Newspaper SEO: How to go about link building for news websites

[Netpace]

Newspaper SEO is tricky business, primarily because of the way you deal with Keywords. So far, I have been unable to find a comprehensive guide to newspaper SEO via SEOmoz, although I'm a big fan and this website has actually made my career! So, my question is, how do you go about building links for newspaper websites, what keywords should you use and what link building strategies would work?

[SteveOllington]

Easy, for something like that you don't link build at all, you just publish, publicize and promote. I assume that it's original and news-worthy content if it's a newspaper, so interesting stories, etc... In which case all you need to do is get it out there in front of people and the links will come naturally.

[malachiii]

Agree with this 100%.  Also make sure you're handling wire information correct.  Have Nofollows setup correctly unless you actually want to pass juice back to websites.  A big SEO trick is to publish link rich press releases and send them through wires.  Most publications fix this, but a few dont.  dont be one of the few.

[Netpace]

Now see, your answer just confirmed what I've been advocating. I just thought I might be missing out on something doable in terms of link building for a newspaper website. Cheers!

[Netpace]

What would you say about cheap tactics like dropping links in comments where they are do-follow and things like that. I totally understand your point regarding how to work with newspaper websites. Would you factor in the use of social sites like reddit, digg, stumple upon etc...and if so, how would you use them?

[SteveOllington]

I do it. Unfortunately it's sometimes necessary when there isn't enough of a budget for creative, etc... (small businesses that can afford nothing more than the cheapest of cheap links). It's not the right way to go though, and certainly not in the long term, but for some businesses it's the only chance they have to compete.

[Netpace]

Thanks for your feedback, but I'm talking about newspaper websites in particular. Would you use this for a news website? Also, if you have the budget how would you go about link building? From what I gather, all budget, time and effort should be put in towards generating interesting content and then promoting it via all possible channels on the internet. Right?