If you run a news website, you know how critical it is to get your articles in front of as many eyeballs as possible, so SEO is crucial for news websites. After all, what’s the point of breaking a big story if no one can find it? That’s where SEO comes in, mate.
Search engine optimisation is essential for news sites to attract organic traffic and keep readers coming back for more. But with the constantly evolving algorithms and stiff competition, it can be tricky to stay on top of the latest SEO best practices.
No worries, though, we’ve got you covered! We’ll walk you through the most effective advanced SEO strategies to help your news site dominate the search rankings in 2024 and beyond. So grab a cuppa, get comfy, and let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Understand Your Audience's Search Intent to SEO for News Websites
First things first, you need to get inside the heads of your readers. What are they searching for? What kind of information do they expect to find when they click on your article?
Keyword research is crucial here. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify the most relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is using. Look for a mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords to cover a range of search queries.
But don’t just stuff your articles with keywords and call it a day. Google’s algorithms are smart enough to understand the context and intent behind searches. So focus on creating content that genuinely addresses your readers’ needs and questions.
For example, if you’re writing about a breaking news event, think about what aspects people would be most curious about – the who, what, where, when, why and how. Provide those key details upfront, then dive deeper with analysis and expert commentary.
Craft Compelling, Click-Worthy Headlines For your news websites SEO
Your headline is often the first (and sometimes only) thing potential readers will see in the search results. So it needs to be attention-grabbing and informative, while still accurately reflecting the content of your article.
Include your primary keyword towards the beginning of the headline if possible, but don’t force it. The headline should read naturally and pique interest. Use numbers, questions, and power words to make it more compelling.
For example, instead of a generic headline like “City Council Passes New Budget“, try something more specific and engaging like:
“5 Surprising Ways the New City Budget Will Impact Residents’ Lives“
or
“Will the Controversial City Budget Solve Our Problems or Create New Ones?“
Keep your headlines under 60 characters so they don’t get cut off in search results. Also, avoid clickbait headlines that mislead readers – this will only hurt your credibility and search rankings in the long run.
Optimise Your Article Structure for Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are the holy grail of SEO. These are the boxes that appear at the top of search results, directly answering the user’s question. Earning a featured snippet spot can dramatically boost your organic traffic, as it puts your article front and centre.
To optimise your content for featured snippets:
- Ask the question you’re answering directly in your article, preferably in a subheading (H2 or H3 tag)
- Provide a clear, concise answer directly below the question, in roughly 40-50 words
- Format the answer as a paragraph, list, or table depending on the query
- Use facts, data, and examples to back up your answer and establish authority
For instance, if you’re writing an article on “How to Register to Vote in the UK“, you could structure it like:
<h2>How Do I Register to Vote in the UK?</h2>
(in the backend)
“To register to vote in the UK, you must be 18 years old, a British citizen, and have a permanent address. You can register online at gov.uk/register-to-vote in just 5 minutes. You’ll need to provide your National Insurance number, date of birth, and address. Make sure to register at least 2 weeks before an election to be eligible to vote.”
Google aims to deliver the precise answer that searchers are seeking by extracting such a section from your article to use as the meta description.
It is essential to prioritise this section as high up as possible.
Leverage Structured Data for Rich Results
Structured data is code that you can add to your articles to help search engines better understand and display your content. By using schema markup, you can make your search results stand out with additional information like images, star ratings, and article timestamps.
Some key schema types for news websites include:
- Article schema to specify the headline, description, author, and publication date
- NewsArticle schema for timely articles about current events
- Breadcrumb schema to show the path to the article in the site hierarchy
- Organisation schema to display your logo, social profiles, and contact info
You can use tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or Schema.org to generate the code. Just fill in the relevant fields, then copy and paste the HTML into your article. Test it with the Rich Results Test tool to ensure it’s working properly.
Adding structured data can help your articles appear in Google News, Top Stories carousels, and other rich results. This extra visibility can drive significantly more traffic to your site.
Prioritise Page Speed and Mobile-Friendliness to SEO For News Websites
In today’s fast-paced world, readers expect news websites to load lightning-fast, especially on mobile devices. Google also uses page speed as a ranking factor, so a slow site can hurt your SEO.
Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test your page load times and get recommendations for improvement. Some quick tips:
- Compress and optimise your images
- Minify your HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- Use browser caching to store static files
- Reduce redirects and eliminate render-blocking resources
Making your site mobile-friendly is also crucial, as over half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Use a responsive design that adapts to any screen size, with easy-to-tap buttons and readable text.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help you spot any issues, like content wider than the screen or text that’s too small. Fixing these problems will provide a better user experience and boost your mobile search rankings.
