Add Feature Newspaper and Magazine Articles to your Web Site

[Nora McDougall-Collins]

A newspaper or magazine just wrote a fantastic article about your business. They may have also added the article to their web site. Hopefully, they have also listed or linked to your web site. The publicity is great for your business, but the benefits will continue indefinitely, if you will look at all articles written about you or your product as a resource for your web site.

BENEFITS OF ADDING ARTICLES TO YOUR WEBSITE
First, the article has value as content. People use your web site who may not ever see the original publication. These viewers will enjoy the professionally written articles and photos. The content also has value for your search engine optimization (SEO); although, as "duplicate content" the SEO value isn't as great as the original content you write.

Second, the article gives your company and product credibility. Web sites are impersonal (and often suspect.) Newspaper and magazine articles let your viewers know that you are for real and worthy of recognition.

Third, adding articles to your web site helps keep your site alive with updates. People like to see new material added regularly on your web site - so do the search engines. (Join the Web Marketing forum for regular tips on search engine optimization.)

HOW TO ADD ARTICLES TO YOUR WEBSITE
Plan a section of your web site for media that is linked from your home page.Some examples are:
Flying AJ Ranch
Pimentel Guitars

Before you add someone else's article or photo to your web site, you should have their permission. A good time to ask is when they make arrangements for the interview or photo session. After the article or photo is in print, the content is in the hands of the administration and might not be easy to obtain. Be sure to tell the reporter or write that you would be happy to give them credit and link to their web site. Your link to their web site is good for their SEO.

After you have permission, you will need a copy of the article and/or photos that is compatible with your web technology - unless you plan to type the whole article! Many web magazines have a format that is not easy - or possible - to copy and paste from. If you can't get the article, permission to copy and paste it doesn't help you.

Examples of online magazines without copy and paste functionality:
Posh New Mexico
Wood Products
PDF files appear to have copy and paste, but the copy often skips letters here and there and the format will cause other issues.

Ideally, receiving the text in a Word document and the images in .jpg format will give you the most options for use on your web site. The problem is that magazine and newspaper staff aren't necessarily web savvy enough to know that. Many times they will offer you a PDF file. However, the author of the article and photographer may be able to send you copies in Word and .jpg, if you make your request before they turn everything over for publication. However, I have had to resort to typing an article and doing a screenshot for images. Screenshot instructions.

No matter when you receive your digital version of the article and photos, be sure that it goes on your web site after the originating publication has had their exposure for good relations with the publication. And, again, give them credit and a link.

However, you may find that the publication locks all their articles behind a passworded subscription. Then you can't link to the articles. If the publication doesn't take advertising and depends entirely on subscriptions, you might do them the courtesy of mentioning that at the bottom of the article. However, if it's a publication that takes advertising, they may have policies that are quite restrictive, including asking you to pay to use the article on your web site.

I experienced this type of unfriendly policy when I tried to add an article from one Southwestern newspaper. They wanted more payment to carry the article for a month than my client's monthly web hosting! Of course, we didn't want the article for a month - we wanted to carry it permanently - with a link back to the newspaper web site, of course. My client was able to beg the article from them, but that policy doesn't make any sense from a SEO perspective. Having their content online and available is a huge SEO benefit - and an opportunity to charge more for advertising through increased circulation. If I were a business that had advertising on their site, I would cancel it because they aren't doing everything they can to make sure that their article - and therefore my advertising - has as wide an audience as possible!

By the way, if they include your phone number in the article, be sure they add the area code. It's incredible how many local newspapers assume that the world knows all the area codes in the US!