WTF is SEO?

What’s a LLM?

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:21:06 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Shelby here, back from a wonderful weekend on Ontario’s west coast in Bayfield. Despite having to endure 3+ hours of traffic both ways, it was worth it for the weather, beach, ice cream, sandwiches, camp fires and friendship. A true Canadian weekend.

This week: What is a LLM? We go back to basics, explaining why LLMs are integral to AI Mode, AI Overviews and all of your favourite (or not-so-favourite) artificial intelligence models. Plus: why publishers should have a rudimentary understanding of how these systems work.

I, like a certain president, know a lot about computers. Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

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THE 101

What is a LLM?

A LLM is a large language model, an artificial intelligence system designed to understand, process and generate text like a human. LLMs are pattern-recognition systems that are trained on the huge volume of information on the internet — articles, websites, the code and all of the context a page provides — and then produces an answer based on patterns from the various sources.

LLMs are prediction models. They recognize patterns, but do not think like a human. A LLM operates by breaking down small pieces of the prompt into “tokens” (words or sub-words) and predicting what the most likely sequence of words should come next. AI generates this text based on the information it has previously ingested. This is why AI models can often hallucinate — answers are based on the probability that a pattern of words is correct.

Example from Google’s documentation on LLMs explaining predictive tokens and how they work.

LLMs are AI models, but not all AI models are LLMs. LLMs focus on the generation of text-based answers, and are trained on a generalized set of information. But, other AI models can build upon an LLMs system, and be trained on audio, video, images or even specific niche sets of data.

For example, a general LLM likely can’t create a perfect x-ray scan, but an AI model built and trained on specific medical information and tasks (eventually) could.

The key of a LLM is that it can gather context from multiple sources to better craft a response that fits the user’s needs. This does not mean, however, that it does not hallucinate or get things wrong. Human intervention is still important.

What is a Transformer?

To talk about LLMs, we must talk about Google’s Transformer. Transformers are the way in which language models actually know what task to perform and how to translate (or transform) the prompt into a response.

Google created and patented the Transformer in 2017, making it the most widely used architecture for language model applications.

The Transformer applies a self-attention mechanism, which also ensures the robot models the relationship between the words in the specific sentence, rather than broader context. This is especially important for sentences in journalism, where language is explaining a topic and must be relevant — explaining that there was a stock market crash needs context that it is not, in fact, a physical catastrophe, but rather a decline in investment money.

There are full transformers — which include the encoder (converting the input text into an intermediate response that has all of the information) and the decoder (converts the information into useful text for the reader) — and partial transformers, which omit the encoder.

Examples from Google’s documentation explaining how an encoder and decoder aid with translations from the Transformer architecture.

As these systems (and the systems built upon these systems) change and enhance, a lot of companies have changed their approach to how they incorporate a Transformer into their models.

ChatGPT, for example, is actually run off of Google’s Transformer (the name of which is spelled out as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) but has never used the encoder part to keep more open-ended responses and conversation. As Google and Anthropic developed Gemini and Claude, respectively, they also moved to a more holistic approach, using decoder-only architecture for it to better compete with ChatGPT. But its more deep learning tools like T5, T5Gemma and Google Translate (which use a system called BERT) still use the encoder-decoder architecture.

🤓 To get really nerdy about Transformer and Google’s LLMs, check out their full documentation.

Why understanding LLMs matters to publishers

As noted above, Gemini’s systems run off LLMs and the Transformer architecture, scouring the internet for information and then weighing the relationships between words in a sentence to grasp context for the response.

All systems are used slightly differently, but follow the same foundational structure that is built from an LLM. That means understanding how Google — and other AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, etc. — are collecting and converting the information that they eventually serve to users as answers.

And with the evolution of AI Search, we are no longer only worried about text-based features. Other models built off LLMs also generate images, audio and video based on patterns recognized, too.

Knowing the mechanics behind LLMs can change how you interact with AI as an audience editor. It’s essential writers and editors know how and why AI responses are generated. Understanding LLMs also sharpens the level of analysis you can provide to the newsroom. Knowledge is power.

Understanding LLMs enables you to better spot hallucinations, be mindful about the information you share and know why certain patterns tend to appear regularly.

A final note: Transformer was first discussed in 2017, almost ten years ago. AI was already a thought back then, and as more people become curious about the technology, they have jumped on systems we’ve known about for a long time and enhanced their capabilities. We are just now seeing what this technology was truly capable of when they first started.

TL;DR: Quick debrief of the ‘pyramid of AI’

There were a lot of new terms discussed in this newsletter, and the way AI systems are run is very complex. Below is a list of queries we discussed, as well as a pyramid of the core engine all the way to the surface level integrated systems.

Transformer: The engine cylinders of the AI car, provides the architecture
LLM: Large language model, the raw engine power of the car (keeps it moving)
Agentic framework: The system controls for the car, being able to take action within boundaries
Search integration: Retrieving the external information needed for the user-facing prompt, like a live GPS knowing where to go
Gemini/Claude/AI Overviews: The car: the complete user-facing product ready to use

The bottom line: LLMs are just one part of the bigger ecosystem of artificial intelligence, but important for publishers to understand, as they are the engine of the Search car. Understanding the whole pyramid will level up your scope as an audience editor.

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Ask a News SEO: Nicola Agius

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:21:02 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a devastatingly smoky (and then beautiful) summer weekend and the final days of the 2026 World Cup. It came, it caused chaos and it left… but not before driving Shelby mad. The good news: only four months ‘til U.S. elections midterms! 🫠

This week: Ask a News SEO with Nicola Agius, SEO and Discover Director at Reach PLC. We discuss the current state of Google Search, the concerns of AI and where opportunities lie for publishers.

Together with Marfeel: Missed our AI in Search webinar? Catch up with the recording now!

Let’s get it.

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THE INTERVIEW

WTF is SEO?: Search and Discover have changed a lot. Can you talk about the biggest changes you’ve seen, specifically in the U.K., and how you think it’s affecting publishers?

Nicola Agius: AI features are just everywhere — we really saw this during the World Cup that’s just finished. Live blogs during the World Cup were obviously a huge opportunity for search traffic. But when you’d search any match or team, Google would serve so much AI at the top of the SERP; diagrams, more information about the sport, player lineups, who scored, the number of minutes we were into a match, player stats and so on. That was challenging for publishers.

Historically, typical live blog headline formats like, “England vs America live: Score, latest updates, etc.” would draw huge numbers — but that kind of headline doesn’t work anymore because all that information is provided by Google’s AI right at the top of the SERP.

However, what’s interesting is that despite all of all of this, people are still scrolling down past Google’s AI content and browsing the Top Stories carousel. We know this because we’re still getting those impressions. Click-through rate (CTR) isn’t as high, but people are still scrolling down — which is an opportunity for publishers. Although people have the facts provided by AI, they still want more information — and we need to figure out what that is.

In response, a lot of the training we’re giving at the minute is around CTR, keeping in mind how AI has changed the game. I’m telling our reporters, “don’t think of yourself as a journalist, think of yourself as a sports fan. What questions do you have after reading all of those facts provided by AI?” Lean into analysis, your expert opinion — you’re the football experts, right? Lean into that. Lean into reactions, the discussions happening online. That’s one challenge we’re facing right now and that’s how we’re trying to overcome it.

Another challenge we have, which may be trickier to solve, is Google appears to be testing its own version of live blogs that are served above the Top Stories carousel in the SERPs. I saw one for EuroVision; it included key events with live reactions from Twitter (X). It’ll be interesting to see how that develops. I’ve seen it a couple of times, but haven’t seen any official announcement from Google.

Screenshot during EuroVision showing Google’s own live blogs above the Top Stories carousel. Credit: Nicola Agius.

This is pretty concerning because live blogs are still one of our biggest opportunities when it comes to search traffic and if Google’s going to tap into that — which I don’t understand how or why that benefits Google or searchers — it could be a problem.

WTF is SEO?: Those seem like two separate things; what benefits Google and what benefits the user. What does Google get or think it gets by providing its own live blog?

Nicola Agius: Exactly. It’s about keeping people within the ecosystem. But how are Google improving their product with something that doesn’t really serve user intent? Is an AI-generated blog really what searchers are looking for during a football game? Surely they want to hear from football experts and be part of the conversation? I suppose then that’s where we as publishers really have to lean in. Rather than focusing on general reactions that Google’s AI can assemble together from social media, we need to make sure people care about the reactions from our expert reporters — which is something they can only get from our sites. It’s about making our product so good with such brilliant journalism that people actively seek our reporters’ opinions on that content, rather than an AI-generated blog from Google.

The SERP has changed so much over the last 12 months. I’m seeing a lot more “What people are saying” carousels, different content formats and I’ve also noticed, for the first time, that Facebook posts are getting visibility in the Top Stories carousel. In Aleyda Solis’ analysis of the May core update, she observed that Google now seems to better understand user intent regarding content type. When people are searching for a query, do they want to see a social post? Do they want an explainer? Do they want video? We as publishers need to think a lot more about content types and should be working closely with social teams. We need to think outside the box of standard news articles.

WTF is SEO?: Interesting. And what about Discover? Should publishers still focus on it?

Nicola Agius: We’ve seen a hell of a lot of changes on Discover over the past 12 months. It really started with the June core update last year. I work for Reach PLC, so I have oversight of like 60-70 news sites. With access to so many properties in Google Search Console, I can see what shifts are happening.

In the first half of last year, national sites absolutely killed it in Discover. Then, with the June [2025] core update — at least here in the U.K. — there was a massive switch in the algorithm where Google started giving a lot more visibility to smaller publishers, regionals and more niche publishers. While analyzing Google’s May 2026 core update, I noticed that the number of domains getting into Discover was up 64 per cent year-on-year in May.

The platform is so different now to what it was in January last year. It’s the same space we’re all competing in, but now there are a hell of a lot more publishers that we’re competing against. And there’s a lot more stories getting into the Discover feed, as well. Content in the Discover feed was up 58 per cent year-on-year, comparing May this year to May last year. On top of that, social — like X and YouTube — now accounts for almost a quarter of the Discover feed, which is crazy because this time last year, X wasn’t really in there at all. YouTube was, but just a bit.

