With so many news outlets vying for the attention of readers online, some magazines and newspapers are turning to search engine optimization (SEO) to help increase traffic, and it appears that one magazine is using SEO to target the prurient interest of American men.
Earlier this month, Slate.com pointed out that Esquire magazine has long presented itself as a more gentlemanly alternative to some other men’s magazines, with descriptions of women’s "long, ribbony limbs" and "deep, Guinness eyes." But when it comes to the online version, the magazine is using keywords that might be more commonly expected in a Google search.
Slate’s Julia Turner points out that the title tag in the magazine’s most recent piece on Weeds star Mary Louise Parker reads "Mary Louise Parker Naked Photos – Mary Louise Parker Ass – Esquire."
It’s not the first time the magazine has used a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to attract visitors as Slate points out similar things have been done for pictorials of pop-star Katy Perry and actress Anna Friel.
However, a subsequent column in OC Weekly points out an ironic thing about the Slate piece – the fact that the URL for the Slate article also contains the phrase "mary-louise-parker-ass.aspx."
It would appear that a number of news outlets are using search engine optimization (SEO) to help increase traffic. Earlier this year an article for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website appeared to have been mistakenly uploaded with the piece’s keywords included in the headline.
