The search landscape is changing so fast that half what we knew this past year about se optimization and marketing is now obsolete, reports Greg Jarboe in his SEO-PR Newsblog. Jarboe is a regular presenter at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference and web search versus vertical search (in search areas like news) was one of the new search trends featured at the San Jose SES.
The growth of the news search has only come about in the last few years. According to Nielsen/Net ratings, in June 2004 CNN.com was still the #1 online news source with Yahoo not too much behind. By January 2005 Yahoo rose to #1 with 23 million readers a month and by June 2005 they certainly were taking out in-front with 29 million readers a month, dominating the web news ratings.
News search is playing a bigger and bigger role in online marketing. Google has a news search section, as does AOL, MSN and Alta Vista. Sites like Topix are drawing viewers searching for great local trend press news. Recent studies reveal that 77 percent of Internet users manage to get thier news online and it's the main selection for news in the 18 - 54 year senior years group. People go online and search the news engines by topic and keyword. The LA Times reported on the trend, saying that veteran journalists are trying to the PR field for work, now that so many readers are reading their news online.
If you find a relevant and timely article in Google News, Google will serve you up that news item in the Google 'One-Box' above the #1 position when you do a website search on a keyword or phrase. Yahoo News now indexes blog posts in a reaction to the clear trend that early adopters turn to blogs for news. Getting your message out in the news search has emerged as an essential part of one's se optimization and marketing strategy.
Optimizing press releases and news articles is no further a 'nice-to-do one day' idea or 'something we must try.' It's a proven strategy you ought to be implementing right now. Put these articles into an RSS feed and you'll start showing up in the absolute most unexpected places!