Build High-Quality Backlinks with Digital PR
While on-page optimisation is important, off-page SEO is just as critical for news websites. Backlinks from other reputable sites act as “votes of confidence” in your content, signalling to Google that your articles are valuable and trustworthy.
But how do you earn high-quality backlinks? One of the most effective techniques is digital PR. This involves creating newsworthy content that other sites will want to cover and link to naturally.
Some digital PR ideas for news websites:
- Conduct original research or surveys on trending topics, then pitch the exclusive data to other publications.
- Create in-depth case studies or white papers showcasing your expertise.
- Partner with influencers or thought leaders for interviews or guest posts.
- Launch data-driven infographics or interactive content that’s highly shareable.
- Host webinars or events featuring industry experts, then promote the recordings.
The key is to create truly valuable content that other sites would be proud to link to and share with their audience. Focus on building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your niche. The more you establish yourself as a trusted source, the more organic backlinks you’ll attract.
Update and Repurpose Evergreen Content
While news websites are known for breaking stories, it’s also important to have a library of evergreen content that continues to attract traffic over time. These are the in-depth articles, guides, and resources that answer common questions and provide lasting value to readers.
To get the most SEO benefit from your evergreen content:
- Regularly update it with new information, statistics, and examples to keep the content fresh and relevant.
- Add new visuals like images, videos, or infographics to make it more engaging.
- Optimise the title, meta description, and header tags for relevant keywords.
- Build new internal and external links to the article to strengthen its authority.
- Promote it on social media and in your email newsletters to drive more traffic.
You can also repurpose your evergreen content into different formats to reach new audiences. For example, you could turn a long-form article into a series of shorter blog posts, a podcast episode, or a video tutorial. This allows you to squeeze more value out of your existing content while also attracting links and shares.
Implement a Topic Cluster Strategy
Topic clusters are a way of organising your content around core topics to establish your site as an authority in your niche. Instead of creating individual articles in isolation, you create a cluster of interconnected content pieces that cover a topic comprehensively.
Here’s how it works:
- Identify the main topics you want to cover based on your keyword research and audience interests. These are your “pillar pages“.
- Create in-depth, long-form content for each pillar page, covering all the key subtopics and questions related to the main topic. These articles should be evergreen and regularly updated.
- Write shorter, more specific blog posts or articles that dive deeper into each subtopic. These are your “cluster content“.
- Link all the cluster content pieces back to the main pillar page, and link the pillar page to each cluster piece. This creates a hub-and-spoke structure that helps search engines understand the relationship between your content pieces.
- Continue to add new cluster content pieces over time to strengthen your site’s authority on the topic.
By implementing a topic cluster strategy, you can rank for more competitive keywords, attract more backlinks, and provide a better user experience for readers looking for comprehensive information on a topic.
Collaborate with Other Publishers for Link Exchanges
Earning backlinks is hard work, but you can make it a bit easier by collaborating with other publishers in your niche. Link exchanges, or “reciprocal linking“, is when two websites agree to link to each other’s content.
Now, Google frowns upon excessive link exchanges or link farms that exist solely for SEO purposes. But if done naturally and in moderation, link exchanges can be a legitimate way to build relationships and share valuable content with your audience.
The key is to only exchange links with reputable, relevant websites that offer genuine value to your readers. Avoid generic “link to me and I’ll link to you” requests. Instead, look for opportunities to create content that naturally fits with and complements the other site’s content.
For example, let’s say you run a local news site, and you’re writing an article about a new restaurant opening. You could reach out to a popular food blogger in your city and offer to link to their review of the restaurant in your article. In exchange, they could link back to your article in a roundup of the latest restaurant news.
The more relevant and useful the link is for both audiences, the more SEO benefit it will provide. Just be sure to use descriptive, natural anchor text and mix up your linking patterns to avoid looking spammy.
Optimise for Google News and Google Discover
When it comes to SEO for news websites, Google News and Google Discover are two powerful ways to get your content in front of a larger audience. But to be eligible for inclusion, your site needs to meet certain technical and quality guidelines.
