April 29, 2008
Addendum to my Keywording BLOG from the other day
A friend of mine in the industry asked me of any companies that are having editorial staff follow the recommendations I laid out in that last BLOG. The truth is, very few if any companies do this due to editorial resistance. Editors/Writers generally view this kind of work as beneath them since it takes additional time that could be spent working sources or actually writing. Also, keywording is a kind of marketing activity, if you think about it, since you are trying to make your content maximally 'discoverable' on your own Website as well as from major search engines like Google. Consequently, editors/writers might resist since it might feel like they are crossing the line of editorial/business.
While news reporters might resist embedding keywords/keyphrases into articles, I think they are already used to tagging content -- in fact they've been doing so over the years with Atex or QPS, or K4 by filling out some header fields. Of course, if content is being authored for Web-first, it is common practice to add keywords to additional fields that a CMS will make available.
With regard to using some kind of tool that prompts them about keywords/keyphrases in their taxonomy that they could embed in the articles themselves, I think that companies that publish B2B or enthusiast content might embrace this approach. However, I know of no one that is doing this presently and would love to hear about any examples out there.
What might be the driving factor for adoption of these ideas is the editorial team's passion to convey the brand's message by any means. If that is the prevailing culture of a brand, then the writers and editors might be more willing to add keywording/keyphrasing into their workflow provided that the tools are easy-to-use and don't get in the way of the writing process.
Posted at 11:05 am by Joseph Bachana
More Blogs From Author:
< Keywording as an Editorial Function at Magazine Publishers
Getting More With Honey Than Vinegar >
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