1 VPs of Search Engine Marketing: The New York Times Approach Marshall Simmonds Chief Search Strategist, The New York Times Company CEO and Co-Founder, Define Search Strategies

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5 Challenges  11 million documents (roughly??)  ( ) Registration wall  Paid subscription wall  Journalists/editors/guides  Rigid IT  Company ego  Getting them to *GET* search  Resistance to change  What it takes to get things done

6 Working Together  Challenges of working with "old school" marketing and getting them to "get" search  Coping with turf wars/budget grabs  Company ego/resistance to change

7 Working Together  Internal  Management, IT, editors, producers, designers, marketing  External  Users, spiders, engines, my mother

8 Process  Integrate search into the workflow  Small Changes = BIG results  Buy-in from the bottom up?  Enhancing writing styles  Multi-departmental communication

9 Everyone Owns Search Marketing  Challenges of working with “old school” marketing  Editorial/production – upkeep network integrity, find user/engine balance  Design – search friendly design/crawl-ability  IT – metrics/tracking/fixes  Product/development – internal/external search projects  Marketing – keyword research, keyword buys

10 Selling Search to NYT  Results  About.com 1227% increase in search engine referrers since SEO initiative began in December of 1999  Easy to follow examples: “Pope dies”  Finding projects with extensive involvement  Communication  Consistent message – management, staff, guides/editors

11 Communication: Editors/Guides/Management  Get them moving in the same direction  Unlearning off-line writing styles – it’s a tsunami  Research/identify terms and markets – log files, Word Tracker, Overture suggestion tools  Repeating message

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13 Communication: Management/Staff  Newsletter  Search center  SEO discussion board  Dedicated address  Chats  Frequent reports  On-site trainings

14 Check Lists  Unique Titles  Annotations on all links  Keyword rich anchor text  H1, H2, H3 headlines

15 Verbose Keyword Rich Content SEO Architecture Pyramid I ™ Optimization Broadens Focused Targeted Content META Keyword and Description Tags Verbose - Keyword Rich, Theme of Page, Misspellings Content Verbose – keyword rich, reflects title tag and headline keywords Anchor Text, Alt Text, Captions Focused - targeted keyword phrases Headline Tags Focused - keyword rich, expand on title tag Title Tag Focused – terse, keyword rich

16 Highly Targeted Optimization Generalized Optimization Home Page Broad – general optimization, low search traffic page Section Fronts Focused – specific optimization based on category, popular terms and audience Article Pages Highly targeted – unique optimization based on research and terms relevant to the audience and story Prime search entry points SEO Architecture Pyramid II ™

17 Metrics: Establish Baselines  Baseline traffic  Run Web Position reports  Log files  Index counts  Link popularity reports  Google Alert  Monitoring traffic  Spiders  Referrals  Talk to IT  Track spider’s visits  Track weekly search engine traffic

18 External  User friendly – pushing back registration wall  Appeal to the engines  Pushing back registration walls  Search friendly approach  Network integration  Spider access to archives  Open up experience to public

19 Takeaways  Communication  Manage expectations  Communication  Create consistent lines of communication between editors, IT dept, management – repeat message, give out check lists  Commitment  Make sure everyone has skin in the game/responsibility for search campaign’s ongoing success  Real time examples/results  Stats, successes

20 THANK YOU! Marshall Simmonds CEO and Co-Founder, Define Search Strategies Chief Search Strategist, The New York Times Company