To optimise for Google News:
- Ensure your site follows Google’s News content policies, including standards for originality, authority, and transparency
- Use clear, concise headlines that accurately reflect the content of your article
- Include the article publication date and time using the proper structured data markup
- Create unique, permanent URLs for each article, with at least three digits in the URL
- Submit your site for inclusion in Google News using the Publisher Center
To optimise for Google Discover:
- Create engaging, high-quality content that’s relevant to your audience’s interests
- Use compelling, eye-catching images with proper alt text and structured data
- Implement AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for faster loading on mobile devices
- Use the max-image-preview:large tag to make your images eligible for larger previews
- Follow Google’s content policies and avoid clickbait or misleading titles
By optimising for these features, you can potentially reach a much larger audience and drive more organic traffic to your site. Just remember that inclusion is not guaranteed, and it can take time for Google to crawl and index your content.
Track and Analyse Your SEO Performance
Finally, to continually improve your news site’s SEO, you need to track and analyse your performance over time. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your organic traffic, search rankings, click-through rates, and other key metrics.
Some important SEO metrics to track:
- Organic traffic: The number of visitors coming to your site from organic search results
- Keyword rankings: Where your site ranks in search results for your target keywords
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your site in the search results
- Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page
- Average time on page: How long visitors spend reading your content before leaving
- Backlinks: The number and quality of external sites linking to your content
By regularly monitoring these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and track the impact of your SEO efforts. For example, if you notice a sudden drop in organic traffic, you can investigate whether it’s due to a Google algorithm update, a technical issue on your site, or a change in user behaviour.
Use this data to inform your content strategy, prioritise your optimisation efforts, and continually refine your approach. The more you understand your audience and how they interact with your site, the better you can optimise for search and drive sustainable organic growth.
Wrap-Up
Phew, that was a lot to cover! But by implementing these advanced SEO strategies, you can give your news website the best chance of success in the search rankings.
To recap, some of the key takeaways:
- Understand your audience’s search intent and create content that meets their needs
- Craft compelling, keyword-rich headlines that grab attention in the search results
- Optimise your article structure and use structured data to earn featured snippets and rich results
- Prioritise page speed, mobile-friendliness, and other technical SEO best practices
- Build high-quality backlinks through digital PR, link exchanges, and other outreach tactics
- Update and repurpose your evergreen content to maximise its value over time
- Implement a topic cluster strategy to establish your authority on key topics
- Optimise for Google News and Google Discover to reach a larger audience
- Track and analyse your SEO performance to continually improve your strategy
Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time, effort, and patience to see results. But by staying on top of the latest best practices and consistently creating valuable content for your audience, you can build a strong foundation for long-term organic growth.
So keep calm and optimise on, mate! With a little elbow grease and these tips in your toolkit, you’ll be dominating the search rankings in no time. Cheers!
FAQs
How can I optimise my news website for Google News and Google Discover?
To optimise for Google News, ensure your site follows Google’s content guidelines and policies, use clear headlines, include publication dates, and submit your site for inclusion in the Google News Publisher Center. For Google Discover, create engaging content, use compelling images, and implement AMP for faster loading. Building high-quality, original content is key.
Why is SEO important for news websites?
SEO is crucial for news websites to attract organic traffic, increase visibility, and ensure that articles reach a wide audience. Effective SEO helps news sites rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for readers to find and engage with their content.
What technical optimisations are important for news websites?
Key technical optimisations include ensuring fast page load speeds, implementing a mobile-friendly responsive design, creating XML sitemaps for quick indexing, using structured data to specify article details, and optimising URLs and site architecture for easy crawling.
How often should a news website update its SEO strategy?
News websites should evaluate and update their SEO strategies regularly, at least quarterly, to adapt to changing search engine algorithms, audience preferences, and news trends. This ensures continued visibility and relevance in search results.
What is evergreen content, and why is it important for news sites?
Evergreen content refers to articles that remain relevant and useful over time. It is important because it continues to attract traffic long after publication. Regularly updating evergreen content with new information and optimising it for relevant keywords maximises its value for improving rankings on news sites.
How can I optimise my news articles for featured snippets?
To optimise for featured snippets, ask the question directly in your article, provide a clear and concise answer in 40-50 words, and format the answer as a paragraph, list, or table. Use facts, data, and examples to back up your answer and establish authority.
How can news websites build authority and gain backlinks?
News websites can build authority and earn valuable backlinks by creating original, high-quality content, leveraging digital PR tactics, collaborating with other reputable publishers, and promoting content through social media and outreach efforts.
What role do keywords play in SEO for news websites?
Keywords remain important for news website SEO. They should be relevant to current events and audience interests, chosen based on research and analytics, and integrated naturally into content to maintain readability and engagement.