On top of that, we now have AI Overviews in Discover. And we also have combined Discover cards, where as many as 100 publishers can be grouped together, according to Damian Andell’s research. It’s important to note that Google isn’t just grouping together the same story on combined Discover cards, it’s grouping together different angles and unique takes on headlines with the same entities, which does the user a disservice.

It also contradicts what Liz Reid [Google’s VP of Search] said on an AI podcast the other day. She said, “The more publishers produce content that is really where they shine, what they bring to the table, where it’s unique and not the 10,000th copy of the same story, but something that has an interesting take on it, the more I think we’ll see people continue to click through. And that’s something Google wants.” That’s what Liz had to say, so why is Google grouping articles with unique and interesting takes together?

I’m currently looking into how Google decides to group content together and I’m providing guidance to our newsrooms on how we can potentially minimize this risk.

WTF is SEO?: What are positive things you’re seeing in the space for publishers?

Nicola Agius: I do think that Preferred Sources and features like that are a step in the right direction. It gives you more visibility in Search and Discover and, according to Google, your CTR doubles if you’re a preferred source.

Another positive is audience diversification. There’s been so much discussion about Google zero or people ditching Google for ChatGPT or TikTok, when the reality is, people are using all of these platforms together. That’s a positive for publishers because it means that you don’t have to be so overly reliant on a single referrer because your audience is everywhere now.

Think about your audience and how they find content. Are they younger? Maybe they are on TikTok as well as Google. Remember, TikTok really is a search engine, too. So is YouTube. So, use your SEO skills there. Publishers should never put all their eggs in one basket. Did we learn nothing from the Facebook traffic collapse of 2018?

WTF is SEO?: What do you wish you had known about SEO when starting?

Nicola Agius: There’s no such thing as an SEO expert. That’s my opinion. When I started, I definitely had a lot of imposter syndrome. I never wanted to post on LinkedIn because I was afraid of saying the wrong thing. I’d attend webinars and conferences to hear the experts talk and I’d be like, wow, they know so much more than me. And then I worked for Search Engine Land with SEO legends Barry Schwartz and Danny Goodwin — I was like, God, I’m never going to know as much as Barry and Danny!

But the thing is: Google’s changing all the time. Some of what you thought you knew last year probably isn’t even relevant today for reasons beyond your control. In SEO, you have to keep learning. Everyone who I respect in the industry is constantly learning — nobody knows it all. That’s why I think there’s no such thing as an SEO expert. You can never take your foot off the pedal. And remember, the loudest person in the room isn’t necessarily the smartest person in the room.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

Immediate is hiring an Audience Development Manager (Hybrid, London, UK).
Wirecutter (NYT) is hiring an Audience Editor (New York, USA).
The Daily Mail is hiring a Senior Newsletter Editor (London, UK)

Podcast SEO tips with Steven Wilson-Beales

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:21:37 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a much-needed extended break. So much softball and soccer was played. Summer nights were enjoyed. We’re back fresher than ever. Here’s to the second half of 2026 Google shenanigans!

This week: Top podcast SEO tips from expert Steven Wilson-Beales! Steven joined our spring community call presented by Trisolute to talk all things podcast SEO (video link here). We summarize his recommendations and best practices, as well as three key pillars for creating a great podcast. Plus: highlights from the excellent Q&A!

The empty podcast booth — a world of possibilities. Photo by Will Francis on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

People listen to podcasts for a variety of reasons, so understanding the audience — and what they want from your audio or video content — is a foundational first step of optimization, says Steven Wilson-Beales, SEO, AI visibility and content strategy consultant.

Watch the replay!

“Most failures in podcasts happen when clear goals are not set at the beginning of that podcast campaign,” Steve said. He recommends defining the clear intent of the podcast prior to starting.

Without defined ambitions, it becomes impossible to measure success or determine the right strategy for reach, engagement and growth. To counter this, there are three key areas for optimization: product, people and promotion.

Read on for the highlights, including the best questions from the Q&A portion of the community call.

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THE HOW TO

The three Ps: People, product, promotion

Optimizing a podcast is more than just writing compelling title tags and meta descriptions. It also includes understanding your people, creating a great product and giving it the right promotion.

Product: Effective optimization requires, first, a product worth discovering. “You can’t polish a turd,” Steve said (quoting friend of the newsletter ).

Creators need to know what sets their product apart from the competition. “Lead with the need,” Steve said, urging a clear solution for your audience’s problem. No amount of clever titles or keyword-rich descriptions will save a podcast with a flawed foundation.

Consider a format that serves your specific niche, without blindly copying the top-charting podcasts (which may succeed because of their marketing budgets rather than concepts).

“Don’t assume the biggest players have it 100 per cent right,” Steve said.

People: Cater to your audience’s specific need and your topic authority. For instance, a gardening podcast might start with a series on how to grow specific plants. However, the key to success will be digging deeper to address the core challenges your listeners face, like gardening through climate change and erratic weather patterns. Understanding the burning questions — and the emotional weight behind them — puts your podcast in a much stronger position.

To find audience pain points, actively monitor Google Trends, follow Reddit threads related to your niche, monitor social media conversations and conduct real-world interviews.

Promotion: At least 55 per cent of people have heard about podcasts via word of month, Steve shared. Growing a show via social media at first is important, but the real value will come from people recommending your podcast. Make it worth recommending.

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MORE TIPS

Titles and descriptions are ‘powerful and influential’

Titles and descriptions are highly influential for podcasts, but they must be written for humans first and algorithms second.

“There are a lot of podcasts that do not do a great job describing what it is that they are about and what they do and what the offering is to the audience,” Steve said.

Title and description optimization is an opportunity to change that. These include the show title, the show description, the episode title, and the episode description. They should be precise, targeted and descriptive about the topic covered in the podcast, Steve said.

As with any SEO approach, editors should identify primary and secondary keywords to include in these descriptions.

Episode titles are generally best between five and eight words, but you will often see longer titles in the wild. This can be podcast-specific and sometimes simply works because of the nature and style of a particular show. But in general, be concise.
Don’t waste the opening of your episode description repeating the show title or host name. Users already see that. Use the first three lines to outline the specific value of that episode to the listener.

Avoid keyword stuffing. Limit to two or three keywords per title, as too many keywords can hurt CTR and sound robotic. “If you have too much language going on, it’s not going to help with click-through,” Steve said.

The same episode titles and description can be used across all podcast platforms.

MAILBAG

The following were pulled from the Q&A portion of the spring community call.

How does SEO strategy differ by platforms (Spotify vs YouTube). What are the platform-specific strategies?

Steve: Apple puts a lot of weight behind the podcast’s name (i.e., the title of the entire podcast), and show description. These areas are priority for the keywords you identified in your research. Spotify takes each episode on its own merits. This means you need to focus more closely on optimizing each episode on Spotify.

How do you leverage authorship in podcasts?

Steve: You definitely want to highlight the expert. If you have a massive celebrity guest and upload that episode to YouTube, you can guarantee a massive amount of traffic. They drive initial engagement — though, whether those listeners stay for future episodes is a different story.

As a matter of principle, if you have an expert guest on, you should include their details in the title and description of the episode. I’m not sure it gives you an algorithmic boost, but it’s best practice.

What are your recommendations for multimodal, or using one piece of content (the episode) for multiple purposes?

Steve: Tools like Riverside make it easy to create clips for YouTube Shorts, TikTok or other vertical video platforms. But, be careful: the auto-clipping can miss the true essence of the conversation.

Different podcasters approach video differently. Some publish the full conversation as a video, some have no video and some publish key segments. Video isn’t essential. Don’t do video for the sake of doing it. Poor-quality video can be damaging your brand; don’t feel obligated to produce it if it does your product a disservice.

Video — particularly on YouTube — presents a massive opportunity. Investing is beneficial for publishers. But, if you’re not careful and true to your goals, the quality could suffer: publishers end up making too many Shorts or vertical videos that don’t connect back to the actual podcast.

If a podcast covers a written breaking news story or investigation, should they publish at the same time?

Steve: If your goal is to push podcast downloads, do it at the same time. Otherwise, bring the reporter on a few days later, giving them time to also capture the story’s reaction. Adjust the schedule depending on your goal.

What about podcast transcripts? Should publishers post and optimize them?

Steve: Post the transcripts. A lot of brands don’t, and they should because it helps Google and the robots understand what the podcast is about. Some publishers optimize transcriptions, by doing a clean up and adding keywords to the text. Transcripts are being crawled and read, why not optimize it?

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Ask a News SEO: USA Today’s Michael Hastings

WTF is SEO? — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:21:53 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from busy weekends. Jessie celebrated her birthday with the hits: a workout class, sauna, a HUGE nap, softball and gelato. Shelby is now a fully converted football (soccer) fan after a huge 6-0 Canadian win, and is attempting to go 3-for-3 seeing the matches at different Toronto establishments this Wednesday. Wish our country well, dear reader: we are watching history!

This week: Ask a News SEO with USA Today’s Michael Hastings! We talked about using AI in the newsroom, building trust with audience, as well as what he wishes more editors understood about AI.

🚨 Heads up! WTF is SEO? is off for the next two weeks for Canada Day, the Fourth of July, the World Cup and the fact it’s peak summer and we are taking Sheryl Crow’s seasonally-relevant advice (to soak up the sun).

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Let’s get it.

THE INTERVIEW

WTF is SEO?: How are you using AI the most right now? For example, are you using it to speed up workflows, edit for style or head help with any sort of spreadsheet work?

Michael Hastings: Right now, I would say the highest value applications are workflow acceleration and discovery work. It’s a great brainstorming partner, too. I use it regularly for summarizing very long documents, new policies and accelerating research. One of my favourite ways is using it to help surface large patterns — maybe even anti-patterns — in datasets. We have agentic workflows that help with a variety of repetitive tasks — cleaning documents, extracting emails, extracting data from sources across the web. Also, we have a metadata assistant tool that uses internal data to help suggest winning headlines and meta data right in our CMS. There is a human in the loop with this tool and it is great inspiration to help with all sorts of metadata decisions.

