Adam Sherk

APRIL 17, 2014

'What are the best tools for publishers looking to track social media activity at the content level? There are a lot of options for social monitoring, tracking and analytics, with prices ranging from free to very expensive. I thought I’d share some of my favorites that are well suited to editorial content sites. The primary focus here is on social media analytics and share count tracking, along with identifying content and topics with the potential to go viral.

Analytics 240

Analytics Publishing Social Media Tools 240

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

'On average, what percentage of referral traffic to publishers comes from search, social media, links and direct navigation? That’s a question I’m commonly asked by organizations that are attempting to establish benchmarks and assess their current performance. To get an idea of where things currently stand, I pulled 2013 referral data for a selection of 52 magazine and content sites, all well-known brands from major publishers.

Publishing 198

Publishing Hitwise Social Media Analysis 198

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 17, 2013

'I wasn’t able to write as many posts as I’d have liked this year, but I did put out some things that I was happy with and people seemed to find useful. And fortunately I do this just for fun so in the end it doesn’t really matter. So as I stumble across the finish line, here are my top posts of 2013 by pageviews: The Most Common Google News Errors and How to Avoid Them.

SEO 129

SEO Publishing Social Media Sports 129

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 3, 2013

'Whenever I do a presentation on Google+ for publishers I mention that quite a few news and content brands are among the most followed pages. The point being that Google+ does indeed offer good opportunities for audience development, engagement and content promotion. Today I thought I’d check to see just how many news and content sites are among the top 500 pages on Google+.

News 161

News Sites Google Content 161

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 23, 2013

'Which news organizations are having the most success with the Google News standout tag? I monitored “Featured” articles in Google News for 90 days to find out. When I previously wrote about how to use the standout tag , I wished I could have provided some insights on how often “Featured” articles appear and which publications are most often cited.

News 159

News Study Google Journal 159

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'I recently received an email press release that features a compelling design with strong visuals and a nice layout. That’s not something you say every day, and since bad releases get called out much more than the good ones, I thought I’d share it here. It’s for a new book of visual essays and poems by Debbie Millman , Self-Portrait as Your Traitor.

Press Release 127

Press Release Features Engagement Twitter 127

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'A quick tip for news publishers on using Google+ embedded posts. When embedding a Google+ post in a news article, be sure to include enough original editorial text to meet the 80 word minimum for Google News indexation. The same goes for Facebook Embedded Posts , Embedded Tweets and any other form of embedded multimedia. The content within the embedded post does not contribute towards the total word count in the article.

Embedding 151

Embedding News Google Tips 151

Adam Sherk

JULY 23, 2013

'The standout tag for Google News has been around for a couple years now but many news publishers are still uncertain about it. The questions I’m asked most often are how and when to use it, how well it works and if it is worth putting in the time and resources to support it. Does the standout tag actually work? Yes it does, but only so often.

News 213

News Google Publishing Case Study 213

Adam Sherk

JULY 15, 2013

'I attended MozCon 2013 last week. It’s really become a big production with a three-day agenda, large stage and space-age theme in the main room. I hadn’t been to one before and I came away pretty impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever done a conference recap, but I had a good experience at MozCon and wanted to write something up. Rather than getting into the specifics, I thought I’d share some random observations about the speakers and presentations that I enjoyed.

SEO 148

SEO Tips Startup Compete 148

Adam Sherk

JULY 9, 2013

'Most editorial teams employ basic keyword research tactics as part of their daily routine, such as using keyword tools to refine word choice or monitoring trending topics for real-time opportunities. But what about using search and social data to influence the editorial calendar over the longer term? Mining keyword research, analytics and competitive data to identify new evergreen content opportunities does not always get the attention it deserves from busy editorial teams, despite this being a

Research 183

Research Content Hitwise Adwords 183

Adam Sherk

MAY 14, 2013

'When it comes to link building publishers have a significant advantage because editorial content, be it hard news or evergreen content, lends itself naturally to linking and sharing. In addition producing quality content on a daily basis creates a steady stream of new opportunities. It is one of the many reasons that content marketing has become so popular, as brands in other industries put an emphasis on content development and promotion and essentially become publishers themselves.

Publishing 209

Publishing Module Syndication Badge 209

Adam Sherk

APRIL 30, 2013

'Blogger and influencer outreach is an area with strong crossover between PR, audience development and link building. For publishers it typically involves identifying users that are sharing, discussing and linking to content from your brands and their competitors, and about specific topics. Then building relationships with those users over time and coming up with ideas for outreach, content development and promotion.

Blogger 196

Blogger BuzzStream Influencer Tools 196

Adam Sherk

APRIL 16, 2013

'Infinite scrolling has been growing in popularity with various forms being utilized on a variety of sites. While there are pros and cons from both a technical and usability perspective, and it hasn’t worked for everyone , in the right situation it can be a good fit. Social sites use infinite scrolling as a way to offer a never-ending stream of new content, and it has appeal for sites that want to offer a seamless browsing experience for large groups of items.

