Getting the Web Right: Survival of the Fittest?

Posted by Lima Al-Azzeh Mar 12, 2009

Let's face the facts. Everyone knows the journalism industry is undergoing a complete dismantling of tradition and routine. No longer fixed to print-driven deadlines and paper distribution, modern media is evolving at breakneck speed. With this in mind, publishers and journalists are turning to online publishing and they may feel pressure to quickly master the web--particularly the subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The question is: can anyone truly become a “master” (not to mention quickly) in an ever-changing medium?

Poynter Media business analyst Rick Edmonds interviewed Paul Steiger, editor of ProPublica and former editor of the Wall Street Journal. Edmonds wrote that, while Steiger continually faces the challenge of “getting the web right” in order to maintain high quality journalism standards, there is also a strong sense of “learn-as you-go” when using the web as a new frontier for journalism.

I spoke with Suite101 Feature Writer Mia Carter about web writing in general and SEO issues in particular. Mia is dedicated to learning everything she can about good SEO practices and sharing the information with her colleagues in the Suite101 Writer Forums. She has some wise words to share about a topic most writers find a bit mystifying:

“SEO isn't something you can really figure out per se. It's not an exact science of ‘do x and y will occur.’ It's much more complex than that. So I'm hesitant to say that any of us ‘get it’ entirely. There are SEO professionals who research this stuff for a living who would probably say that even they haven't figured it out!

Part of the problem is that search engine optimization standards (what's good SEO, what's bad SEO, etc.) tend to evolve very quickly. A couple weeks ago, I was speaking with a couple of Suite101's SEO experts and he offered an example of how an SEO standard changed in a matter of six hours! So what's good SEO today may be entirely obsolete six months down the road, which is why I'd argue that no one ever ‘figures it out’”.

These changes are almost Darwinian in nature and as Mia points out, there may never be a time when anyone has got the best SEO practices absolutely pegged. Gaining a steady online readership includes a dedication to identify, and re-examine, the best ways to get a reader’s attention and to have your words “found” by search engines. It’s a classic example of “survival of the fittest”, where only those writers who are willing to constantly adapt their web strategy will survive.