Arkansas Times editor Lindsey Millar talks with Editor & Publisher about web strategy, SEO, and covering the West Memphis Three story:

“We had just piles and piles of articles … We had time to go through and write an explainer, and then we reported the hell out of it,” Millar said, adding that the Times distributed coverage through Facebook, Twitter, and email alerts. In addition, a West Memphis Three topic category appeared on the top and bottom of every page, which linked to the explainer. Millar emphasized the importance of publishing news — and a lot of it.

“I think what places like The New York Times and Mother Jones have done with explainers is really obvious, but not nearly enough people do it, and it’s incredibly useful not just for readers, but especially for SEO. That’s really where I’m hoping that we can move — having all of these topic pages for all of the subjects that we cover most frequently, and each one of those would lead into something like we did with the West Memphis Three,” said Millar, who added that the Times use Google Analytics and finds that readers are mostly drawn to news and politics coverage.