Search Engine Optimization and You

While constructing a lecture today for my multimedia journalism students on search engine optimization (among other things), it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken the time to fully optimize my own Web site.

Boy, was my face red.

By default, WordPress gives a very unassuming permalink to each new post and page. It includes an ID number and a question mark–exciting, I know.

But why settle for something like…

http://www.news-geek.com/blog/?p=10

…when you can have:

http://www.news-geek.com/blog/2005/bob-woodward-judith-miller-and-rovian-semantics/ ?

Search engines place a lot of value on words and phrases within URLs. If two blogs share all the same content, but one uses the original link structure while the other implements the new-and-improved structure, the latter blog will always outrank the other in a Google search.

You might be asking yourself why this matters. Who shares content like that?

Well, the answer is simple. While most blogs don’t syndicate original posts to other blogs, most news Web sites feature syndicated articles every day. (Ever hear of the Associated Press?) Just go to an aggregator like Google News and search for anything that comes to mind. Chances are, your top hits will not only have your search term in their headlines, but in their URLs as well.

If you want to stand out and make sure your content gets found–and you’re using content management or blogging tools–you should consider spending the five minutes it takes to optimize your URLs.

It’s pretty straight-forward, and even if you can’t figure out how to do it, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you’ll find the answers you need in your software’s FAQ.