New York Times Focuses on Search Engine Optimization

It hardly seems possible that, until recently, Google was not indexing the New York Times.

But as Search Engine Watch reports, the Times is making a serious effort to optimize its site and build traffic. According to Marshall Simmonds, the newspaper’s vice president of enterprise search, the Times had previously relied on the strength of its brand to generate search rankings.

Among the newspaper’s search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives:

• Overcoming registration obstacles: Search engines were unable to index any articles because they couldn’t get past the newspaper’s user registration page. After working through the technical details, the Times now allows search engine crawlers to index stories dating back to 1981.
• Accessing premium content: The Times’ paid-versus-free archiving system is fairly complex, but even premium content (accessible for a fee) is now indexed by Google and Yahoo. (On a related note, Times sometimes serves up cloaked content, which is typically frowned upon by search engines; however, it appears Yahoo and Google haven’t penalized the newspaper.)
• Rethinking headline writing: Compelling newspaper headlines – especially those that are clever or humorous – may not be friendly to search engines. The Times has trained staff to use literal, descriptive headlines that better align with potential search terms. Although copy editors probably don’t like it, it’s an important distinction.
• Adding RSS feeds: the Times now has dozens of RSS feeds for its news sections and writers.

A prominent, well-established brand doesn’t guarantee product success (see the 25 worst tech products of all time). Likewise, having a household name isn’t always enough to guarantee search engine rankings. Each small SEO detail helps generate traffic – and the Times already has noteworthy results, with huge increases in search engine referrals. Some great lessons here for any organization looking to improve its rankings.