Case Study: Enterprise SEO

nytlogo

Objective:
Open up the vast content archives of www.NYTimes.com to both users and search engines, by structuring the site architecture and page templates to be as search-friendly as possible.

Strategy and Tactics:

Capitalizing on the approach used to build SEO knowledge into the DNA of About.com, the strategy at NYTimes was to make sure every person who had a hand in content creation understood their role in the SEO process. This meant that editorial staff learned the basics of keyword markets and research, and how search engines create a ’shelf space’ for any given query. Technical staff was trained on how crawl barriers were currently inhibiting the search engines from effectively accessing NYTimes.com content, and how registration walls and shifting URLs can be problematic to search engines and users alike. The Marketing teams were versed in how the search engines process link popularity, and how to structure content that makes it easy for users to link to.

The challenge at NYTimes.com is the sheer volume of content that is created on a daily basis. A lot of people’s hard work goes into this content, and for it to be invisible in the search engines is a significant opportunity missed. By distilling SEO into a manageable effort for each person’s individual role, the SEO process could be tackled by many hands, and not just a small team of experts. This is the best way to manage SEO across large organizations: Dividing the responsibilities and training people on specific areas of search engine expertise. Some of the problem areas that were tackled:

  • Crawl barriers mitigated with sitemaps and site architecture changes
  • Editorial staff trained on how to write headlines for the web
  • CMS altered to give people the ability to alter META tags
  • Media assets structured and optimized to be more accessible to both users and search engines

Results:

Since inception of the SEO program at NYTimes.com in 2005:

  • Search engine referral traffic has grown 300% from 2005-2008
  • Yearly growth rate of search traffic averages 65%
  • Better user engagement: A greater number of keywords drive traffic to the site, and time on site has significantly increased