Search Engine Optimisation in UK news production

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journalism Practice, 5(4), 462 - 477, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17512786.2010.551020.This paper represents an exploratory study into an emerging culture in UK online newsrooms—the practice of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which assesses its impact on news production. Comprising a short-term participant observational case study at a national online news publisher, and a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with SEO professionals at three further UK media organisations, the author sets out to establish how SEO is operationalised in the newsroom, and what consequences these practices have for online news production. SEO practice is found to be varied and application is not universal. Not all UK news organisations are making the most of SEO even though some publishers take a highly sophisticated approach. Efforts are constrained by time, resources and management support, as well as off-page technical issues. SEO policy is found, in some cases, to inform editorial policy, but there is resistance to the principal of SEO driving decision-making. Several themes are established which call for further research

Підвищення лідируючих позицій туристичної агенції за рахунок оптимізації її веб-сайту

Purpose – to study website’s work and content of the travel agency on the example of the "Laspi" travel agency, identify its technical properties and offer methods to increase the web-resource leading position in the Yandex and Google search engines by performing SEO-analysis. Design/Method/Research approach. Internet resources SEO-analysis. Findings.The travel product promotion directly depends on the travel market participants' advertising tools' effectiveness, mainly travel agents. It is determined that one of the new technologies that increase the advertising effectiveness, in particular via the travel agencies’ web resources, is SEO-technology. The authors Identified technical shortcomings of its operation, mainly related to search queries statistics, the subject site visits, the semantic core operation, the site improvement, the site increasing citation, and the number of persistent references in the network. It is proved that updating site development, changing its environment, analyzing user behavior, namely the Og Properties micro markup, updating HTML tags, analytical programs placing, iframe objects selection, and other activities, increase the content uniqueness. As a result, search engines scanned the site, and the search results took first place for the positions essential for the web resource. Originality/Value. The leading positions increasing mechanism application, website operation optimization allow search engines to bring it to the TOP of the most popular travel sites. Theoretical implications. To optimize the web resource operation, a mechanism for improving its leading position is proposed that includes three steps: the general website characteristics of marketing, SEO-analysis, recommendations provision. Practical implications. The research is practical in improving the site’s technical operation and increasing its leading position in Yandex and Google search engines. Research limitations/Future research. Further research aims at the site further analysis after making the proposed changes to its operation. Paper type – empirical.  Мета роботи – дослідити роботу й наповненість інформацією веб-сайту туристичної агенції на прикладі туристичної агенції «Ласпі», виявити його технічні властивості та запропонувати методи підвищення лідируючих позицій web-ресурсу в пошуковій видачі Яндекс і Гугл шляхом здійснення SEO-аналізу. Дизайн/Метод/План дослідження. Застосовано SEO-аналіз інтернет-ресурсів. Результати дослідження. Просунення туристичних продуктів безпосередньо залежить від ефективності застосовуваних рекламних засобів гравцями туристичного ринку, зокрема, туристичними агентами. Визначено, що однією з нових технологій, що підвищує ефективність реклами, зокрема через веб-ресурси туристичних агенцій, є SEO-технологія (технологія пошукової оптимізації). На прикладі учасника туристичного ринку в роботі досліджено веб-ресурси туристичної агенції «Ласпі» та проведено SEO-аналіз її сайту. Виявлено технічні недоліки його функціонування, зокрема, пов'язані із статистикою пошукових запитів, відвідуванням сайту в тематиці, з роботою семантичного ядра, з поліпшенням самого сайту, зі збільшенням цитування сайту і кількості його згадувань в мережі та інші. Доведено, що проведення робіт з розвитку сайту, зміни його оточення, аналізу поведінки користувачів, а саме використання мікророзмітки Og Properties, оновлення HTML тегів, розміщення аналітичних програм, виділення об’єктів iframe та інших заходів призведуть до збільшення унікальності контенту. В результаті сайт швидко скануватиметься пошуковими роботами і потраплятиме в пошукову видачу на перші місця за тими позиціями, які важливі саме для веб-ресурсу.  Теоретичне значення дослідження. З метою оптимізації роботи веб-ресурсу запропоновано механізм підвищення його лідируючих позицій, який складається із трьох кроків: загальна характеристика веб-сайту з позицій маркетингу, проведення SEO-аналізу, надання рекомендацій. Практичне значення дослідження. Проведені дослідження представляють практичну цінність з покращення технічного функціонування сайту та підвищення його лідируючих позицій в пошукових системах Яндекс і Гугл. Оригінальність/Цінність/Наукова новизна дослідження. Застосування механізму підвищення лідируючих позицій, оптимізуючи роботу веб-сайту, дасть можливість пошуковим роботам вивести ресурс в ТОП найпопулярніших серед сайтів турагенств. Обмеження дослідження/Перспективи подальших досліджень. Майбутні дослідження спрямовані на подальший аналіз сайту після внесення запропонованих змін у його роботу. Тип статті – емпіричний

