E-Media Tidbits

google.com How your stories rank in online searches can affect the people and organizations you cover -- even over time as results change. Click this image to see how Google results mentioned in a Mar. 4 Roanoke.com story shifted as of the posting of this Tidbit.

(UPDATE MARCH 8: Guess which story tops the Google search results for "Ceritano's Restaurant" as of today? You're reading it!)

Yesterday, the Roanoke Times' site published Can Google possibly be bad for business?

According to that story, "A restaurateur believes his business is down 30 percent because people mistakenly associate his establishment with an alleged double murderer. For that, Nino Ceritano blames The Roanoke Times. As of Friday, typing 'Ceritano's Restaurant' into Google brought up Times articles about the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy and a security guard as the top two listings. The restaurant was mentioned in coverage of the shootings because Michael Morva, brother of the accused killer William Morva, had been working at Ceritano's."

Now, what do you think many online readers would do when they read a story like that? Probably exactly what I just did: search Google for "Ceritano's Restaurant." The top result as of today was -- you guessed it -- "Can Google possibly be bad for business?" The Aug. 21, 2006 article, Shooting suspect caught in Blacksburg, has been bumped down to second place in the search results.

This shift may or may not provide some comfort to the restauranteur. Either way, an update to the online edition of the story pointing out this development might help the story seem more relevant to online readers and less like straight shovelware.

Tip: When covering something online that's likely to change, take a screenshot of what you're referring to as it existed when you published the story. Then, link to that screenshot from your story -- as I did in the illustration above. That way, your readers will see what you saw, not just what's online when they happen to read it.

(Thanks to Ken Sands of Spokesman.com for the tip.)