Outside of work, right now, I use it for a variety of personal projects like organizing bills or generating mockup designs of what projects could look like just from a photo. There’s a lot of interesting accelerations. I say “right now” because it seems like every month there’s a new use case or something to experiment with.

WTF is SEO?: Do you think that using AI to help produce content runs the risk of diluting your brand in the eyes of readers and search engines? What guardrails do you have in place to make sure that that doesn’t happen?

Michael Hastings: It absolutely can if done carelessly, especially without guardrails. Specifically for USA Today, as early as April 2023, we implemented an ethical guidelines policy for journalists, product teams and SEO teams that give full disclosure when we use any AI for generated assets or assisting with the content. Our guidelines also include human editorial review and clear disclosure standards On the technical side, we are continuously monitoring quality signals from search platforms and users.

We also have a variety of specialized training. Some training will be different depending on what your use case is. We also have a pretty robust council that shares ideas, approves or gives feedback on any and all AI use cases at at our company.

WTF is SEO? Newsletter: Is it even worth it to rank on AI platforms or AI search?

Michael Hastings: I think it is useful. The question is evolving though. We want to be a trusted source wherever our audience is going. And I think that’s probably the same for most publishers. Last year, Reuters put out a pretty good report on the status of AI demand. A lot of users are using this as an initial point to jump on, get some judgment-free gut checks for life decisions, conversations, some very long-tail queries — and that’s right up our alley. But, at the end of the day, we’re just focused on being a trusted, citable source across all platforms, wherever our audience is.

I think it’s also worth mentioning some of the latest Google policy documentation on optimizing for generative AI. One of the main themes from some of their latest was that SEO is still very relevant to how AI surfaces answers. A lot of their answers are rooted in a search index: Google for Gemini, Bing for ChatGPT. Again, it is SEO fundamentals that still impact and can drive a lot of AI visibility. So, the question is evolving as we look at referral traffic from those engines as well. But, we just want to be a trusted, citable source wherever our audience is at.

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WTF is SEO?: On the question of trust, what are the main priorities that you have as an organization thinking about SEO to communicate your topic authority, your E.E.A.T, your brand authority?

Michael Hastings: This is a question all publishers have. How can we display our E.E.A.T? Behind all of our content, we’re looking at trust, authority, experience and expertise. So, when we’re covering a beat, we want to make sure we’re covering it consistently. We want to make sure we have the right assets, writers, editors, and teams that have long-term experience in that beat.

We also want to provide validated, trusted content. That means transparency, following our ethical guidelines, our journalistic guidelines. We understand that our users are valuing our input because of the trust and we want to display that wherever we can on the site and through our work.

WTF is SEO?: How do you feel about AI Mode?

Michael Hastings: Any meaningful shift in how audiences discover their information is something that publishers need to take seriously. In the beginning, I would say the threat meter was higher than it is right now. I think zero clicks from Google is a bit of hype. We know that there could be some constriction in the future as AI answers questions without the follow through of a click or referral, but Google has assured us in various updates and press releases that they will continue to send traffic to publishers through their AI experiences.

We need to continue to focus on getting information out to all the people who need it most and we will continue to meet them where they’re at. We want to continue to be that source of trust and authority wherever our users are at.

WTF is SEO?: What would you never use AI for in a newsroom? And what do you advise newsrooms against using AI for at all costs?

Michael Hastings: I would never use AI for anything that needs a human connection or a lived experience. The best way I think of this it to frame it through E.E.A.T and making sure that you’re taking the experience framework seriously.

AI (right now) cannot taste, it cannot take you to places that require lived experiences like Disney World. It can’t tell you the thrill of which rides to go to. Anything that needs a lived experience is important.

For example, take a headline like, “The five best places to eat for Cinco de Mayo.” AI can summarize a listicle pretty easily. Now, compare that to, “Here are five places I actually ate at, what I ordered and which one I would take my in-laws to.” This is irreplaceable by AI and that voice cannot be authentically generated. So, I would never use it for anything that requires a human connection and a lived experience.

WTF is SEO?: What’s one thing that you wish that people in newsrooms — both journalists and senior leaders — understood better about AI?

Michael Hastings: I think that we should all know that AI is a tool in your toolbox. And with all tools, it’s useful for some things and for other things, it really is useless. Now, for the uses of AI, I don’t think we even have scratched the surface. Experimentation with use cases is extremely important. We need to push the boundaries of what we can use it for while rooting ourselves in E.E.A.T principles. It’s going to never be a substitution for things that need a human connection and lived experience.

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STARTING SOON: Tune into our AI in Search conversation [together with Marfeel]

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:01:06 GMT

Hello WTF is SEO? community!

Join us in ONE HOUR!

Our special live conversation in partnership with Marfeel is TODAY! The discussion will focus on AI in search and what to do about it.

Here’s how to join the call:

Google Meet Info: https://meet.google.com/qgq-cseh-uwj

Date: Monday, June 22, 2026
Time: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. UTC
Google Meet info: https://meet.google.com/qgq-cseh-uwj
- Or dial: ‪(CA) +1 647-732-3332‬ PIN: ‪636 382 247‬#
- More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/qgq-cseh-uwj?pin=6306143396553

Have a last-minute question? Use this form!
This call will be recorded and made available after the event.

Here’s what we’re talking about:

Are you worried about AI in organic search?
- How are you currently tracking the impact of AI chatbots, AI Overviews and AI Mode on your search performance?
What insights are your missing from an SEO tool to better understand your site’s performance?
Where do you see the biggest threats and/or opportunities created by AI for your site?

Ask a question!

If you’re in any way thinking about AI and search, this call is for you.

Join Jessie, Shelby and Marfeel’s Matthew Bain for a great conversation, followed by an engaging discussion with some of the news SEO industry’s best (that’s you, subscriber!)

Join the call: https://meet.google.com/qgq-cseh-uwj

We're excited to present this call with our partner Marfeel, an analytics and personalization platform for publishers.

Marfeel helps publishers understand user behavior, acquisition, and performance-driving trends, and know whether they're under-performing or exceeding expectations with real-time tracking and predictive analytics.

Please note: By attending this event, you agree to make your name, email and company information available to Marfeel, our presenting sponsor. You also agree to abide by our community guidelines.

Please reply directly to this email if you have any questions about the event.

Your pals in news SEO,

Jessie and Shelby

Recommended reading before the panel

Have something else you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

Expert SEO tips on winning Prime Day

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:21:27 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, back from the first weekend of the men’s World Cup touching down in Toronto! The streets (if not the stadium) are full of boisterous energy. And while I’ll leave most of the soccer-watching to folks who know a “yellow card” not just as a one-hit wonder, for me, it was a weekend full of fitness: tennis, a Hyrox class, softball and — in a truly shocking turn of events — I even went for a run.

This week: Expert tips ahead of the summer Prime Day event. Last week, we recapped eight tips for affiliate-focused SEO work. This week, we’ve got last-minute expert tips from a handful of search pros.

🚨 Happening soon: We’re partnering with Marfeel to bring you an interactive discussion about AI in Search — and what to do about it — on June 22, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET./3 p.m. GMT. Have a question or want a calendar reminder? Use this form!

The bag, like my brain, is unfortunately empty.

Let’s get it.

THE 101

Affiliate SEO: Quick hits and highlights

Affiliate SEO is the process of optimizing stories that use referrals to sell products or services, where the publisher makes a commission off the purchase. The goal is for users to click an affiliate link and buy a product.

Tentpole events — regularly occurring moments like Prime Day, Black Friday or even Father’s Day — offer sites an opportunity to capitalize on a surge of high-intent search interest, and drive stronger-than-average revenue.

The Top Stories box in Toronto for ‘best prime day deals,’ which surfaces deals coverage from a cross-section of sites.

Tentpole coverage includes roundups of the best overall sales on a product, deal alerts, as well as product- or retailer specific guides.

The Top Stories box in Toronto for ‘best prime day blender’, which surfaces a product-specific guide to the best deals.

As always, the fundamentals of a solid search strategy for affiliate marketing consists of the same pillars as effective news SEO.

That means a technically-sound website, strong E.E.A.T signals and topic authority, keyword research to inform content production, as well as individual pages and articles that are well-optimized (with specific attention paid to headlines, subheadings and internal links) for readers and Google.

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THE HOW TO

What are news SEOs saying about Prime Day?

If affiliate SEO (and all SEO, really) is a marathon — Prime Day is a sprint.

Like a marathon, you need proper training long before the starting line of an event. This is done by building solid E.E.A.T. and topic authority. But, Prime Day is a sprint; it’s only a four-day event, this year landing between June 23-26, and requires all-out effort.

With that in mind, we asked top news SEOs for their advice on winning the race — and executing a successful Prime Day strategy.

Their advice reflects a few core strategies: stay flexible, monitor Google results changes and make use of real-time trends — but don’t pack up too early. Here’s what to know.

Monitor Google results page changes

Google is volatile — and SERPs during a live news event like Prime Day are no exception.

“Prime Day offers no guarantees except surprises,” says SEO consultant Isaac Brown. That means publishers need to be nimble and build flexibility into their editorial pipelines. Keep a reporter free for breakouts, or one-off pieces.

Expect Google to throw some curveballs. With less than two weeks until Prime Day, Google is showing an AIO for “best prime day deals,” followed by a Top Stories news box. That could change — even during Prime Day.

Google’s results page in Toronto for “best prime day deals,” showing a Top Stories box underneath an AIO.

“We’ve seen Top Stories carousels appearing inside AIOs for some queries recently,” Isaac says. “That is highly concerning because we can guess what that will do to the click-through rate.”

Craig Casazza, Senior Product Director for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, agrees. “It’s a safe assumption that your visibility will be less than it was a year ago, and even less than the year before that,” he says. “This may be the first big sales event where AIO is a major factor.”

And it’s not just AI Overviews taking up real estate. Sites like Reddit, X and YouTube are in the mix, too, with more visibility than ever. It’s likely to continue.

“In the past, Google has experimented with showing What People Are Saying carousels more during deals events and shifting us into those instead of Top Stories,” he says. “We have to be ready for anything.”

