The article ‘Boris Johnson ‘to be investigated’ by Parliament watchdog over Caribbean holiday’ by Harriet Line at digital native site ‘Yahoo! News’ at first appears to be an easy to read, straight forward article. However, after close analysis, the composition of this article is riddled with issues.
Although the article presents many coveted attributes of online articles such as being easily scanable (succinct, utilizing white space etc.) the articles lack of hyperlinking, cross-references or additional links to the ongoing investigation leads the reader to question its credibility.
Additionally, the article failed to employ SEO effectively, with no consistent use of key words. Suggested keywords that should be employed for this story are ‘Boris Johnson’, ‘Investigation’, ‘Prime Minister’, ‘Caribbean Holiday’ to ensure relevance to the readers search.
Regarding interactivity and community/conversation although the article is easy to share (social media icons to click at bottom of page e.g. click on twitter icon and it generates a tweet with the link and tags Yahoo!) readers are required to have account to comment or see other comments (hindrance/deterrent).
The article could also be greatly improved by the inclusion of more relevant imagery (no visual in article of the subject of the article i.e. PM Boris Johnson).
Good choice of story. Important to note that Yahoo! has published a story direct from a wire service/news agency (i.e. PA Media, the former Press Association), and normally they provide copy, photos, and video, but they don’t include links or social media curations. You’re right to suggest that Yahoo! might have considered offering readers a bullet point list of links to sources, background, or other content, however.
The key words you identify appear in the Yahoo! story headline. If you think they should appear elsewhere to improve the SEO, where would that be? Where you suggest links to sources or information about the ongoing investigation, can you provide examples?
Your own headline is SEO friendly because it contains the key words you’ve identified in the story. To improve your post’s SEO you should assign tags (in the field towards the bottom right of the post window).