Excuse me, but didn't we know this? The Daily Telegraph and The Times are paying Google to attract readers to their stories. According to the Wall Street Journal, (in an article behind its pay wall) both titles are buying search words so that links to their websites pop up first when people type in a search. For example, the Telegraph, bought the phrase "North Korea nuclear test" last October. Try it, it works!
The WSJ also reveals Times journalists are being trained to write in a way that makes their articles more likely to appear among Google's unpaid search results, through their tagging and spider systems. Edward Roussel, the Telegraph's digital editor, says: "The most important driver of all readers [to our site] is Google, except for people who know us and come directly. It plays a critical part of exporting our brand, particularly to the U.S."
