Deindexing Murdoch
When Rupert Murdoch says he is flirting with the idea pulling his News Corp. properties websites from Google’s index and putting up Pay Walls, you have wonder if he’s using old school bullying or trying a new business plan for content publishers.
He makes a valid point that search engine traffic does not relate to loyal readers. But that’s not Big Picture Thinking. When a reader keeps coming from repeated search engine queries, they are more likely to add the site to their routine to reduce the steps to get to the news. Spend the time and effort on SEO and convert the drive by readers over to daily visitors.
But if you must
In the case of Glen Beck, it would be tough loss, but go ahead I think America is strong enough to handle it.
When it comes to erecting Pay Walls or raising prices, I always think of small town newspapers. When one paper I worked at would raise the single copy price a nickel, someone would take offence to the hike and newspaper racks would start lining the bottom of the Pigeon River, like the three eyed carp it became famous for. Before Murdoch and company start charging they may consider that Internet readers, who have been spoiled by ‘free news’ may toss them in the river.
Comments are closed.