Adam Sherk

  • About
  • SEO
  • Social Media
  • PR
  • Publishing

I Hope News Corp Does Block its Content from Google

November 23, 2009 by Adam Sherk

More developments in the Rupert Murdoch vs. Google saga today, as the Financial Times reports that discussions have taken place between News Corp and Microsoft on an exclusive deal with Bing that would lead to News Corp blocking its news sites (such as The Wall Street Journal) from Google.

Rupert Murdoch

I’d actually like to see this happen…it would make for an interesting case study demonstrating that the only one hurt by such a deal is News Corp itself. It would also be interesting to see how Microsoft addresses the financial realities of trying to extend such an arrangement to a larger group of publishers.

Believe it or not, being indexed in Google and Google News is actually good for news sites. 🙂

Danny Sullivan has been covering the SEO aspects of this story in depth – these posts provide an overview of the key points better than I could summarize here:

  • Thoughts On A “Killer” Bing-News Corp Deal & The Myth Of An “OPEC For News”
  • If Newspapers Were Stores, Would Visitors Be “Worthless” Then?
  • Why An Exclusive Wall Street Journal (or News Corp) Deal Wouldn’t Help Bing

Jeff Jarvis also has some good thoughts on the topic:

  • Murdoch madness
  • Nose, face, cut, spite: Blocking Google

And Bill Tancer from Hitwise has pulled data showing just how important search engine referral traffic is to The Wall Street Journal and newspapers in general:

  • News Corp. – If You de-Index Will They Still Come?
  • News Corp. Google-less?

Related posts:

  1. Video Interview: Rupert Murdoch Doesn’t Like Search So Much
  2. Which News Sites Have the Highest Reading Level According to Google?
  3. Videos in Press Releases are Cool – If They Provide Meaningful Content
  4. 29% of the Top 500 Google+ Pages are News and Content Sites
  5. The Most Common Causes of Duplicate Content on News Media Sites

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please confirm you are a real person: * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Subscribe and Connect

Follow @adamsherk

About Adam Sherk

Adam Sherk is an SEO and PR consultant helping publishers with digital strategy and audience development, including enterprise SEO, public relations and social media marketing.

Adam is VP SEO and Digital Strategy for Define Media Group.

Recent Posts

  • 8 Critical SEO and Digital Marketing Opportunities for Publishers
  • How Much Google News Traffic Do Publishers Get? Here’s Data on 80 News Sites.
  • 10 Things That Expose Good Sites to Google Panda
  • Mobile Visits Account for 40% of All Traffic for Publishers
  • The Best Tools for Keyword Research, Competitive Analysis and Trending Topics

Categories

  • Public Relations
  • Publishing
  • SEO
  • Social Media

Popular Posts

  • The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases
  • 5 Ways that Social Media Impacts SEO
  • Media Relations Gone Wrong: How Not to Pitch a Journalist (Video)
  • The Most Common Google News Errors and How to Avoid Them
  • SEO Guidelines for Sponsored Content and Partner Links
  • 8 Social Media Questions Publishers Should Be Asking Themselves
  • Top Link Building Tactics for Publishers
  • The Best Free (or Cheap) Tools for Blogger and Influencer Outreach
  • A Simple Workflow for Keyword Research for Content Planning
  • Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools
  • The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics
  • Editorial SEO Tactics for the Newsroom
  • SEO Metrics for Publishers: How are You Tracking and Measuring Success?
  • Free Tools for Monitoring Hot Search Trends
  • Google News Optimization Tips

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed on this blog are Adam Sherk's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his company or its clients.

Sitemap | RSS | © 2009-present AdamSherk.com