content consumption patterns.

Case Study: First Click Free & TheHeart.org

The potential for FCF to convert searchers into registered users is significant. For example, the cardiology news site TheHeart.org (a WebMD property), implemented FCF in July 2009 (Disclosure: TheHeart.org is an NVI client and I manage the account). Users could now access one article after clicking through from search results, and then had to register to see additional articles. In the first week, registrations to the site more than doubled and, to date, have remained at that higher level.

To facilitate registrations, TheHeart.org also offers a direct and simple registration process: (1) registration is free, and (2) no email confirmation is required. The free registration increases the likelihood that users will begin the registration process, and the lack of registration steps ensures that users will complete it.

Futhermore, TheHeart incentivizes users to provide accurate data by allowing them to customize their content experience. For instance, by providing an accurate email address and information of what sort of medicine they practice, TheHeart.org users can ensure that they continue to be alerted of, and gain access to, breaking news and new scientific findings related to their field.

SEO & User Acquisition

Just as relying on the physical, printed product is an outdated distribution strategy, so is the idea of resisting search engines. The internet has become a choice medium for consumers, and users rely on search engines to navigate the near infinite expanse of online content.

Publishers now operate in a market that’s guided more by the economics of abundance than of scarcity, and there’s no business opportunity in making it more difficult for consumers to access your product. Besides, many publicly traded companies already rely on Google for the revenues.

So it makes perfect business sense for content producers to leverage search engines as one of their primary distribution/acquisition channels. Not only can search engines deliver new readers, but they can also deliver ones that are targeted (through their search queries), interested, and engaged.

In the next installment of our series on SNOs, we’ll examine how SNOs can use social media to retain registered users, leverage their personal social networks to acquire more users, and access additional user data. The additional layer of user data, moreover, helps guide  SNOs editorial and revenue strategy. While SNOs can use this data to create more custom user experiences, they can also use it to both better understand what advertising opportunities are available to them and seize those opportunities by offering hyper-targeted ad placements.

Read the Series:

About CT Moore

A Staff Editor here at Revenews.com, CT Moore has over 5 years experience leveraging search and social media to help brands meet their business goals online. By day, he provides SEO and social content strategy to both SMBs and enterprise level companies. CT is also an accomplished blogger, podcaster, and conference speaker who educates groups and companies about how they can leverage digital media. You can find CT on Twitter @gypsybandito.

Twitter: gypsybandito
Filed under: Online Publishing + SEO