Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Even when the engines do a reasonable job of filtering out duplicates in their results, sites are essentially shooting themselves in the foot by splitting internal and inbound links to a particular piece of content across multiple URLs. Appending tracking codes to URLs (e.g. ?xid=rss xid=rss or ?cid=top-stories)

Sites 105

Sites News Syndication Content 105

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 20, 2009

URL, so I tried using bit.ly search to get click data on each of those shortened URLs. URLs in Muck Rack releases. reports from its search page are not very complete or accurate (you get better data on URLs you’ve personally shortened in your history when signed into bit.ly). Of those 51 releases, 28 included a bit.ly

Press Release 145

Press Release Twitter URL RSS 145

Adam Sherk

JULY 9, 2009

The Yahoo attribution links do not point directly to the original article URLs. Instead they point to an internal Yahoo News URL which then has a temporary 302 redirect to the original article. So it is important to have a requirement for direct links to your original URLs put into the syndication contract.

Syndication 100

Syndication Yahoo SEO News 100

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 6, 2010

I didn’t find any shared newsweek.tumblr.com URLs through Bit.ly I didn’t find any shared newsweek.tumblr.com URLs through Bit.ly Some visitors are likely clicking through to the full articles on Newsweek.com and then commenting there and/or sharing the newsweek.com URLs, which is also a good thing.

Tumblr 131

Tumblr Engagement Press Release Syndication 131

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Avoid over-use of “ marketing speak.” Optimize the page’s title tag, URL and META description tag based on SEO best practices. The key is to blend in keyword support without harming readability. Total length: 250-500 words total is optimal, however longer releases are often necessary and not a problem.

Press Release 206

Press Release Tips Adwords Yahoo 206

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

With Blekko officially launching this week the new search engine is getting a lot of attention particularly in the search marketing community because of SEO data it provides. There is a good overview of Blekko’s SEO Tools on Search Engine Land so I won’t go into detail on that here.

Sites 112

Sites News Postrank SEO 112

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

SEO missteps from well-intentioned editorial and marketing teams are just a common, which is why ongoing training and oversight are needed. Related posts: New York Times Plans to Implement Permanent Redirects on IHT.com URLs. Mistakes aren’t always technical either. “Danger, Will Robinson!”

SEO 173

SEO Wikipedia Project Creative Commons 173

Adam Sherk

JULY 27, 2011

One thing I enjoyed is the fact that I called out the use of terms like “unique&# and “revolutionary&# since I’m still doing that now through posts like The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases and PR Filter Shows Press Release Buzzword Abuse Still Prevalent. October 20, 1999.

Press Release 129

Press Release URL Process Groups 129

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Three digit URLs are not required if you submit an XML news sitemap. Don’t break up the article body – Articles should have sequential paragraphs; don’t break them up with user comments or links to related posts. Adam is part of the Define Search Strategies consulting team, which is owned by The New York Times Company.

News 158

News Google Tips Press Release 158

Adam Sherk

MARCH 8, 2012

Tweet text formatting has improved since I wrote Make the Most of Your Retweet Buttons but I still regularly come across issues with: Missing URLs. The rise of content marketing is driven largely by the fact that non-content businesses know that they need content to succeed in search and social.

Publishing 215

Publishing Questions Social Media Activities 215

Adam Sherk

MAY 12, 2010

Publishers: Solve Tracking Code, Duplicate Content Issues with the Canonical URL Tag So Far so Good for Seattlepi.com Leave a Comment Subscribe (1-2 posts per week) Connect with Me Recent Posts Which News Sites Get the Most Social Media Engagement? What Horrible Things Did Time Magazine Do in 1964?

Content 116

Content Aggregator Press Release Syndication 116

Adam Sherk

MARCH 16, 2010

The fact that Bing identifies the source of any shortened URL helps credible news sources to stand out, particularly in the top links section where the domain for each link is referenced four times. Tracking data from URL shorteners like Bit.ly What are you doing to increase the real-time search visibility of your content?

Sites 143

Sites News Yahoo Engineering 143

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 7, 2010

What Horrible Things Did Time Magazine Do in 1964? Adam is part of the Define Search Strategies consulting team, which is owned by The New York Times Company. Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now!

Press Release 101

Press Release Syndication Blogroll iPad 101

Adam Sherk

JUNE 12, 2009

Adam is part of the Define Search Strategies consulting team, which is owned by The New York Times Company. Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now!

Press Release 100

Press Release Syndication Blogroll Foursquare 100

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 20, 2009

Previously the only way to get the more comprehensive version into Google News was to republish the article on a new URL, which was not the best experience for either on-site or search engine users. I went looking for an updated story in Google News today and was able to find an example.

