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Link journalism is an important strategic function that helps our newspapers become not just a Web site that offers stories and photographs of the day’s news, but rather information that takes readers to more resources and content. Adding links to your stories is also important for search engine optimization. Our Web sites are meant to be informational hubs of the community, and readers will find our sites more useful when information on the site doesn’t just include content produced by the local newspaper but information that’s coming from multiple sources in your community.
What kind of content makes for good links? In every story, there are possibilities for linking. Consider the number of organizations and businesses mentioned in a 10-inch story and how many of those could become links.
• For example, a story on your local city council considering building a new park could have links to:
City Hall’s Web site
City council Web site
Facebook pages for city council members
Park district’s Web site
How often should we create links? Every story could have a handful of links. Aim for at least three links per story.
Are there types of stories that are better than others for linking? Blogs should have a heavy dose of links, as should columns.
Should we ever link to our past coverage? Yes. Instead of rehashing the background of a story, create links to your past coverage. This can be accomplished by creating related content links to that coverage or doing a search with a specific key word and posting a link to that search in your story. You can also create links to external sources that are relevant to the story. More information about linking is detailed in content guidelines for the new template.
Link journalism is an important strategic function that helps our newspapers become not just a Web site that offers stories and photographs of the day’s news, but rather information that takes readers to more resources and content. Adding links to your stories is also important for search engine optimization. Our Web sites are meant to be informational hubs of the community, and readers will find our sites more useful when information on the site doesn’t just include content produced by the local newspaper but information that’s coming from multiple sources in your community.
What kind of content makes for good links? In every story, there are possibilities for linking. Consider the number of organizations and businesses mentioned in a 10-inch story and how many of those could become links.
• For example, a story on your local city council considering building a new park could have links to:
City Hall’s Web site
City council Web site
Facebook pages for city council members
Park district’s Web site
How often should we create links? Every story could have a handful of links. Aim for at least three links per story.
Are there types of stories that are better than others for linking? Blogs should have a heavy dose of links, as should columns.
Should we ever link to our past coverage? Yes. Instead of rehashing the background of a story, create links to your past coverage. This can be accomplished by creating related content links to that coverage or doing a search with a specific key word and posting a link to that search in your story. You can also create links to external sources that are relevant to the story. More information about linking is detailed in content guidelines for the new template.