Enhancing the effectiveness of World Wide Web sites

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).by Norbert J. Goetzinger, III.M.Eng

Instant access: Developing a high school web site for staff, students, and community

This project describes the inception and development of a high school web site along with subsequent implementation issues, limitation, benefits, and recommendations visual design and learning principles and the history of hypermedia are also discussed, and a model is tendered for other schools to follow when constructing a web site

Search optimization techniques in the creation of an online store website

Business organizations involved in e-commerce recognize the importance of how commerce searches are conducted by individual customers. In 2005, 80% of all Website visits began with Internet searching. Altering a Website so that it ranks higher for particular terms used in Web searches is called \u27search engine optimization.\u27 The present study investigates how search engine marketing activities may result in higher rankings by such search engines as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. One method of search engine marketing is illustrated by optimizing a new Website, www.thelightingdivision.com. The results may interest online marketers and search engine optimizers wishing to increase the visibility of their business enterprise and considering search engine studies as a part of their advertising campaigns

An Investigation into world wide web publishing with the hypertext markup language

The purpose of this thesis project was to test and to demonstrate the World Wide Web as a publishing vehicle by creating a Web presence for the School of Printing Management and Sciences. In order to reach this goal, a full understanding of the Hypertext Markup Language must first be realized. Once this is accomplished, issues regarding integration of mixed-media elements within an HTML document were investigated. Once a prototype of the HTML document was accomplished, the mixed-media elements were tested and evaluated for proper integration and contextual cohesiveness. Many issues regarding implementation of mixed-media elements, such as file size and file format were addressed upon testing. One of the additional goals of this project is a comprehensive description of the methodology for creating and maintaining a World Wide Web publishing presence. This addresses: navigational software, structuring HTML documents, hyper text linking, HTML style issues and limitations, effective integration of mixedmedia elements, inline and external image issues, testing documents, advertising documents, strategies for determining proper file sizes and formats of mixedmedia elements, integrating supplemental programs, World Wide Web Server issues, installing HTML and mixed-media files onto a World Wide Web Server, etc. The Web site located at (http://www.rit.edu/~spms) served as the vehicle for the investigation. Results of the study revealed the issues of providing data that services users across a wide range of computer systems, with different bandwidth restrictions, utilizing a myriad of computer software. Specific standards apply to An Investigation into World Wide Web Publishing with the Hypertext Markup Language alleviate much of the guesswork, however, publishing on the Internet remains to be as challenging as it is rewarding. The Web\u27s format and the opportunity to reach millions of potential customers is creating new types of publishing ventures in true gold-rush fashion. The Web is being touted as the fourth medium, and some suggest it will have as great an impact on society as print, radio and television. The growth of the Web is explosive and will assuredly continue to blossom. Upon completion of this study, the author remains skeptical whether the World Wide Web is the medium of the future. It has, however, created a trend which will forever reshape the publishing world and the way information seekers receive their data. Publishing will change from a commodity based market where prices are based upon cost, and shift to a service market where prices are based upon the value of the information. Each reader requiring selected information tailored to their specific choice will pay for what they select no more paying for an entire magazine or newspaper and reading only one article. The future of information dissemination is electronic, interactive and selective. Whether the delivery mechanism will be the World Wide Web remains to be seen

Environmental Health Information on the Internet: Development of an Appropriate Website Evaluation Tool