Plan for the unexpected. Google’s current landscape leaves fewer opportunities for click, but search results still offer other entry points. If Instagram or Reddit is everywhere on Google for those key terms, are your best stories on those platforms?

Consider a multimodal approach to your coverage. Aim to find readers where they’re spending their time.

Use Google Trends to inform you real-time coverage

Instead of competing solely for the highest volume (and, most likely, highest competition) terms like “best prime day deals,” use Google Trends to uncover opportunities where the competition might be thinner. Don’t just look at the “Top” queries; monitor “Rising” terms, too.

Google Trends defines a “Rising” query as those with “the biggest increase in the specified location and time period compared to the previous time period.”

SEO strategist Melissa D. Cooper recommends looking at the “Rising” terms to see “what deal topics are growing in interest.”

For example, using the term “best prime day deals,” Google Trends shows that the Top queries are focused on broad event queries. Rising reflects more specific terms, like “prime day kindle deals” or “garmin prime day sales.” If your site covers tech or running gear, these could be opportunities.

The “Top” and “Rising” queries for the main “best prime day deals” terms in the US over the last 7 days.

If a product or niche topic that’s core to your coverage spikes in interest, write a quick post. If the piece gets good traction (in revenue or traffic), keep updating and adding to the piece

“Publishers need to constantly align their titles, headers, and subsections with the exact search intent of the moment, rather than relying on generic best deals formatting,” says Craig.

Plan, but stay nimble

Winning Prime Day — or any tentpole event — often comes down to smart resource allocation and being flexible with your editorial plans.

Ahead of Prime Day, establish your ideal refresh cadence for key pages (like an overall deals roundup or product-specific trackers) during the event.

“Establish ahead of time how often you think pages will need to be updated,” says Craig. “Budget that in when determining resourcing for the event.”

Communicate this clearly to writers and editors so you have fresh coverage (and timestamps) day-of; this also means your content will be the most useful to readers. (Clicking through to an expired discount code or just-ended sales is a bad user experience!)

However, have the flexibility to pivot — and the willingness to abandon underperforming pages.

“Closely monitor which types of roundups are resonating with searchers or gaining search ground throughout the day,” says Isaac.

It’s possible the content you thought was going to be a hit won’t resonate with readers or land on Google Search or Discover.

Tracking and understanding what content — i.e., which formats or topics — Google is rewarding is essential.

“It used to be that deal roundups drove the most traffic and revenue,” Craig says. “We saw starting with Prime Day in 2024, however, that individual deal posts were starting to outperform due to reach on Google Discover.”

If a specific product post isn’t driving traffic, don’t waste resources updating it. Put that energy behind what the data — internal revenue and traffic metrics, alongside SERPs intel — suggests is working.

Don’t call it quits too early

Joy Johnston, News SEO Strategist for Trisolute News Dashboard, suggests publishers should consider keeping their coverage going after June 26 — specifically with live blogs or for still-active deals.

“Multiple publishers continued to gain good mobile news box visibility in the 2-3 day window after Prime Day 2025 officially ended,” she says. The official end of the event isn’t necessarily the end of consumer interest.

Screenshot from Trisolute News Dashboard showing Mobile News Box visibility on Prime Day 2025

Notable publishers like Wired, the New York Post and USA Today had their strongest ranking in the news box after the event formally wrapped.

Joy also suggests to keep your coverage relevant post-event, consider publishing new angles. For the aforementioned publishers, several post-event angles that focused on still-active sales help drive extended visibility on search.

Joy also found that focusing on a specific product category (like laptops or TVs) or a specific brand with notable search interest (like Apple News) worked well in 2025. Effective headlines create a sense of urgency for users, for example, “you can still shop these deals.”

Headlines from 2025 that create urgency or a reason to readers to click after the official Prime Day.

Encourage loyalty now, to help you in the future

Promoting audience loyalty is essential, Melissa says: “Now is the time to push your audience to add your site as a Preferred Source on Google. Link directly to adding your site as a Preferred Source in your articles, newsletters, and social posts.”

Doing this now could pay dividends in the future, she says.

Come Black Friday in November, as well as the busy holiday season, we don’t know what Google might look like for commercial and transaction queries — but we do know that the added visibility gained by Preferred Sources can be useful for publishers.

Add WTF is SEO? as a Preferred Souce

The bottom line: Prime Day can be chaotic, but essential for your success as an affiliate publisher. Use Google Trends to uncover coverage opportunities, refer to Google SERPS to see what’s resonating on search, and consider extending your coverage after the official event ends — it could be the secret to driving extra traffic.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Wall Street Journal is hiring an Audience Strategist, Enterprise & Investigations (New York, New York).

Tune into our AI in Search conversation [together with Marfeel]

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:03:10 GMT

Hello WTF is SEO? community!

Mark your calendars! We are thrilled to invite you to a special live conversation hosted by your pals, Jessie & Shelby from WTF is SEO?, in partnership with Marfeel. The discussion will focus on AI in search and what to do about it.

Here are the details:

Date: Monday, June 22, 2026
Time: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. UTC
Google Meet info: https://meet.google.com/qgq-cseh-uwj
- Or dial: ‪(CA) +1 647-732-3332‬ PIN: ‪636 382 247‬#
- More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/qgq-cseh-uwj?pin=6306143396553

Have a question or want a calendar reminder? Use this form!
This call will be recorded and made available after the event.

Some thoughts to get you started:

Are you worried about AI in organic search?
- How are you currently tracking the impact of AI chatbots, AI Overviews and AI Mode on your search performance?
What insights are your missing from an SEO tool to better understand your site’s performance?
Where do you see the biggest threats and/or opportunities created by AI for your site?

Ask a question!

If you’re in any way thinking about AI and search, this call is for you.

Join Jessie, Shelby and Marfeel’s Matthew Bain for a great conversation, followed by an engaging discussion with some of the news SEO industry’s best (that’s you, subscriber!)

We're excited to present this call with our partner Marfeel, an analytics and personalization platform for publishers.

Marfeel helps publishers understand user behavior, acquisition, and performance-driving trends, and know whether they're under-performing or exceeding expectations with real-time tracking and predictive analytics.

Please note: By attending this event, you agree to make your name, email and company information available to Marfeel, our presenting sponsor. You also agree to abide by our community guidelines.

Please reply directly to this email if you have any questions about the event.

Your pals in news SEO,

Jessie and Shelby

Recommended reading before the panel

Have something else you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

Last minute Prime Day prep

WTF is SEO? — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:21:18 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, back from a classic summer weekend in Toronto. Two shows (Broken Social Scene and Loon Choir), two baseball games and tennis made for a busy time on my feet!

This week: Affiliate SEO! With a June Prime Day in the 2026 calendar, we review our best practices and what you need to consider.

Happening soon: We are thrilled to invite you to a special live conversation in partnership with Marfeel. The discussion will focus on AI in search and what to do about it. Join us June 22 at 11 a.m. ET.

How I would prefer to be spending my Prime Day. Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

What is affiliate SEO?

Affiliate SEO is the process of optimizing stories that use referrals to sell products or services, where the publisher makes a commission off the purchase. The goal is for users to click an affiliate link and buy a product.

When sites like Wired, Wirecutter and The Strategist review and recommend a product or service, they can earn a commission from the retailer on sales made through their coverage.

Affiliate pages can be in many formats, including standalone product reviews, roundups, sales and deals, or stories around the tentpole shopping event. Supporting content like guides or series can also round out coverage.

Affiliate SEO focuses on finding readers primed to make a purchase. The search intent is commercial or transactional, not informational like traditional news SEO. Keywords like “ipad vs ipad air” are commercial in nature: they’re very high intent with people considering making a purchase.

Does affiliate content (and SEO) still matter?

Yes — for some publishers. Affiliate content offers a secondary source of revenue for publishers, separate from advertising and subscriptions. Done well, it can also expand the E.E.A.T of a publisher, as reviews and recommendations are an opportunity to demonstrate topic authority within your niche.

However, following Google’s 2024 crackdown, many affiliate businesses saw a dramatic decline in search visibility and revenue. Sistrix estimated that the lost traffic was cumulatively worth at least USD $7.5 million.

The rise of AI chatbots means there are more ways than ever for users to find the best deals.

AI Overviews are visible for many commercial and transactional keywords. For example, the term “best air fryer” returns an AIO highlighting the best model — without a direct affiliate link for any publisher.

The SERP for ‘best air fryer’ in Canada returns an AI-powered summary that identifies the “best” air fryer.

This means there are fewer opportunities for affiliate publishers. Less Google traffic often results in less affiliate revenue. Evaluate the cost-benefit of affiliate marketing and SEO when considering whether optimizing for Prime Day is worth the investment.

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HOW TO

8 tips to win on Prime Day

A major tentpole shopping event like Prime Day is not the time to spin up an affiliate vertical. As is the case for all planned news events, prep work should have started months ago. If you didn’t have an affiliate vertical last month, don’t create one just for Prime Day.

To drive conversion from your site’s reviews or recommendations, readers need to trust you — and Google too. E.E.A.T is a major component of affiliate SEO — but it takes time to build (more on this below). Focus on demonstrating expertise and experience in your coverage.

Here are some last-minute tips and suggestions for making the most of the Prime Day opportunity.

1. Think about E.E.A.T — it’s doubly important for YMYL

E.E.A.T is crucial for affiliate sites. Earning the trust of a reader is an essential step. Google’s ever-increasing emphasis on topic authority, especially for YMYL (your money, your life) content, it’s crucial to offer comprehensive reviews and roundups with first-hand experience.

Affiliate content needs to be impartial, and include both positive and negative aspects of the products or services. Provide a thorough, unique and first-hand perspective, offering users something a Reddit thread or AI summary can’t.

2. Conduct keyword research

Interest in Prime Day has picked up in the last 90 days, and will continue to grow ahead of the event kicking off on June 23.

Interest in “prime day” is on the rise, according to Google Trends.

Look at the historical data for Google Trends (using the five-year view) to determine when to ramp up your coverage. According to Google Trends, the peak of interest for last year’s Prime Day was between July 6-12 — about 10 days before the official event.