SEO 245

SEO Tips Module Guidelines 245

Adam Sherk

APRIL 3, 2013

Sponsored content in various forms is growing in popularity as publishers seek additional sources of revenue. Done well it can be a good fit for both publishers and advertisers, and dare I say even add value for users. However in any implementation it is important to comply with search engine guidelines to avoid negative repercussions for SEO. This topic has been in the news recently with Google first issuing a reminder that any links within sponsored content should not pass PageRank.

Guidelines 260

Guidelines SEO NoFollow Module 260

Adam Sherk

MARCH 26, 2013

Are searchers less interested in celebrity gossip than they used to be? According to Google Trends, yes. While doing some research I was surprised to see that search interest in the keyword phrase [celebrity gossip] peaked around 2009. Despite occasional spikes it has been declining ever since: By comparison [celebrity news] has been more consistent over the years but it has always trailed behind.

Adwords 133

Adwords Embedding Comparison Trends 133

Adam Sherk

MARCH 19, 2013

In reading the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2013 there were some interesting things in the sections on magazines and digital that I thought I’d point out. Time is Doing Well Online. One is that among the news magazines examined Time.com has the largest online audience by far: Despite this it didn’t make the list of top news sites by Facebook interactions, as rated by NewsWhip: So there are apparently opportunities for further growth there.

News 128

News Mobile Survey Study 128

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Now that Instagram web profiles have been around for a few months I thought I’d check in on the participation and activity of major news brands. I keep coming across things like the Simply Measured study showing that 59% of top brands are now active on Instagram and the news that Instagram has surpassed 100 million active users. So it seems like a good time for media organizations to take stock of their efforts on the photo sharing site.

Activities 194

Activities News Instagram Brands 194

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

How long does it take Google to process 14 million 301 redirects? How about 360,000 redirects for Bing? A year ago a publisher that we work with decided to discontinue a large domain and migrate only a small portion of its content to a new subdomain on a different, existing domain. I realize that sounds a bit cryptic. I’m not at liberty to identify the domains involved, but I’ve found it interesting to follow the resulting indexation counts and wanted to share that in general terms.

URL 149

URL Syndication Yahoo Report 149

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 23, 2013

The news of layoffs at StumbleUpon reminded me that in compiling some year-end social media referral data I’d noticed that a number of sites had experienced declines in StumbleUpon traffic. To get a better sense of the situation I pulled StumbleUpon referral figures from 2010-2012 for a group of 47 news and content sites that we work with at Define Media Group , primarily magazine brands.

StumbleUpon 172

StumbleUpon Sites Content Survey 172

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 16, 2013

In working with publishers one of the things I’m most frequently asked to do is troubleshoot problems with Google News. Anyone on staff at a news or content site can attest to the importance of Google News and news search optimization. And I’d venture to say just as many people have experienced a range of technical and content issues that have impeded the indexation and performance of their news content.

News 261

News Google Embedding How To 261

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 9, 2013

Which news sites get the most engagement on their Google+ pages? It’s been a year since I took an early look at engagement rates for news organizations on Google+ , so I thought I’d revisit the topic and do a fresh comparison. As with my previous comparison, I used All my + to pull data on +1′s, shares and comments for every post on the official Google+ pages of a selection of news sites.

News 245

News Sites Engagement Google 245

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Another year gone by and once again it is time for the obligatory best of the year post. These roundups may be overdone, but I enjoy putting them together because it is interesting to look back and see what made an impression. Here are my top 10 posts of 2012 by pageviews: The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics. Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools.

Press Release 119

Press Release SEO Digg Sports 119

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 4, 2012

This is a guest post from Mik Stroyberg of Issuu , a digital publishing platform for magazines, newspapers and catalogs. I asked Mik to share some thoughts on the future of digital publishing. -Adam. I love reading magazines, and I love my iPad because it lets me carry 8 million titles around in one lightweight device. I can read my favorites anytime, anywhere – at the airport, in the subway, at the park or at home.

iPad 167

iPad Publishing Sports Meeting 167

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Ever notice how the most flattering blog comments are actually the spam comments? This always makes me smile, so I thought I’d share a handful of them here. It would be a shame for so much unbridled positivity to never make its way into the world. There are the simple, straightforward compliments: And it is hard to argue with this: A pat on the back is always nice too: But I like the longer, dare-I-say philosophical comments best: Bringing someone back from the precipice makes all this wor

Comments 146

Comments Publishing News Sites 146

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

This is a guest post from Wendy Dulaney, co-founder of Easy.PR. Wendy has been doing some interesting work for start-ups, targeting small audiences to achieve specific goals during critical stages of their growth. I asked her to share some examples and tips here. – Adam. How many great ideas and concepts from early startups are out there just waiting to be heard?

