Charging for Content May Hamper Search Optimization Efforts

"We're situated in a landscape where most content is free," said Greg Bartalos, Yahoo's finance editor, a participant on a panel discussion titled, "It's All About Search: Partnering to Get the Most Exposure for Your Content." "Some publishers have pulled it off, like the Wall Street Journal, but that's a must read for the business industry."

Industry professionals from Google and the vertical search engine Business.com agreed that free content works better in search optimization than does paid content. "If someone searches for content on our site, we don't want to point them to something that's not readily available," said Business.com's vice president of business development. "If (your content) is behind a wall, then it can't be found."

"We believe all information should be easily accessible," said Erin Clift, who is in charge of Google's business and industrial markets. Bartalos encouraged publishers to put syndicate their content through an RSS feed. "Let it go," he said. "It costs nothing to do it. You can spend money on marketing your content, but that won't guarantee that people will come to your site. If you syndicate it, you can experiment and see if they'll come."