Google Trends shows when interest in Prime Day kicked off last year.

Already, some sites have published roundups of the best early deals, well ahead of the event itself.

Publisher sites including Mashable and PCMag are already publishing deals roundups.

Use Google Trends (with Glimpse) and any other SEO tool, and track the “prime day” keyword or topic.

Use this for daily keyword research ahead of the event. As deals are announced and interest ramps up, use the “past hour” filter to get more granular data; keep this open in a tab, and refresh regularly.
Keep an eye on the rising related queries, too, using that information for breakout stories and to update the on-page SEO for your pages (i.e., refreshing headlines, meta description, subheadings and potentially body copy).

For example, in the “Rising” queries section in early June, there’s some early brand-specific interest (i.e., “asics amazon prime day sale”) and product-specific interest (i.e., “early prime day desktop deals’).

Related and rising queries for Prime Day.

If relevant to your niche, this could inform what product categories to publish early and update often.

3. Divide keyword research into branded and non-branded buckets

Create two buckets for Prime Day keyword research: non-Prime Day branded keywords and keywords with Prime Day. Here, “branded” means specific brands that come up in relation to the coverage (e.g. “sony headphone deals” versus “best Prime Day deals”).

This helps reach people looking up event-, product- and brand-related sales.

It also helps determine where to put your attention. If a specific brand or product has rising interest, prioritize your resources behind content on that topic.

4. Create, promote and utilize your Prime Day tag/hub page

Tag pages help organize your journalism around a topic or event. For example, “Prime Day,” and “Audio Gear” are both hubs that centralize related content.

Make it easy for readers (and Google) to find this content. If you don’t already have a Prime Day tag or hub, create it. Write a clearly optimized title and meta descriptions, along with a straightforward URL for the page.

Link the tag from your homepage, either in the navigation or somewhere highly visible. This helps Google consistently crawl your content quickly during the event, and ensure readers can easily find your best reporting.

The Strategist’s tag page also explains when the sale happens, and links to its deals newsletter in the description.

During the 2025 Black Friday, Wirecutter’s navigation featured the Black Friday tag page. The fly-out navigation linked to several distinct pillars of coverage: best overall deals, deals at a specific price point and deals by category or retailer.

Wirecutter’s navigation on Black Friday 2025, according to a Wayback Machine screenshot.

5. Execute effective internal linking

Internal links are essential for good SEO. Links and clicks are still how Google interprets the importance of a page, so linking related coverage together is crucial.

Link to the tag page in all stories and ensure all stories are linked from the tag page. In the examples below, The Strategist and CNN have their Prime Day tags linked as a breadcrumb above the headline.

The Strategist and CNN link their Prime Day tags linked as a breadcrumb.

In the body copy, CNN also links to its Prime Day tag page on first reference of the keyword.

CNN links to the Prime Day tag in body copy.

Readers should be able to navigate between related content easily. Link similar pages like your best Apple, best Sony and best Amazon audio gear deals together.

If possible, add an in-article “Related Stories” module to link out to additional reporting. This demonstrates the breadth of your coverage to Google, and keeps readers on your site longer.

Mashable uses a Related Stories widget to promote more stories.

Consider creating a “mega post” to house every single Prime Day page. Add a table of contents to provide structure and make it easy to navigate.

Mashable’s “mega post” page from Black Friday is a great example.

Mashable’s “mega post” for Black Friday.

6. Monitor product changes like discounts and inventory

This is the news of the event. In your content, be sure to highlight deals, discounts and when prices change. Communicate when products go out of stock in your content, too.

Being on top of these changes makes your content more valuable to readers and demonstrates your expertise. It’s something readers appreciate. The updates to pages also signal the freshness of your content to Google — Prime Day is still a live event.

As such, a live blog can be a helpful tool to track and report on these product changes. Or, consider using your newsletter to tell people about the best deals.

In the example below, Wirecutter utilized a live blog during Black Friday to provide readers real-time alerts to new deals.

Wirecutter’s Black Friday blog from 2025 highlights many, many deals.

The blog format allowed Wirecutter to spotlight deals (with affiliate links), while also linking back to their existing ‘Best of’ reporting.

Within Wirecutter’s Black Friday blog, the copy includes two affiliate links, plus links back to the site’s main ‘best of’ piece for that product category.

7. Take a look at multimodal and off-platform opportunities

We are permanently online — and Google Search is no longer the only entry point on the web.

People turn to AI chatbots, social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, along with forums like Reddit for reviews and recommendations. Try posting on these platforms as it expands your visibility.

Longform video from the channel ‘Smart Picked’ is being surfaced on the SERP for ‘early prime day deals 2026.’

If you have the resources, experiment. Prime Day is a smaller affiliate event than Black Friday, so it can serve as a playground.

Experiment with audience projects, like a deals-focused WhatsApp group or mini newsletter. Try to post to Reddit or host an AMA with a reporter who is known in the space. Ask reporters to produce short video content for YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. Take notes about what does and doesn’t work — and apply those learning to the marquee, colossal event that is Black Friday.

Many sites like Mashable and Wirecutter prominently linked to newsletters to surface information about Black Friday to their readers.

Wirecutter and Mashable’s newsletter prompts from 2024.

8. Consider where AI can help your workflow

As publishers find innovative ways to use AI in their newsrooms, tentpole events are opportunities to see how the technology can work for you.

AI tools can scan sites for deals and ingest it into a Slack message, or even update prices on-page. AI can also help with internal linking when there is a large influx of content like one-off product deal stories.

AI-generated content should always be reviewed by a human for accuracy. AI can get it wrong; it’s important we don’t.

The bottom line: Prime Day is an opportunity for publishers with affiliate verticals to experiment with new formats, build out their E.E.A.T while also driving revenue and reach.

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World Cup SEO: A last-minute guide

WTF is SEO? — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:21:51 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Shelby here, back from the sunniest of sunny weekends in Toronto. It was a social one for me: I started the weekend on a gorgeous patio overlooking the CN Tower with far too many margaritas, spent Saturday playing a fun game of softball (with Jessie!) before taking in two horror films Sunday. Mix in some reading (Hayden Panettiere’s memoir is amazing) and watching Remember the Titans, and I’d call that the perfect weekend.

This week: 7 tips to prepare for the World Cup. Yes, we are just nine days out from one of the biggest global events in sports. While it is a sporting event, the World Cup also encompasses geopolitical tensions, protests, climate impact, municipal infrastructure and much more. Every publisher has an opportunity to be involved. We cover final essentials to keep in mind.

🎉 Heads up: We’re hosting a webinar in partnership with Marfeel on June 22th, on what to do about AI. Stay tuned for more details.

What some of us might want to be doing during the World Cup. Photo by Victoria Prymak on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

Preparing for a tentpole event in 2026

Since the last World Cup four years ago, a lot has changed on Google Search. The rise of AI in (and around) results, along with expanded SERP features (like scores, stats, lineups, etc.) on sports queries makes predicting this year’s return from search traffic even more challenging. It’s incredibly important to set that expectation.

Tactics that resulted in massive traffic four years ago might not convert this year. News SEOs and audience editors need to be clear: nothing is guaranteed.

Google also concluded rolling out the May 2026 core algorithm update today (literally Tuesday morning!), which lasted 12 days and 21 hours. This update appears to be highly volatile already, with signs Google is preparing for a surge in users.

The Top Stories box for queries like world cup 2026 and world cup have already shifted further down the page, sitting below Google-owned features like the schedule and standings, predictions and more (see below). Additionally, there are multiple “what people are saying” boxes, which curate user-generated content from YouTube, X, Reddit, Instagram and more.

Data from Trisolute News Dashboard also shows that the FIFA World Cup host cities sites (nynjfwc26.com, kansascityfwc26.com, atlantafwc26.com, etc.) are ranking well on desktop and mobile SERPs for most competitive world cup keywords. That visibility indicates Google is leaning on local, authoritative sites.

The TL;DR: Google is currently shifting results pages for prized keywords, putting an emphasis on owned features and authoritative sites (read: topic authority). Publishers need to lean into their niches and reputable authors. Don’t chase trends.

THE HOW TO

7 winning tips for World Cup success

Everything we do rests on a solid SEO foundation: strong technical hygiene, quality content within your topical focus and good optimization. This is still the priority.

Let’s discuss other tips to winning.

1. Audit and prepare

Let’s be honest: a successful World Cup strategy began months ago.

Harsh? Maybe. But audience and SEO editors know our work starts long before the event.

If you’re starting now, here’s what you can still do:

World Cup hub: Every tentpole event should have a hub (category or tag page) that links all of the coverage — stories, along with key team or match pages and interactives — together. It should be linked prominently from your homepage.
Guides and evergreen coverage: The value of these pieces may have changed, but they can still be vital to readers. Stories around World Cup 2026 dates or how to buy last minute tickets should be published ahead of the tournament, and updated as necessary.
Establish SEO foundations: Pre-write as many headline and URLs as possible. Headlines can always be adapted based on trends of the tournament, but giving teams a basic formula speeds up the process.
Make a list of the “main” pieces: Create a list of these pillars — interactives, brackets, schedules, guides, etc. — for editorial teams to streamline the linking process.
Make a list of keywords to track: Keywords are still the main way people find information on Search. Use Google Trends, Glimpse or another keyword tool to list and track the essential keywords for your publication during the tournament.

2. The new Search reality: AI Overviews and chatbots

AI Overviews didn’t exist during the last World Cup, and AI’s visibility on SERPs has grown even since the Olympics in February. The emergence of AI completely reshapes how fans will find top-of-the-funnel informational queries like how many teams are in the world cup?

In fact, on SERPs right now, an AI Overview answers that question.

Instead of ranking for queries AI can easily summarize, focus on highly specific analysis and opinion that is context rich.

This means tactical breakdowns, emotional narrative stories, political commentary and investigations that drive the conversation. This is the crux of E.E.A.T: covering games with a human eye.

This World Cup will also be extremely multimodal. It’s a heavily visual event, so consider how video and imagery fits into your coverage. The growing visibility of YouTube, Reddit and TikTok suggests there will be more UGC — find a way to fit into the conversation.

