Chris Hooley’s -ThinkBait-

If you were Google, would you want to give blogs a decent chance to rank quicker than old news sites? Let’s say you could even tell the difference between a blog and a splog. Blogs are almost always fresh, relevant content from zealous users who have passion for a topic. It’s almost like news, but not quite.

Newspapers are generally trusted by Google. Let’s consider a few reason why, and lets see if it prevents a few bloggers from whining about why Google let’s newspaper sites rank better, or gives them too much trust.

Here’s a few good reasons newspapers rank better than you

• Newspapers have teams of reporters searching for the latest stories, and teams of writers reporting and breaking news. Bloggers are usually a one man show, and often re-report and spin topics recently reported from established news channels.
• Newspapers have been breaking stories since the dawn of the information age, bloggers just now are tapping into that power.
• Newspaper stories generally go through rounds of rewriting and editing to insure the content is accurate and perfectly presented. (I’m not suggesting it always comes out that way) They put a LOT of effort into the content. A lot.
• There are very few spam newspapers (lets call them spewspapers) screwing it up for the legit news sources and confusing robots as to what is real.
• People quickly link to major news pubs because they generally break stories first, and after years of developing their business and content distribution models, they have developed huge readership that dwarfs any blogger to date.

Moral of the story? If a newspaper article is ruling the SERPs on one of your money terms, maybe you need to improve your site. Maybe you can use a few of their strengths to improve your blog.

• Create something newsworthy (call it buzz marketing, linkbait, or whatever)
• Spend more time perfecting your content
• Write more succinctly and carefully, and edit each post before clicking “publish”
• Work a littler harder on your distribution channels
• Remove the clutter, or at least place it in a better spot (and know the difference between clutter, and buzz, and fun)
• Be an ancient domain with hundreds of thousands of backlinks :-p

Bloggers, we have the opportunity to do some big things here, but we can still learn a thing or two from the tried and true content distribution channels. Work a little harder on your site and eventually you will outrank your competition… the New York Times.

Too bad it’s not A) my publicity -or B) my link. NY Times, how you torture me with your fickle linking ways! For a little backgrounder on why I am both proud and in complete agony at the same time, read on.

I woke up to read the following instant message waiting for me from Liana:

Liana says:

i really don’t know if you are awake or not…… but i have to share this with someone who would have a inkling as to WHY …. i’m like giddy….. the New York Time just quoted my post from SMG!!!!!

Liana says:

Click HERE!!

Chris H says:

Dude!!!!

The only word I could think of that could express my excitement… “Dude!!!”

That’s a pretty sweet reference there! I dealt with a reporter from the NY Times once, and after a week of getting information back and forth, phone interviews, and even getting pics taken from a photographer they sent out… they finally published our story. Still no link love! For those who know me, you know I’m a publicity junkie too. The evidence is even in the title of this blog (notice the “III” next to Loving Publicity).

My entire NY Times experience was blogafied here.

The SEO Gods must be smiling down atcha Li! That domain / site RARELY EVER links out and has a TON of authority, usually only referencing publically traded companies.

Way to go Search Marketing Guru Liana!

The reason I wrote an article named Loving Publicity Part I is because I found a neat quote on a pretty big site that day, and I knew another, larger article I was involved in was going to be posted in the NY Times today. I thought it was the ultimate, Tiger Woods-esque link acquisition, and I thought I would be able to see my name in a major paper.

Neither happened.  No link, no quote. :-(

The article, Dispute on Loan Consolidation, written by Jonathan Glater, was about some serious controversy currently happening in my industry.  I talked to this guy for about two weeks and gave him a bunch of great information and quotes, and politely asked him if he could just shoot a lil link in his article to NextStudent.  After all, we are the biggest student loan consolidation company (aside from major loan holders and banks), and also because we spent so much time helping him develop his story.  He said he would try.

A few days before the article was to publish, our Executive Vice President of Finance got involved with the reporter (and then stole the spotlight!).   I can understand why a reporter would rather quote and Executive Vice President than a Director, but still, it kinda stinks.  I wanted to be the in NY Times!

So that’s it in a nuttshell.  I thought I was going to get a great link from a major website and I was going to be published in print all over the world.  And now, I feel like a little kid who didn’t get the bike he wanted for Christmas.