Startup 117

Startup Campaign Tips Reputation 117

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Last week I received a press release from an unexpected source: the Harlem Globetrotters. Frankly I’m not sure why they’d be sending a press release about their new VP of Communications to me. But I always liked the Globetrotters as a kid, so when I saw the team logo at the top I actually thought it was kind of neat. To be fair I do write about PR and I occasionally cover sports and social media, so it’s not completely off base.

Press Release 108

Press Release Sports Team Statistics 108

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

The Google News news_keywords meta tag is now available to all publishers that are approved for inclusion. It is nice that Google News is trying to accommodate publishers and allow for more witty, print-style headlines. But in the bigger picture encouraging the use of this tag has as many potential cons as pros, so publishers should be careful about how they promote it internally.

News 162

News Google SEO Publishing 162

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

This was going to be my next enterprise SEO column for Search Engine Land but then I thought twice about using it there. I don’t want to waste it either so I’ll give it a try here. Good stuff or was I right to hold it back? What enterprise SEO truisms can be found in famous TV catchphrases? Quite a few it turns out. If you’re still here let’s hope words like “clever” and “fun” are now coming to mind instead of “incredibly cheesy” or 

SEO 173

SEO Wikipedia Project Creative Commons 173

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 28, 2012

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of Facebook posts in my news feed with a specific request to “LIKE” the post. Sports teams are among the biggest offenders: Now don’t get me wrong. As a marketer I appreciate the use of a call to action to increase activity and engagement. It is an effective tactic and there are plenty of good ways to do it.

Sports 116

Sports Team Facebook Feed 116

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 21, 2012

I was invited to contribute a column to an upcoming social media guidebook from Media Industry Newsletter and Folio. I thought I’d share it here along with some links to additional resources. It is intended to be a general overview for publishers. Hopefully you’ll find it useful. How does social media activity impact search engine optimization?

SEO 278

SEO Social Media NoFollow Engineering 278

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 14, 2012

As Pinterest continues to grow in popularity and usage it is becoming not only an important source of traffic and engagement for publishers but also a good source of links. What types of sites get the most links from Pinterest? I spend a lot of time auditing websites which means I am regularly in the Google Webmaster Tools profiles for a variety of sites.

Survey 166

Survey Sites Publishing NoFollow 166

Adam Sherk

JULY 17, 2012

Which news site has the highest customer satisfaction rating? FoxNews.com – by far. Who fared the worst? HuffingtonPost.com. These are the findings of the annual ForeSee American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report that was released today. In the News and Information category FoxNews.com leads by a considerable margin. Its satisfaction score of 84 is six points higher than the #2 news site, ABCNews.com.

Sites 125

Sites News Report Advertising 125

Adam Sherk

JULY 10, 2012

The demographics of Google+ are typically described as predominantly male and young. But that is not always the case; sites that are geared towards women are drawing a Google+ audience that is largely female. For example, take a look at the +1 Audience Report from the Google Webmaster Tools profile of a major fashion site. Its Google+ gender breakdown is 80% female, the largest majority I’ve come across to-date: Gender breakdown of unique users that have +1’d a page on the site.

Google 119

Google Fashion Sites Report 119

Adam Sherk

JUNE 27, 2012

Now that the Hot Searches list on Google Trends has been stripped down publishers are moving to other sources for monitoring search trends. Specific to lifestyle publishers the Google data was never all that useful anyway since it was dominated by topics like breaking news, sports and entertainment. So what’s a lifestyle site covering things like food, fashion or home to do?

Yahoo 116

Yahoo Trends Publishing Data 116

Adam Sherk

MAY 30, 2012

While Pinterest is a natural fit for lifestyle publishers there are good opportunities for broadcast media too. Today Kim Wilson and I are leading a social media workshop for a group of local TV and radio stations. In preparing for the Pinterest portion I took a look at the pinning activity of local TV news teams. It is fair to say that it is still early days for local TV newsrooms on Pinterest.

Team 148

Team News Digg Fashion 148

Adam Sherk

MAY 15, 2012

The Internet and social media have certainly made it easier to conduct media relations in a more efficient and less intrusive way. At my first PR job I had to type in contact addresses from the hard-copy Bacon’s guide so we could mail merge and send out the press materials. Or stand over the fax machine feeding through one press release at at time. Being required to do cold-call follow-ups as a junior employee was one of the main reasons I gravitated toward other forms of online marketing as soo

Press Release 269

Press Release Vocus Video Embedding 269

Adam Sherk

MAY 1, 2012

Your sites have been audited, improvements have been made and there is more to come in the road map. The technical, editorial and marketing teams are trained in SEO best practices and are integrating them into the daily workflow. Sounds good, but are your efforts working? That’s where tracking and measurement comes in. When it comes to SEO publishers need to understand and effectively communicate progress and success.

Metrics 164

Metrics SEO Publishing Analytics 164