The fundamentals of technical SEO are extremely important. It also helps with AI citations, so Google can properly attribute the information (when it does…). Ensure you are using clear structured data for the games (SportsEvent), authorship, live blogs and articles, highlighting exactly where reporters are writing from. This is critical. On-the-ground, live coverage can’t be replicated by a robot in real time.

3. Track everything

Knowledge is power. Stakeholders are keenly interested in how Google is changing, and what you’re seeing during the tournament means for future projections. The more data, context and insights you can provide in real-time the better.

Competitor analysis: Audit who is showing up in the top results and what media (video, tables, quotes, audio).
AI analysis: Try a variety of prompts in chatbot and AI Mode to understand how the robots talk about the World Cup.
Key performance metrics: Set up trackers for your main KPIs (like keyword clicks, page ranking or positioning, etc.).
SERPs analysis: What features are Google showing? How often are there other features? How low down is the Top Stories carousel? How many “What people are saying” boxes are there? Is there an AI summary? How many non-publishers are featured?

4. Keep the newsroom in the loop

An effective search strategy requires strong, seamless, consistent communication, as championed by The Athletic’s Ryan Mayer. Communicate too much and too often. Over-communication is how you take SEO from afterthought to front of mind in a newsroom.

Build 360-degree feedback loops between the audience/SEO team, the World Cup team and the live team, so reporters can know precisely which player angles, storylines are spiking in search interest. Provide guidance on when to publish and whether a story may be useful on another platform, like Reddit or YouTube, because that’s actually showing up on Google. Knowing what the internet is talking about can help reporters in a scrum, or editors working on getting news out fast.

Other considerations to help the newsroom:

Real-time Slack/communication channels: Set up dedicated channels for the Search team and live teams to communicate headlines, trends, etc.
Daily workflow audits: This can be a short Slack message or an email. Communicate what is and isn’t working, so the plan for the next day can be tweaked.
Plan in advance: Audience editors know when things will pop off. If a certain player is of interest and there’s a previous feature, get it ready just in case he’s mentioned on a broadcast. This “psychic” sense helps editors more than you know.

Ultimately, your job as an audience editor is to help the reporters cover all of the angles that build their authority. Find ways to help make this easier.

5. Winning on Google Discover and multimodal search

Google Discover and visual search features are predicted to be more of the traffic share throughout the tournament. Discover is leaning into multimodal, local and live coverage, so ensure to optimize headlines to strong, engaging and emotionally resonate. Avoid clickbait, but lean into the curiosity gap and emotional stakes of the story.

A multimodal content strategy will be pivotal to success. Video is already featured heavily on Google. If you’re publishing video or audio (and you should), ensure your assets are indexable with structured data and transcribed accurately.

Other considerations:

Discover image optimization: Include descriptive alt-text, vibrant imagery at a minimum 1200px wide with max-image-preview:large setting.
Video SEO integration: Ensure YouTube or self-hosted videos include strict timestamps, VideoElement schema and descriptive transcripts.
Tracking Discover success: Utilize Google Search Console to differentiate regular organic traffic from sudden Discover spikes to replicate winning formats for other coverage (i.e., is it a specific headline format? Topic? Writer?).

6. Live blogs and breaking news: Speed is (still) king

AI cannot replicate live, in-the-moment coverage. During breaking news and matches, it comes down to the people providing that analysis for context.

With more than 100 matches and breaking news we cannot predict, there’s no shortage of opportunities to be in the moment. If you are going to be producing a live blog, it is essential to have clean LiveBlogPosting structured data. This ensures Google sees your updates instantly, maintains fresh timestamps and increases your chances of maintaining the LIVE badge.

Cycle your headlines. All elements of a live-updating page should reflect that. Breaking news should be almost a live entity as you funnel in updates. Stay relevant to what the reader wants, even if Google is not always seeing the changes.

Remember: The first 15-30 minutes post-breaking news are the most critical. Publish fast, update often and provide the context, analysis or insights that no other publication can. This will help foster the engagement signals to keep your coverage in Top Stories longer.

7. It’s not just about Google.

Hot take: Google isn’t the only player in the game. It controls the lion’s share of the market, but Bing’s is on the move. Bing grew from 3.89 per cent market share in April 2025 to 4.98 per cent in May 2026.

As well, search interest on Google for “google alternative” has steadily gone up in the last 12 months.

Keep an open mind to other search engines. Look at how they’re surfacing information. Knowledge is power.

Join our Slack!

The bottom line: The World Cup event is an incredible opportunity to showcase your expertise and analyze the search engine environment, bringing sharp insights to your leadership teams. Work with your newsroom and capitalize on moments that AI cannot replicate.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

Indiegraf is hiring a full-time Partnership Lead, Enterprise and Programs (remote, Canada or U.S.).
MinnPost is hiring an Audience Development Editor (Minneapolis, Minnesota).
NBCUniversal is hiring a Senior Manager, Web Strategy (specific applications for New York and Los Angeles applicants.
The Athletic is hiring a Head of Social & Off-Platform Growth (remote, U.S. or U.K.).

Google I/O: What to know

WTF is SEO? — Tue, 26 May 2026 17:21:42 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a torrential downpour weekend. It did not stop raining once in Toronto, but despite the miserable conditions outside, Jessie took advantage of Doors Open Toronto to see the inside of the water treatment plant (legitimately cool) and the MOCCA. Meanwhile, Shelby hit a personal record of deadlifting 200lbs (or 91kg for our European friends, which makes the accomplishment seem much less exciting). The hamstrings are shot, but the pride is wide.

This week: What to know about what happened at Google I/O! Google’s annual conference featured a slew of new launches and information. And to cap it off, the company launched its May 2026 core algorithm update late into the week. We break it all down for you.

❤️‍🔥 Community call recap: Thank you to everyone who joined our spring community call, in partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard! The recording and transcript are now available. We’ll have the promised recap featuring podcast SEO insights from Steven Wilson-Beales soon (Google doesn’t respect our editorial calendar!).

Let’s get it.

THE RECAP

Four things to know from Google I/O

Google I/O, the search giant’s annual conference where they showcase news features and product updates, happened last week with no shortage of information.

The TL;DR for this year: AI is everywhere on Google — whether you like it or not.

Here are the biggest highlights and what publishers should know:

1. Google’s search box is getting a major upgrade

What happened: Google announced the first major changes to its search bar since 2001, making the main search box more dynamic and interactive.

Calling it the Intelligent Search box, Google’s revamped search box enables users to ask longer, more detailed questions — and upload various types of content (files, videos or photos and even Chrome tabs) as part of the query.

The Intelligent Search box is powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash and has begun rolling out in the countries and languages where AI Mode is available.

Google is in its AI era.

Why it matters: Google says this is the biggest change to the search box in nearly 25 years. It’s another reminder of how much Google has integrated AI into every part of search. The result is likely a further change in how users engage with content on the web. This means possibly an even more limited sandbox for publishers to find audiences. It’s likely more AI-generated responses, and with the increased visibility of AI Mode, could further reduce the need for users to click through to a publisher’s site.

2. Information Agents will help users stay updated

What is it: Google also announced new search AI agents. Operating in the background 24/7, Google says these agents will scan information across blogs, news sites, social posts, as well as Google’s real-time information — including finance, shopping, sports and more — to monitor for changes related to a user’s question. The agents will then send back “an intelligent, synthesized update, with the ability to take action.”

Google also expanded its agentic booking experience. Soon, Google Search will be able to find and directly book specific places or services. The company says restaurants, home, repair, beauty and pet care will roll out this summer in the U.S.

Google in its agent era.

Why it matters: Google is implementing (and improving) systems that will work for you in their ecosystem even when you’re not directly on Search. The agentic systems could make tasks like apartment hunting, deal shopping or even monitoring a major news moment (like a sports trade or an election) easier for users.

3. Agentic coding will power new apps in Search

What is it: Google is enabling users to build their own “mini apps for your own specific tasks” directly in Search. Google Antigravity and the agentic coding capabilities of Gemini 3.5 Flash — which was also launched at Google I/O — will power these apps. This includes custom graphics, visual tools, trackers, simulations and other custom layouts in real time, in the format and with sources the user prefers.

“Search can build the ideal response, in the right format for your question — completely on the fly. So you can get custom generative Ul, including visual tools and simulations, tailored precisely to your needs,” Liz Reid, the head of Google Search, said.

This feature will roll out globally this summer.

Why it matters: Google Search is no longer just a library. The ability to create in Google Search transforms the purpose and intent of the user journey. Additionally, the ability for users to create custom graphics could become a major blow to publishers that have heavily invested in tools like financial watchlists or interactives. Google Search will give you the answers you want, but also transform that information into a preferred format, all within the Google ecosystem.

4. Personal Intelligence goes global

What it is: Google expanded its personal intelligence capability to more users in nearly 200 countries with no subscription required. Previously, it was only available in select markets with a fee. This will enable users to fully connect Gmail, Google Photos and soon Google Calendar to sync with searches in AI Mode.

Why it matters: This is not surprising. After launching this in a few markets in January 2026, it was only a matter of time before a global rollout. It was clear Google was moving in this personalized direction with the launch of Preferred Sources, and this furthers that theory. The integration of Gmail, Google Photos and Google Calendar makes Search a much more personalized experience. Readers who subscribe to or engage with a specific publisher’s content may see more of those topics — and therefore news outlets — ranking on SERPs or being cited in AI responses.

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THE REAX

Reactions and responses to I/O

Aleyda Solis for SEOFOMO: “The default toggle didn’t flip to AI Mode, but the entry point into Search is becoming a much stronger bridge between traditional Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, multimodal inputs, personalization and agentic actions.”

Katie Notopoulos for Business Insider: “But a version of the new AI search is one where you never have to venture out onto the internet; it’s brought to you in a sanitized form by an intermediary. It’s like living in a gated community with a strict HOA vs. a walkable city with public transit … I don’t want Google search to trap me into its AI HOA! I want my internet experience to have a tacky-colored house, an unkempt lawn, and a year-round 12-foot Home Depot skeleton. That’s what the internet should feel like to me: something to explore and venture out into, even if that means a tiny bit of imperfect friction.”

