1. Headlines
&
SEO/
Web-­‐original
Story
Types

2. Headlines
make
or
break
the
story
2

3. Three
P’s
of
a
great
web
headline
 Parsability
-­‐Is
it
easy
to
understand?
-­‐Do
you
understand
the
story
without
addi8onal
context?
 Promise
-­‐What
the
reader
will
get?
 Proper
Nouns
-­‐Words
that
the
reader
seeks.
3

12. “A
joke
that
works
is
complete
knowledge
in
a
nanosecond.”
Steve
Martin

13. 5
Steps
to
a
great
web
headline
1. Iden8fy
relevant
words
and
informa8on
(proper
nouns)
2. Iden8fy
what’s
interes8ng
about
the
story
3. Write,
then
rewrite
4. Find
beKer
verbs
5. Check
with
a
colleague
o Bonus:
Is
it
Tweetable?
13

15. Relevant
words:
Relevant
informaDon:
Budget
Deficit
Women
should
make
up
half
of
the
commiKee
Super
CommiKee
Women
Debt
Ceiling
Congress
$1.5
trillion
What’s
interesDng
about
the
story?
-­‐
Women,
who
represent
half
the
popula8on,
should
make
up
half
of
the
super
commiKee.
-­‐
A
commiKee
that
decides
our
tax
obliga8ons
should
represent
the
popula8on
by
gender.

16. Women
missing
from
Super
CommiKee
on
deficit
deal
Women
absent
from
Super
CommiKee
on
deficit
deal
Call
to
ac8on:
Super
CommiKee
Must
be
Half
Women
Super
CommiKee
Must
be
Half
Women
Super
CommiKee
Should
be
Half
Women
Budget
Deficit
Best
Solved
by
Women
Budget
Deficit
Best
Solved
with
Women
Why
the
budget
deficit
should
be
solved
with
women*
Is
the
budget
deficit
gender
biased?*
Women:
Deficit
in
the
Super
CommiKee
Female
Deficit
in
the
Budget
Super
CommiKee
Deficit:
Women
in
Budget
Budget
crisis
needs
a
league
of
extraordinary
ladies*
Secret
weapon
for
the
budget
crisis:
women
The
case
for
a
half-­‐woman
Super
CommiKee

18. Relevant
words:
Relevant
informaDon:
water
-­‐Drop
in
precipita8on
by
4
-­‐
5
%
peril
-­‐Will
be
5
-­‐
6
degrees
warmer
in
the
Central
Valley
rain
-­‐Exis8ng
infrastructure
can't
keep
up
with
drought
changes
to
climate
global
warming
climate
change
infrastructure
Central
Valley
California
What’s
interesDng
about
the
story?
-­‐Something
has
to
change
in
order
to
break
even
-­‐Exis8ng
infrastructure
can't
keep
up
with
changes
to
climate

19. Report:
Less
rain,
more
pain
this
century
for
California
water
supplies
Rivers
and
dams
can't
keep
up
with
California
climate
Rivers
and
dams
fall
behind
California's
warming
climate*
6
degrees
of
separa8on
between…
6
degrees
in
Central
California:
The
difference
6
degrees
of
heat
in
Central
California
may
pinch
water
supplies
6
degrees
of
heat
in
Central
California:
the
state
is
not
ready
6
degrees
of
heat
in
Central
California:
state
water
supply
not
ready
Central
California
temps
to
rise
by
6
degrees...
California
s8ll
has
no
water
California
s8ll
has
water
issues
California
yet
to
overcome
water
crisis
For
California
water
crisis,
glass
s8ll
half
empty*
Why
California
rivers
need
more
rain

20. SEO
likes
20

21. How
does
Google
work?
 Crawls
text,
imita8ng
user
behavior
-­‐Google
crawls
from
lec
to
right
-­‐Google
crawls
from
top
to
boKom
 Headlines
rule
21

22. What
does
Google
like?
 Fresh
content
–
news
rules
 Text,
Text,
Text
 Relevant
proper
nouns
 Linking
out
to
quality
pages
 Being
a
credible
established
source
of
news
 Quality
sites
linking
to
you
22

23. SEO
dislikes
23

24. What
does
Google
dislike?
 LiKle
or
no
text
 Bad
headlines
 Abbrevia8ons
 New
domains
kplunews.org
vs.
news.kplu.org
24

25. Titles
Exercise
25

26. QuesDons?
26

27. Assignment
 Select
three
stories
 Write
five
different
headlines
for
each
story
 Highlight
the
best
headline
with
an
asterisk
 Due:
Thursday,
May
3,
COB
 KUNC,
WFPL,
WSKG,
WNIJ
to
Ki:
ksung@npr.org
 Delmarva,
KETR,
WFSU,
KCUR
to
Eric:
eathas@npr.org
27