In times of searching for information in real time, performing well in search engines can be a herculean task for news media.
Bringing up-to-date, reliable and real-time information is critical. In this article I bring SEO tips for news. It is especially useful (but not only) for vehicles that cover news and seek to improve the experience of their visitors.
Index
Here are some tips for content SEO and technical SEO:
Content SEO
Titles
Google uses its crawler to crawl and analyze articles and determine the correct titles and subtitles for the content. Here are some actions that can help to display the correct title of your content in searches:
- Write clear and objective headlines.
- Place the title of the article in highlight, above the body of the article and preferably with a heading mark
.
- Whenever possible, use the title of the page entered in the tag
same as the title of the article marked with heading</html> .
- Make sure that the anchor text in your home and / or section page matches the title of the article.
- Avoid assigning a link to the title or subtitle on your article page.
- Do not include a date and time in the title.
- Titles should preferably be between 10 and 60 characters (between 3 and 15 words approximately).
The title is the first call to action for your article. Be concise!
Read too: "Headings and SEO“
Content
Avoid “forcing” updates on stories. If a story undergoes a considerable change in content, it makes more sense for you to publish a new one than to update an existing one. However, if you need to update don't do it without adding something meaningful.
Besides that, avoid publishing a story very similar to another already published previously. In these cases, whenever possible, delete the old publication and redirect to the new one.
Don't overdo the updates! In some cases, updating content as being classified as cloaking. Cloaking can be considered a technique of black hat and consists of presenting different URLs or content to search engines and users who visit the site. That is considered a violation of Google’s guidelines because it gives users different results than what they expect to find on a page.
Duplicate content
Search engines always try to reward original and exclusive content, giving credit to the origin. This means that copied, republished and / or rewritten content will (in most cases) underperform the original content.
Some tips on duplicating content:
- Played content: refers to content obtained from another database, usually obtained in an automated way (eg content from agencies). Avoid whenever possible but if you have to use any content of this nature be sure to block it from appearing on Google News (
)
- Content rewritten: it is the content copied or reproduced, totally or partially, using only the exchange of a few words but maintaining the original idea presented. Avoid this practice but, just like the content played, if you have to use it, block its display in searches (
).
- Republished content: If you are authorized to republish and / or translate content from another site, apply a canonical URL (
rel = "canonical"
) to the original content. Many publishers and websites allow their content to be republished / translated as they can help improve their performance on Google News, for example. Google News, for its part, asks those who republish content to make use of the canonical URL in order to better identify the original content and give due credit to it.
If you have many sites on your network of news sites (a portal for example) that share content, the above advice on republication applies to your network. Select what you consider the original article and block duplicates or use canonical URLs to point to the original.
Read too: "Less content = more conversion“
The canonical URLs feature is especially useful for informing the search engine that you want to display only one article (the original) in the results. This prevents you from suffering from keyword cannibalization, where two or more articles compete in the search for placement for the same term. We call this internal competition.
Read too: "The definitive guide to content SEO“
Images
In order for Google News to index and display the images of your article correctly, follow these tips:
- Use images relevant to the news. Avoid generic images, thumbnails or logos.
- Use images with good resolution (minimum 60 x 90 pixels) and suitable formats.
- Place the images next to the titles.
- Caprice in the subtitles.
Transparency
Always be transparent with your visitors. They want to trust the content you produce. Do not produce headlines that disagree with your content just to bring the visitor to your site. Present clear information, inform the authorship of the publication and make contact information available on your website.
Don't cheat. Search engine policies, especially Google's, do not allow sites that attempt to impersonate other people or organizations. Practices that mislead users are not allowed.
Technical SEO
In addition to content care, some technical care is essential to rank your content well in searches and Google News.
Read too: "Google Page Experience: UX as a ranking factor“
Use AMP
Pages AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) are a lightweight format and optimized for mobile devices. They are pages optimized for simplified and almost instant loading when accessed via mobile devices.
AMP pages bring numerous benefits such as better loading speed (better user experience) and better crawl rate by the search engine crawler. This makes your site have more chances to achieve better search positioning.
Dates
Always inform the searcher of precise publication dates and times. Google tries to display the date and time of publication in different ways:
- Show date and time of publication clearly: preferably between the title and the body of the article. Avoid displaying other dates on the page, such as dates for related articles or widgets.
- Use structured data markup (recommended): use the
datePublished
anddateModified
to inform date of publication and update on AMP or non-AMP pages.
rel = ”canonical” and content = ”noindex”
As previously mentioned, if you publish a news on several pages of your website or network of websites use the tag rel = "canonical"
and do not allow duplicate content to appear on searches and on Google News.
To prevent the article from being displayed on Google searches for example, you can use the tag . To prevent display on Google News use the tag
.
Some CMSs, especially WordPress through the Yoast SEO plugin, allow you to easily adjust this type of configuration in the article's edition.
Structured data markup
THE marking structured data to your articles (news, blog posts, revenue, etc.) allows it to become eligible to appear in enhanced search results (rich results). The rich results allow your article to be featured prominently in various ways within the SERPS (search result pages).
Test the structured data markup of your page and if it is able to receive rich results.
Live video content
If you’re broadcasting a live video during an event, you may qualify for a “Live” badge, tagging your video with BroadcastEvent
.
It is also recommended that you use the Indexing API to ensure that your live video content is crawled and indexed in a timely manner. The API allows any website owner to directly notify Google when certain types of pages are added or removed.
This allows Google to schedule pages for a new crawl, which can lead to more traffic as your content is updated. For sites with many short pages, many live streams for example, the indexing API keeps the content up to date in search results.
Update the cache and use components for AMP
Especially for AMP pages, update the cache and its components.
When people click on an AMP page, Google AMP Cache automatically requests updates to show new content to the next person after the content is cached. However, if you want to force an update in the cache, you can send an update request to Google AMP cache. This is useful if your pages are changing due to a live event.
: Add live content to your article and update it based on a source document. This is a great option if you want content to be reloaded easily, without having to install or configure additional services on your backend. Learn how to implement.
: run your own JavaScript within the AMP pages. This flexibility means that anything you’re posting on your pages can be transferred to AMP. THE
supports Websockets, interactive SVGs, etc. This allows you to create news pages with attractive layoutssuch as election coverage maps, live graphs and polls. Learn how to implement.
Bonus SEO tips for news
Avoid buying and selling links
Do not participate in large scale purchase, sale and exchange schemes. Google has a very clear policy regarding these link schemes.
Protect your users
Consider security a top item on your site. Use Security Certificate and adopt security measures to ensure the privacy and security of your visitor.
Final considerations
Follow Google's best practices regarding content production and technical implementations and your articles will be more likely to appear in the top positions.
Keep reading: "SEO for copywriters - the figure of the “complete copywriter”“
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