Jay Peters for The Verge: “Google isn’t just showing you the location of information anymore. Through its various search boxes, it’s now just answering questions for you in a way that it thinks is most helpful. In the most charitable view: If it’s done well and accurately, this all could be very useful. But that means it has to be done well and accurately, and that’s an extremely high bar to clear, especially with complex search queries or questions about sensitive data like my years of emails in Gmail.”

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Daily Mail is hiring an Audience Editor (London, U.K.).
Newsweek is hiring several roles including news editors and a Head of Consumer Social (Remote, U.S. and U.K.).

EVEN MORE RECOMMENDED READING

🌪️ Matt G. Southern: Google launched a core update on May 21; it could take up to two weeks to complete. It’s the fourth update of 2026, following a previous March core update as well as spam and Discover updates.
🛍️ Barry Schwartz: In addition to the agentic features mentioned above, Google also announced some commerce features, including the Universal Cart.
🤦 Lily Ray: “Oh man, Google seems to have rolled out AI Overviews for new types of queries this week, including many words that previously generated dictionary results.”
🔬 Rasmus Kleis Nielsen: Generative AI news discovery looks much more concentrated than other forms of access.
🤔 Gianluca Fiorelli: The Schema question, reframed or trying to clarify what it is for.

What did you think of this week’s newsletter?

(Click to leave feedback.)

Catch up: Last week’s newsletter

Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

Ask a News SEO: Clara Soteras

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:21:56 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from weekends full of spring-time hobbies. Jessie indulged in softball, buying a flat of plants (so many cherry tomatoes!), vegan tiramisu, taking a long coffee walk and finishing this thriller. Shelby met up with her Canadian Poynter cohort (hi ladies!), built a chair, put her travel photos up and continued reading her book. Same weekend, but different!

This week: Ask a news SEO! We’re thrilled to be joined by digital strategy and news SEO consultant Clara Soteras! We talked about all things creators and authorship, and the most underrated soft skills.

☀️ There’s a Canadian holiday next Monday! This means Jessie and Shelby will be catching some sun (maybe, tbd) and there will be no issue. We’ll be back Tuesday, May 26th, to accommodate the U.S. and U.K. holidays.
🚨 SOON! Our spring community call is Wednesday, May 20 at 11 a.m. ET/4 p.m. GMT! In partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard, Steven Wilson-Beales will join us to discuss all things podcast SEO! Register to receive a reminder and ask a question.

Let’s get it.

THE INTERVIEW

WTF is SEO?: How do you define creators and authorship for SEO?

Clara Soteras: We can define it as somebody with authority, knowledge and expertise about a product, category or section.

It’s something we have to take into account nowadays in newsrooms. We have to recognize the value that every journalist can add to your editorial brand. It’s time for authors and creators to achieve and grow brand visibility for publishers.

WTF is SEO?: If you are a content creator, what are the things on your checklist for growing your visibility on search?

Clara Soteras: If I were a content creator, this is the moment to start to build brand visibility. It’s something that I am trying to explain to publishers and journalists. It’s really important to have a website and to claim your Knowledge Panel to create consistency with social networks.

But, it’s also understanding how we need to approach every platform. We need to understand where our audience is and what type of audience we have.

For example, if a content creator is an expert in technology and shares something related with new gadgets, she probably needs to understand that she needs to publish visual content on TikTok or YouTube.

But, if you work in the culture section and you really love writing and connecting with your audience, you probably need to create a community. You need to create, for example, a newsletter — another platform to create engagement and connection with your audience.

It’s important to have a domain to refer back to for your brand. If you don’t have a website, it’s probably difficult to have a Google Discover profile, or to get a Knowledge Panel.

It’s the moment to evangelize this as an SEO in the newsroom. Sometimes, I work with different types of people and journalists who know that we are evolving, and that SEO is evolving, and they are open to change the way they work. But in another way, you can work with journalists that only write and only want to create the text piece of content. They think it’s not necessary to add value on other platforms because they don’t work in distribution. But, that’s not the reality today.

WTF is SEO?: If you’re an SEO at a website and you want to boost your authors, what are the main levers you should pull to grow a writer’s E.E.A.T, topic authority, etc., in order to build visibility?

Clara Soteras: The first thing, obviously, is that you need to create good author bio pages.

You need to work on the schema, on the social networks, on a good biography that has a good explanation of the background of the journalist.

But it’s not the only thing that we can do. We can create author pages for our website, but we can also train journalists on how to publish and distribute their content in LinkedIn, for example, if it’s something related with business or technology. We need to create this social conversation.

If we use Instagram or YouTube Shorts, we can tag the relevant people and ask our journalists to share this knowledge, to share this post.

As publishers, I think that we need to offer this training or these tips to our journalists if we want them to rely on our strategy. It’s something that is needed to create this consistency.

We can start with the author pages, and after that, create a community with authors that are the most recognized [for the] brand or trying to create this collaborative post on Instagram or LinkedIn.

WTF is SEO?: Does this change if people are thinking more about AI than traditional search?

Clara Soteras: Something that we can work on is understanding how personal brands are appearing in AI — not only the publisher. Obviously, the publisher needs page views, but something I am trying to work on with my clients is to increase the dimensions and being the source of different prompts to be more in the mindset of people.

I think that we need to understand how every LLM is mentioning our brand. We can track the best prompts that mention our content, and try to find what information and type of searches people are looking for.

I think that we can create consistency with our authors. We need to create more visibility on our homepage for our people.

It’s something that generates more connection and engagement with the community than the publisher brand. We need to encourage our authors and creators to be a name, and give them the opportunity to talk directly to the audience, always mentioning that they are journalists who work for our publication. It’s complicated to manage if you don’t have strategic thinking.

We can mention The Washington Post example. People who created TikToks for The Washington Post, they decided to create their own project independently. Now, they’re very big names and they have their own project. For this reason, I think that we need to find some way to promote our journalists, but always with a dedicated brand and having connection with the audience.

WTF is SEO?: You mentioned The Washington Post. It’s illustrative of this tension between publishers and creators, but how should individual authors and creators coexist with existing news brands?

Clara Soteras: This is really different depending on the market and the audience. If you analyze different content creators in different countries, the people connect really differently. Something that works in the United States won’t work well in Spain, and we need to manage and understand the needs of our audience. All journalism work is based on the needs of our audience.

WTF is SEO?: If you’re a publisher, what are sort of the risks around working with and focusing on creators?

Clara Soteras: The first risk is something that occurred at The Washington Post. You help create a name and relate the name to a brand, then people can start their own career. That’s the first risk. But publishers need content creators. When something newsworthy is explained by a journalist, a name and surname, it performs better than if you explain as a publisher.

It’s how you can create this connection with new audiences. It’s the way to attract them. Publishers need to work and understand the new way to connect with new audiences with content creators. We need to have balance. We need to take care of our creators because you can use them. We need to to create a good relationship with them and grow together because if we think that yes we will add some creator in our publisher for some months to because we need now to increase the page views or the the connection. It’s not a strategy for the long term.

WTF is SEO?: You recently published a book. What was your biggest tip or takeaway from that?

Clara Soteras: Some people think that it’s not a good way to explain SEO, in a printed book, because it can get outdated. But it’s not the case. The book is the basics. It’s the basics to explain to journalists what is working on the net and what we need to work on for SEO in the newsroom.

Yes, we have GEO and LLMs and AIOs, but the basic things are the same. In the book, I can give some examples and I can offer different ways to evangelize SEO in the newsroom for people who work on SEO, but don’t have this type of skills or knowledge to connect and to transmit.

It’s like you are translating the SEO topics and SEO basic things to journalists, to directors of business, to understand why we need SEO.

For example, there’s a chapter to talk about soft skills, and how to organize and SEO team, and organize different tasks — for example, on election night, the coverage for the SEO team.

I’ve received feedback from people across different newsroom roles, editorial teams and content professionals saying that it’s really useful as a way to build strong foundations and share them with people who want to better understand SEO and grow in this space. You can apply this to every publisher.

WTF is SEO?: What is the important soft skill for people working in SEO?

Clara Soteras: I think that understanding the needs of the journalist and the resources that you have to prepare a good strategy. If I prepare a strategy for a huge publisher, obviously we can cover an election night with 50 people — but if we don’t have 50 people in the newsroom, I can’t properly do that. If nobody knows how to work with Google Trends, for example, or understand why we need to publish within two minutes of breaking news, that strategy isn’t useful.

The best soft skill is this understanding needed in our newsroom, understanding the resources and the knowledge of our journalists.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs or opportunities in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Guardian US is hiring an Audience Engagement Editor (California, New York, or D.C.).
Applications are now open for the ONA Women’s Leadership Accelerator program.

Core update, AI and more: Google news

WTF is SEO? — Tue, 05 May 2026 17:21:23 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a frigid “spring” weekend. You’d think May means universally pleasant temperatures. But not in the north, dear reader! Instead, we experienced snow, rain, frost and (some) sun, all in 48 hours. Canada: where the healthcare is free, the geese are mean and the weather is as unpredictable as the Raptors’ playoff hopes.

This week: Google news and updates! A lot has happened since we last covered Google’s shenanigans. Here’s what to know about the latest core update, changes to Top Stories and AI Overviews.

🚨 Happening soon! Our spring community call is Wednesday, May 20 at 11 a.m. ET/4 p.m. GMT! In partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard, Steven Wilson-Beales will join us to discuss all things podcast SEO! Register to receive a reminder and ask a question.

Let’s get it.

THE UPDATES

March 2026 core update has completed

What happened: Google’s first official core update of 2026 completed on April 8, with rollout lasting just under two weeks. This update appeared less intense, especially in comparison to the very volatile December’s core update. That 2025 update also specifically targeted e-commerce SERPs, whereas March 2026’s focused on shifting visibility to authoritative, brand-owned, first-party sites like government pages and .org domains.

Why it matters: YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and X were amongst the top four brands that lost visibility in this update, indicating a pattern of declines for UGC and aggregation content. Those four sites have been steadily taking over Google’s environments and stealing traffic away from publishers. (However, in the weeks since the update, Reddit has regained visibility.)

