SECTION 5. EDITORIAL CONSIDERATIONS
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) CONSIDERATIONS
Think carefully about keywords. Use terms that readers are likely to be searching for, or that will be easily recognizable and compelling in a headline
- Include keywords that are central to the story’s content in titles. Consider what keywords relevant to the story are trending in search engines and social media
- Use bullet points and heading titles when relevant
- When appropriate, add trending topics and keywords in the slug and in headings
- Add description to photos within articles to serve as an alt tag
- Within the body of articles, link player names and related pages/articles whenever possible
- Shorter articles for season-long content (how to watch, previews, landing pages) work better to be positioned on search engines
HEADLINE TITLES
On press releases and shorter articles the title should always be in lowercase
- Thiago Almada lands on MLS Team of the Week
On long-form articles the title should always be all uppercase
- Rooted In The Community (not “Rooted in the community”)
Use the word form of numbers except in casual uses, formal names, or when describing a minute in a match and the number of a player
- Mostly use “hundreds” over “100s”
If a quote is used, use double quotation marks, never use single quotation marks
- “They kept my morale high and my energy up,” Miles Robinson says. “Definitely my friends and my family, and I’m super grateful for them. It kind of motivates me to come back better because I know how much they sacrificed just to keep me up.”
When there’s a quote within a quote, always use single quote mark
- “When he called me up, he said ‘I need you to hold the midfield and make runs through the left wing’, and then proceeded to make the substitution.”
DOs
- Try to limit headlines to less than 60 characters on Forge
- Craft a headline that is vivid, fair, accurate, matches the tone of the story and makes the reader want to consume more content
- Make every word count
- Embed photo galleries on articles whenever possible
- When translating an article from English to another language, the byline always goes to the original author not the translator
- If updating an existing article with new information, can denote above or below the article body and include the date when it was updated
- When directing to a page or article within ATLUTD.com, have the link open in the same window. When directing to a different website or an external source, open in a new tab or window
- The final score of a match within an editorial article should always displays the winning team first