Purpose: This research aimed to determine how health communication, risk communication, and website evaluation criteria could be utilized to evaluate environmental health information on the Internet.Public Health Significance: Concerns exist about the quality of health information on the Internet. Environmental health plays a considerable role in public health but can be difficult to communicate effectively, especially in a dynamic and diverse system like the Internet. An evaluation tool tailored specifically for environmental public health messages on the Internet should be developed to assess the quality of those sites.Methods: A literature review identified previous website evaluation tools and general health and risk communication techniques. Using those tools as a framework, a website evaluation tool tailored for assessing environmental health information on the Internet was developed. In order to pilot test this tool, five government websites and one emerging environmental health issue, particulate matter (PM), were selected and evaluated.Results: The key criteria identified in the literature review and incorporated into the website evaluation tool included: Basic Website Information, Content (with subsections: Scope, Accuracy, Risk Communication, Authority, Up-to-Date, Links, and Writing Quality), Appearance/Layout, Purpose/Audience, and Access/Use.The website evaluation tool showed considerable practicality and ease of use in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the five websites during the pilot testing. The Environmental Protection Agency's website received the highest overall score and in the content section. The Kansas Department of Health and the Environment's website received the lowest scores in most of the evaluation categories and overall. None of the websites passed the tool's readability criteria. Conclusions: Consensus exists regarding the need for evidence-based and validated website evaluation tools. A tool developed by consolidating communication recommendations from varying fields of study provides researchers throughout the interdisciplinary field of public health with a research base and evaluation framework for future Internet-based environmental health communication projects. Additionally, the organizations responsible for the pilot-tested websites can use the individualized results from the evaluations to improve and guide their online environmental health communication efforts

SEARCH ENGINE BIAS AND THE DEMISE OF SEARCH ENGINE UTOPIANISM

Due to search engines\u27 automated operations, people often assume that search engines display search results neutrally and without bias. However, this perception is mistaken. Like any other media company, search engines affirmatively control their users\u27 experiences, which has the consequence of skewing search results (a phenomenon called search engine bias\u27). Some commentators believe that search engine bias is a defect requiring legislative correction. Instead, this Essay argues that search engine bias is the beneficial consequence of search engines optimizing content for their users. The Essay further argues that the most problematic aspect of search engine bias, the winner-takeall effect caused by top placement in search results, will be mooted by emerging personalized search technology

Analyzing the Egyptian News Websites' Layout According to Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web design is a new concept in the world of web design that serves a successful user experience. It is also a concept that develops continuously to cover many aspects. Egyptian News Websites have been tried to keep pace with the increasing use of small screens and smartphones in browsing websites through the development of elements' distribution patterns for interfaces' design. In this study, it was checked the use of RWD of Egyptian news websites as well as It was tested the most six popular news websites in Egypt. The objectives of the current study were to analyze the presence of responsive web design on the Egyptian daily news websites by checking the elements distribution patterns of purposive sample of these websites interfaces on different display screens, and to evaluate the usability of these sites through responsive web design and users feedback. So, a descriptive design was utilize intended to provide a complete picture about that, which was carried out on two levels (User interface analytical study and survey study of the user's opinions). The study results revealed that the majority of users prefer to browse the news websites through the small screens "smart phones on different sizes". And that the users up tell now didn’t able to recognize the importance of the Responsive Web Design because most of their dealings with screens were limited in one type. Accordingly, the study was recommended that the design of the Egyptian newspapers should be reviewed in order to comply with all responsive web standards and even be able to realize the new concepts of "Adaptive design" which focuses on the user not the browser. Keywords: Responsive Web Design (RWD), Egyptian’s News Websites, User Interface (UI), Laptop, Tablets & smart phones

Folksonomy: the New Way to Serendipity

Folksonomy expands the collaborative process by allowing contributors to index content. It rests on three powerful properties: the absence of a prior taxonomy, multi-indexation and the absence of thesaurus. It concerns a more exploratory search than an entry in a search engine. Its original relationship-based structure (the three-way relationship between users, content and tags) means that folksonomy allows various modalities of curious explorations: a cultural exploration and a social exploration. The paper has two goals. Firstly, it tries to draw a general picture of the various folksonomy websites. Secundly, since labelling lacks any standardisation, folksonomies are often under threat of invasion by noise. This paper consequently tries to explore the different possible ways of regulating the self-generated indexation process.taxonomy; indexation; innovation and user-created content