Tag Archives: sister site

Liverpool Daily Post: Madeleine McCann keywords in every main local news story was ‘oversight’

It was an ‘oversight’ that Madeleine McCann related keywords were included in the metadata for every main local news story on the Liverpool Daily Post site, a Trinity Mirror spokeperson said, after Journalism.co.uk informed the company that the terms were present in the ‘hidden text’ of a series of unrelated news items.

The automatic inclusion of the keywords “madeleine mccann, madeleine mcgann, kate mcgann, kate mccann” in the HTML for Liverpool news stories has now ceased.

Journalism.co.uk learned in May that specific keywords, including those above, were used in the metadata for the ‘Liverpool News Headlines’ section on the Liverpool Daily Post site, regardless of the story’s relevance. This continued for at least one month before it was drawn to the Post’s attention on Monday (June 29).

Use of unrelated ‘hidden’ metadata is commonly known as ‘keyword stuffing’, a practice which Google firmly discourages. Using popular keywords can help improve a site’s SEO performance. [Update: Google and most other search engines are no longer believed (Wikipedia link here) to recognise these tags: see Lammo.net post at this link.]

Google search results for “Madeleine McCann + Liverpool” shows that the Post and its sister site, the Liverpool Echo, have top rankings for related Madeleine McCann stories. [Update: but lower rankings when a simple Madeleine McCann search is performed. It’s unlikely the addition of the keywords aided the LDP’s Google ranking. Google says: “While accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won’t impact your ranking within search results.”]

A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “The metadata was inserted some time ago when the Madeleine McCann story was at its height and was the most-searched item on our web sites. It was inserted to make it easier for our users to access a huge story of national and local interest. The fact that it wasn’t removed is an oversight, which has now been put right.”

The evidence (before Liverpool Daily Post corrected the error this week):

A story about Len Williams, a well-known waterfront manager who recently died.

Waterfront

Keywords in the HTML version:
LENkeywords1
LENkeywords2

livpostlen

The section of the site which used these keywords for all stories:

livnews

Google’s  definition:

“‘Keyword stuffing’ refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google’s search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

“To fix this problem, review your site for misused keywords. Typically, these will be lists or paragraphs of keywords, often randomly repeated. Check carefully, because keywords can often be in the form of hidden text, or they can be hidden in title tags or alt attributes.

“Once you’ve made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.”

A definition by Nathan Campbell on SEO.com:

“Some unethical SEOs choose to employ renegade tactics such as keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is overloading the content or meta tags of the web page with every possible keyword or phrase that relates to the site in many different forms.”

Newbury News launches local business news website

image of newbury business today website

The Newbury Weekly News has launched a local business news website.

Newburybusinesstoday.co.uk – the new sister site to newburytoday.co.uk – will focus on local business news and interviews with key business personalities.

The site will run in partnership with a print edition business title – also called Newbury Business Today.

This latest move follows a spate of business news website launches. Northcliffe Media recently launched the first of of several regional business sites with WestBusiness.co.uk. Launches in the East Midlands and South West are expected in the coming months.

Last month, The Liverpool Daily Post similarly launched a business site and magazine.

Rocky Mountain News creates interactive news map

Scripps-owned US newspaper the Rocky Mountain News has created an online map of its news, business and sports features to give readers a better sense of where news is happening.

“We created the feature because we thought users might be interested in where news occurs. Oftentimes in metro areas, a street address means nothing. Map My News brings home how close news is happening,” Mike Noe, the paper’s interactive editor, told Journalism.co.uk.

Noe said there are plans afoot to connect the archive of mapped stories with a user’s postal code or neighbourhood to enable filtering by geographical area.

He also indicated that a combination of Map My News and YourHub.com – a sister site of the RM News, which allows users to post their own news and blogs – would be desirable for the website.

Online Journalism Blog launches sister review site

The Online Journalism Blog has launched a sister site to review journalism startups – Journalism Enterprise.com.

The blog, which will be written by a team of reviewers, will feature simple, six question write-ups of new sites aiming to make a profit from the web as well as new non-profit online journalism projects.

In a blog post on the Online Journalism site, Paul Bradshaw explained the idea behind the new launch:

“There are so many experiments by so many people in so many fields – from journalists going it alone to large news organisations trying new projects, from amateurs who feel passionately about their field to non-profit organisations who see the potential of the web, and from internet startups to established new media players, I thought we needed a blog to keep track of it all and provide a place for debating the issues involved.”