Publisher SEO

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

By Andrew Kemp , Managing Editor

I like to believe that there’s a profound difference between what’s popular and what’s trustworthy.

The news earlier this year that?teens are turning to TikTok and Instagram for their news?filled me with quiet, but significant unease.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my news to be delivered by platforms that aren’t fixated on locking me into “ludic loops” — infinite closed loops of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback where the rewards are just enough to keep the user returning to the cycle’s start.

It was with some relief, then, that I read the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s latest survey, which found that?Google remains the most trusted news platform?while Facebook is the least trusted.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting Google is some altruistic champion of objective and independent journalism. There are challenges when dealing with any major technology platform. I just so happen to find Google’s approach to news more palatable than that of platforms that fixate on the infinite scroll,?shrinking their audience’s attention spans?in the process.

What the Reuters Institute showed is that when people want content they can trust they still head to Google. While the topic is open to extensive sociological, technological and philosophical debate, I’d argue that social media channels struggle with trust given the perception around influence peddling.

All this is to say that despite the rise of social media’s control over audiences, a growing sense of distrust is enough of a reason for publishers to pursue a strong publisher strategy.

While SEO might be the art of optimizing content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), publisher SEO is about creating great content that attracts and engages audiences while also climbing the SERPs.

A solid publisher SEO strategy is about marrying both technical and content SEO to create content that readers want and need while also being easy to discover online.

This is why the team here at SODP is busy developing an end-to-end publisher SEO course. Our goal is to provide a solid publisher SEO roadmap that can help both smaller and larger publishers acquire, retain and expand their audience base.

PODCAST: TECHNICAL SEO FOR NEWS SITES WITH BARRY ADAMS

Check out our latest podcast episode. Here, we catch up with Barry Adams ?? , a leading News SEO consultant, editor of SEO Google News Newsletter, and co-Founder of the News and Editorial SEO Summit (NESS), about the state of technical SEO for news sites.

PODCAST: ENTERPRISE NEWS SEO & GOOGLE TRENDS WITH LOUISA FRAHM

In this episode, we speak with Louisa Frahm , SEO Director at ESPN, on Enterprise News SEO career advice and how to better leverage Google Trends.

ONLINE COURSE: PUBLISHER SEO – LEARN, IMPLEMENT, GROW

We have exciting news. Our team is getting ready to launch an all-in-one online course on Publisher SEO.

It will teach you how to develop a content and SEO strategy that not only maintains value for existing subscribers but also appeals to a new, wider audience.

Our team of SEO experts has worked with – both in consulting and advisory capacities – with countless digital publishers. This is every trick in our playbook that we use to achieve short-term wins and long-term results.

?? You will learn everything from technical and content SEO to growth tactics and execution strategies.

Each module features educational videos, ready-to-use templates, practice quizzes, and more.

Want access to insights, how-to guides, and other exclusive educational content for digital publishers? Grab your access to the Members Hub here.