Search is central to TimesOnline's journalism, says Spackman

Search engine optimisation now pervades journalism at TimesOnline, its editor-in-chief told an industry conference today.

Search is 'woven through the fabric of our journalism and our culture', Anne Spackman said to delegates at the PPA's annual conference for the magazine industry.

Focusing on search was a strategy adopted by the paper after as part of its redesign in February last year, during which the site's internal search was revamped, she said.

Research into the site's search indexing, she added, had shown that 60 per cent of the site's traffic is generated from search and external links.

Search editors appointed by the paper since its relaunch have become 'the hub of digital operations' and are the 'biggest changes in the way we operate now', she said.

"It's inconceivable that we would start a new project now without the search team being involved at every single stage," Spackman said.

Staff working on the site have also been trained in how to tag online content and write headlines for the web.

However, TimesOnline journalists are not being encouraged to write solely for the purpose of optimising their content for search, she said.

"We need to make sure that whether it is a web manifestation of a print manifestation of our journalism that we are still staying true to our brand and that is where our value lies," said Spackman.

"Search is informing us, but we are not using it as the guiding star to tell us what kind of journalism we should think is important."

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