SEO For Publishers

Publisher SEO is a branch of search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on improving digital publishers’ Google rankings and organic traffic.

It focuses on technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO and content optimization strategies to improve search engine rankings.

This includes optimizing page speed, structured data, keyword research and link building, to name a few. It also adopts strategies unique to the digital publishing landscape, such as content velocity, original reporting, advertising best practices, paywall optimization and more.

Improving a publisher’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) requires producing high-quality, optimized content at scale. This takes more than creating high-quality content that includes relevant keywords and internal links; it also takes a deep understanding of the search engine landscape and how algorithm changes can affect editorial workflows.

Despite its importance, SEO for publishers can often end up on the sidelines owing to heavy editorial workloads. This is understandable, given the resource pressures many publishers face.

But don’t worry. Each publisher’s SEO strategy differs and depends on their capacity and needs. SEO is an organizational effort. Even after a story is published, its SEO performance can be improved, maintained or redirected to engage and attract new and existing visitors.

SEO for news websites starts with a technical and content audit, with publishers then incorporating the findings into their editorial and organizational processes.

While all news publishers share the same goal — increase traffic and audience engagement — each path will differ. Every organization will have varying resource levels, distribution channels and experience.

The first step is identifying news sites’ organizational characteristics to develop a unique strategy for each. Once your strategy is in place, ensuring editorial buy-in before assigning roles and responsibilities is vital.

When each team member knows what they’re responsible for and what they’re working towards, your company can begin rolling out its strategy while carefully measuring results to see what’s working and what isn’t.

Optimizing articles for Google News requires a greater focus on authority, content freshness, relevance and velocity than traditional SEO.

While algorithms determine Google News and Google Search results, they place different values on different signals. For example, speed of coverage, accuracy and E-E-A-T impact news results pages more than organic search results.

This means sites must consistently break stories quickly while building their topical authority. The second part of that equation doesn’t necessarily need more breaking news content. News providers can benefit from more generalist SEO strategies that appeal to audiences interested in evergreen topics.

We’ve created a comprehensive guide to Google News SEO that explores many facets of optimizing for Google News and beyond.

Publisher SEO services can vary depending on the level of service a media company requires. Some larger publishers will pay tens of thousands of dollars every month for help in evolving and executing an effective SEO strategy. Smaller media outfits with more modest needs will pay much less for more targeted strategies.

Some might need help identifying duplicate content across multiple pages, thus cannibalizing their traffic, while others might need help developing an internal linking strategy.

State of Digital Publishing (SODP) provides various Publisher SEO services depending on a digital publisher’s needs, internal capabilities and resources, and allocated budget.

Take advantage of our free strategy audit; together, we can identify the right strategy to help grow your audience.

Creating high-quality content that’s easy to find will not only help drive traffic to your site but will also influence the success of your subscription or ad revenue models. More traffic will translate into more revenue.

When developing an SEO publishing strategy, you have two choices: keep it in-house or outsource the task.

Publishers that opt for an in-house solution will need to upskill an existing team using training resources — such as SODP’s Publisher SEO course — or they’ll need to hire new team members dedicated to staying abreast of search engine updates and responding accordingly.

The other option is to work with an external SEO consultant. When choosing this option, it’s essential to ensure that your SEO partners have experience in the publishing space. While Publisher SEO is a branch of SEO, its objectives and approaches differ significantly from SEO for other industries.

Whichever route you choose, the goal will always be creating a relevant content strategy that pleases your target audience, Google and other search engines. Interesting and dynamic content that people love but can’t find has very little value in its own right.