by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia
Online articles are seen by many experts as a print article's step-cousin.
What a foolish lapse in judgment!
Print articles are "current" and then people toss the paper. Print articles don't increase your search engine rankings and it's HELL to spread the word about a print-only article (read: lots of copying and stamps). Not to mention the whole 'reprint rights' deal...sheesh!
When you are quoted as an expert in an online article, 9 times out of 10, they'll provide a link to your web site:
=> which increases incoming links to your web site
=> which increases search engine rankings - especially if the link is from a highly-traffiked publication web site.
Once the article is online, it's there forever. It's indexed and added to Google's cached files and even accessible by the Way Back Machine and searchable. Spreading the good news is as simple as firing up your email and sharing a link.
Bottomline: The next time a reporter reaches out to interview you for an online article, be nice. It's better than print. [That doesn't mean a print article isn't worth anything though! :) ]
@Kelly:
That's a good point. There are always exceptions to every "rule", but by and large, online articles are best for long-term visibility and SEO boosts.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Posted by: Lena L. West | July 31, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Online articles can be a pot of golden traffic for small businesses websites, except if they appear in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, where they disappear after about a couple weeks in their pay-to-use archives. I would not be surprised if that is the case for all Gannett newspapers.
Posted by: Kelly Mullaney | July 31, 2008 at 01:56 AM
@Ann:
And the good news is, that article is online FOREVER.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Posted by: Lena L. West | July 30, 2008 at 08:25 PM
I periodically "Google" myself and one time I found myself quoted in an online article. I had forgotten about the interview and actually missed seeing my name in the publication I had scanned a few weeks earlier.
Posted by: Ann | July 30, 2008 at 03:30 PM