News 101

News Google Syndication Press Release 101

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Related posts: New York Times Plans to Implement Permanent Redirects on IHT.com URLs Top 10 Reasons The New York Times is Really Putting up a Paywall The Daily Show Visits The New York Times Google News Wants Title Tags to Match Headlines? Check out The New York Times page on Foursquare to see it in action.

Foursquare 111

Foursquare Badge Press Release Syndication 111

Adam Sherk

JUNE 30, 2009

The Most Common Causes of Duplicate Content on News Media Sites Publishers: Solve Tracking Code, Duplicate Content Issues with the Canonical URL Tag The Wrap, Newser and Content Aggregation: How Much Attribution is Enough? { 4 comments… read them below or add one } Rahul July 16, 2009 at 6:53 am Hi Adam, Great post !

Syndication 111

Syndication Press Release SEO Publishing 111

Adam Sherk

APRIL 26, 2010

This Inside Facebook post has the details: With the Open Graph Protocol, Any URL Can Be Treated Just Like a Facebook Page Related posts: News Sites Not Making Much Use of Static FBML on Facebook Pages Facebook Pages: Which News Sites Get the Most Engagement?

News 149

News Module Widget Facebook 149

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 1, 2009

News Sites: Tame Your Blog Tags Publishers: Solve Tracking Code, Duplicate Content Issues with the Canonical URL Tag Google JavaScript Changes Put Publishers in Violation of Sponsored Link Guidelines Will Publishers Add Cross-Domain Rel=Canonical to Syndication Deals? { Related posts: Google News Wants Title Tags to Match Headlines?

News 104

News Publishing Google Press Release 104

Adam Sherk

MAY 26, 2009

For example on The New York Times Company’s corporate site, press releases are hosted by Thomson Reuters on [link] URLs: Last year Todd Defren wrote that social media releases are best kept in your company newsroom for a variety of reasons. Specific to the SEO implications, I believe that is still the best approach.

Press Release 102

Press Release Social Media Syndication Hosting 102

Adam Sherk

APRIL 8, 2010

It is another to mass-aggregate content from a specific publication and then package it on a hub page, even customizing the URL and title tag for SEO: For what it is worth, Google does not seem to be assigning much value to the page. Thanks for the write up.

Aggregator 110

Aggregator Content Syndication Journal 110

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 20, 2010

UPDATE: For those interested in more actual information, NYTco. Adam is part of the Define Search Strategies consulting team, which is owned by The New York Times Company. Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now!

Press Release 126

Press Release Digg News SEO 126

Adam Sherk

MAY 17, 2010

CBS News and Reuters are the only two news organizations in the group that have not created a short, customized URL for their page (e.g. While on Facebook, the page URL shown to users in the browser changes radically depending on how it was navigated to. www.facebook.com/nytimes): That is a missed opportunity.

Sites 167

Sites News CPM Facebook 167

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 16, 2009

by Adam Sherk on December 16, 2009 Yesterday Google announced that it is now supporting the rel=&# canonical&# link element (sometimes referred to as the canonical URL tag) across different domains. If you’re not familiar with rel=&# canonical&# see Publishers: Solve Tracking Code, Duplicate Content Issues with the Canonical URL Tag ).

Syndication 103

Syndication Publishing URL Yahoo 103

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

Give edit a voice – who would followers rather interact with, a marketing person or the actual writers of your content? It’s also common to see 2-3 different Twitter buttons on the same page, each generating different tweet text and/or a different shortened URL. NBC Targets Local Markets on the New Digg.

Industry 200

Industry Social Media URL Module 200

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 12, 2011

Here are some of the key areas to address: To be clear this is not meant to encompass the full spectrum of technical, editorial and marketing components in a comprehensive SEO program. First content is created then the key page elements (title tag, headline, URL, image attributes, etc.) are optimized to improve keyword focus.

SEO 198

SEO Hitwise comScore Adwords 198

Adam Sherk

MAY 1, 2012

The technical, editorial and marketing teams are trained in SEO best practices and are integrating them into the daily workflow. In the marketing category secondary metrics include tracking domain authority and page authority (for key pages) over time, along with internal and inbound links, social shares, additional brand signals, etc.

Metrics 164

Metrics SEO Publishing Analytics 164

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 8, 2009

Essentially the idea is that for ongoing stories news organizations would maintain a single, consistent “living” URL that is continually updated with the latest developments. by Adam Sherk on December 8, 2009 Today Google unveiled its Living Stories prototype , showcasing its vision of a new format for presenting news stories online.

Google 112

Google Health Care Press Release News 112

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Adam is part of the Define Search Strategies consulting team, which is owned by The New York Times Company. Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now!

Press Release 131

Press Release Issues News Wikipedia 131