SEO Expert Offers Insights for Publishers

Inbox: What’s another SEO-related question you frequently hear from publishers that will be addressed at your session next week?
Lynch: I’ve been hearing a lot from writers and editors that they’re all stuck in AP Style. … But if you write only for AP Style—because search engines are literal, not lateral—you’re only going to get traffic for the words that you put on your site. So in order to do well on the broader category … you have to pepper that into the copy and put it into the right other site elements so you get more people coming to your site.

The other issue has been who is going to actually do it? Is that really a writer’s job? Is it an editor’s job? Frankly, I think it’s a marketer’s job. Because I don’t think you want the writer and editor thinking about those words, you want them writing about the topic. And then you want someone coming back at it later and then optimizing it. I guess the rub comes with “I don’t want someone else touching my copy.” Well, that’s something you have to work on internally and maybe say, “This is a new process that’s going to generate revenue that might give you a big bonus at the end of the year. So we’re going to have to let people touch your copy.” That’s really up to the publisher to enforce that.

Inbox: While many of our readers are advanced in their SEO approaches, some publishers’ understanding of the differences between SEO and SEM may still be blurred. Can you outline the differences between the two?
Lynch: SEO is search engine optimization and SEM is search engine marketing. Search engine optimization speaks to making your Web site better—using specific tactics to optimize your site for targeted key words. Search engine marketing is the broader category and includes not only optimizing your site but then using things like Google AdWords to promote your business.