But fair warning… According to Amsive’s winners and losers, Google was fourth on the list of absolute winners in the update. This does seem to indicate that while Google is swinging toward authoritative sites, it’s not necessarily giving up its own real estate, either.

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Preferred Sources now available in all languages

What happened: Google rolled out its search personalization feature, Preferred Sources, globally in all languages. The feature officially launched last year, enabling users to customize their search experience with selected publishers.

What Google said: The feature already allows users to have “control over the news you see on Search” by picking specific sites to see more often in Top Stories. “So far, people have already selected over 200,000 unique sites — from niche local blogs to global news desks,” the company reported.

Nick Fox, Google’s head of knowledge and information, commented on increased engagement for preferred sites in a post on X: “People are 2X more likely to click to a site after marking it as a Preferred Source.”

Why it matters: The global rollout of Preferred Sources marks a further shift to personalization and user-controlled curation in Google’s ecosystem. It’s an opportunity for publishers to take advantage of potentially more visibility and stronger engagement once selected by a reader.

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Google expands AI Mode to YouTube

What happened: Google has made a new test available for people to use conversational queries on YouTube. Users who prompt the AI tool will get back a response made up of long- and short-form videos, along with a text summary. Further prompting provides more specific answers based on previous interactions. The test is currently only available for YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S., who have opted into the platform’s experimental features.

Why it matters: Google is going all in on AI. The conversational chatbot is no longer reserved for search results, or the standalone AI Mode interface, but also available on an entirely new platform.

Google adds ‘You Asked to See’ label to Discover

What happened: Google launched a label in Discover called You Asked to See, which is added to content in your feed that’s based on your selections in the Tailor Your Feed feature. (Tailor Your Feed is an experiment first spotted in December 2025 that allows users to make Discover “truly yours”, enabling readers to see more of what they want.)

Why it matters: Similar to Preferred Sources, this is another move from Google toward further personalization. Google Discover surfaces relevant content based on a user’s search activity and preferences; the label is a reflection of that behavioural choice.

Google testing an “ask anything” box that sticks on scroll

What happened: Google is now testing having the AI Overview “Ask Anything” box stick to the bottom of the screen as you scroll down on search results (on desktop). This is an iteration on the feature, as currently for most users, the box is there when an AI Overview summary is present, but it does not stick. The feature will now continue down the results, covering other features.

Why it matters: The Ask Anything box — which leads you to an AI Mode experience once you interact with it — now keeps Google’s AI integrations in your face during the entire searching journey. It suggests the inevitability of AI-first search on Google and becoming more like a conversational chatbot daily.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The New York Times is hiring an Audience Editor, Metro and Senior Software Engineer, AI Platforms and Products (New York City, N.Y.).
The Marshall Project is hiring a Senior Editor, Local and Engagement (Remote).

EVEN MORE READING

⚒️ Johannes Beus: AI Citation drift: How stable are sources in AI search results?
🗺️ Dan Taylor: How AI search audits map your brand in the generative era.
📈 Crystal Ortiz: Is there still a long-term game for SEO in AI search?
🧰 Barry Schwartz: Bing Webmaster Tools teases new AI reporting updates.
🔍 Aleyda Solis: Where AI search sends traffic: 10 market patterns for your global AI search strategy.
🖥️ Aleyda Solis: The best of the published decks from BrightonSEO UK.

What did you think of this week’s newsletter?

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Catch up: Last week’s newsletter

Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

How to do multimodal search

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:21:21 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from the first (semi) official softball weekend! Get ready, dear reader: not only is Jessie playing in another four(!) leagues, but Shelby is subbing for two of them! Stay tuned for stories about Jessie getting hit in the face with a ball, or Shelby missing the perfect pitch. Or both, really. It’s softball season!

This week: How to do multimodal search! Last week we went through the 101. In this issue, we break down how to start approaching a multimodal strategy in your newsroom.

🚨 Happening soon! Our spring community call is Wednesday, May 20 at 11 a.m. ET/4 p.m. GMT! In partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard, Steven Wilson-Beales will join us to discuss all things podcast SEO! Register to receive a reminder and ask a question.

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Why look at one screen when I could look at two screens. Photo by Terrillo Walls on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

What a multimodal content strategy should look like

A multimodal future requires changing your current editorial content strategy and incorporating distribution channels earlier in the process. It requires taking one piece of content and making it work on multiple platforms.

The content itself must be multimodal: it needs to engage in different ways that make sense for a specific platform (whether it be video, text or audio). It might also be optimized for multimodal search (the various ways the content can be found).

For example, a 90-minute video podcast can be posted on YouTube as well as Spotify, but then sliced into short-form vertical videos to catch the attention of users on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Quote highlights can be posted as static graphic cards on Instagram.

Each of these pieces of content should be fully optimized — with the right keywords, tone, etc. — for that surface.

And then on-site, key snippets can be embedded in relevant news articles. The podcast can also run on-site with its own article page and the full text transcript. It can also be summarized in newsletters or other text-based content.

Example: The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast is shared as audio on Spotify and Apple, appears as a full video on YouTube and is hosted on-site in an article page (with the video podcast pulled into relevant stories). Key moments are also clipped into standalone short videos on TikTok, or carousels on Instagram.

This is just one example of taking a piece of content — in this case, a podcast — and ensuring it’s visible wherever your audience is. This expands the entry points to connect with people on their preferred platforms. It makes you more visible across the entire Google ecosystem, protecting your authority and increasing brand awareness.

How to start thinking about multimodal as an audience editor

Over the last several years, Google’s ecosystem has changed. The old landscape that publishers played — and succeeded — in doesn’t exist anymore. That means audience editors need to change how we think about Google and audience as a whole.

Below is a look at the visibility of websites for the general keyword set on mobile from Trisolute News Dashboard. Taking into consideration all features on Google (top stories, organic, visual digest, etc.), YouTube (which is owned by Google) is far and away the most visible site. Second (by a wide margin) is Reddit (which partners with Google). After The New York Times, CNN and ESPN, the other top “publications” are all also distribution platforms.

12-month view on Trisolute News Dashboard for the general keyword set for all features on Google, showing the prominence of YouTube and other platforms in the news space.

When taking YouTube’s monopoly out of the equation, an even more interesting narrative emerges. Notably, Facebook and Twitter/X were almost non-existent in Google’s ecosystem in April 2025. A year later, Facebook has risen from 0.8 per cent to 2.97 per cent visibility, while Twitter/X has catapulted from 0.37 per cent to 3.56 per cent visibility in April 2026. It is currently the fourth-most visible site, behind YouTube, Instagram and Reddit.

12-month view on Trisolute News Dashboard for the general keyword set for all features on Google, showing the prominence other platforms in the news space with YouTube omitted

This fluctuation in visibility confirms a trend we already know: the audience is not monolithic. People are finding news — even still with Google as the main entry point — in a myriad of places and in a myriad of ways. As such, we must stop treating content like it’s a monolithic entity.

This means we must move beyond text. For a long time, we focused exclusively on text-first optimization — keyword research, SEO-driven headlines and backlinks. Now, Google — and more importantly, the readers — are considering other forms of content. We need to keep up.

First step: Take inventory of where you are

The first step for multimodal search is understanding what you currently publish and where that content lives. This audience will reveal a load of opportunities, but limitations, too.

Take inventory of where you currently post content and engage with audiences:

What podcast shows go on Spotify, Apple AND YouTube?
Are podcasts hosted online on-site? Is the transcript readily available?
Does your outlet post on TikTok? How many posts per day or week? Are podcasts posted here?
What about Instagram Stories and Reels?
Are you posting on Facebook or Twitter/X? How often and what content?

Then, take inventory of what does well:

Which posts/content types perform above average against the platform’s native data?
What do people talk about on Reddit about your brand?
What social posts tend to “go viral”?
Which podcasts have the top downloads?
Which journalists are most well-mentioned?

Answer all of the above in a Google Doc or Spreadsheet to determine the current strategy.

Work with stakeholders to identify the gaps

People in your newsroom are likely already working on video or podcasts, but are probably siloed from the larger newsroom. Be the bridge between these teams.

As an audience editor, you should have an eye on the data. What stories are doing well on-site? Translate your on-site successes to off-site opportunities. If a story is doing well on-site, it comes automatically with more internal buy-in. This usually means more resources. Capitalize on this and expand the story’s reach off-site.

For example: You learn a major investigation did really well on-site yesterday. Can the reporter translate some of that work by annotating the case on video, which can be distributed on Twitter/X, YouTube Shorts and TikTok? Should they go on your morning daily podcast? What about a Reddit AMA in topically-relevant forums? And on-site Q&A with subscribers? Can you run a “behind the scenes” interview with the writer for your flagship newsletter and record the video for another platform?

Think of the internet distribution methods like a mind map. If you have a single piece of content, how many different ways can we repurpose this? Build out this strategy for major stories first, then branch out.

Work with people who know the platforms. Audio and video editors are elite humans. Describe your vision for off-platform visibility, and ask how you can collaborate to bring it to life. Be open to feedback and criticism: sometimes what may seem like it’s a light lift actually takes more resources than you think.

Test, test, test

A multimodal approach forces a testing and learning culture. Not everything is going to land for every platform, but the more you try and adjust, the more you’ll learn what each audience needs. It’s not always the same for each audience. That’s the point!

Use data that informs your efforts. The tricky part about this “new era” of audience research and development is that not all data is equal. On-site metrics inform a direct traffic-to-revenue relationship, but engagement on TikTok doesn’t quite return the same bottom-line number for a business.

However, those numbers can relate to brand awareness. Find a way to connect engagement on posting platforms to a metric, like Comscore, or an increase in unaided brand awareness.

Multimodal search is all about being optimized for any form of searching, whether that’s on Google or TikTok or ChatGPT. This is a fluid environment. Testing is how you find success.

THE EXPERTS

What the experts recommend

Steven Wilson-Beales: Multimodal breaks the idea that audiences are being served just by what comes out of your CMS — which is primarily text. Audiences (and LLMs) consume information in different formats across a variety of surfaces. We now need to consider:

What is the story? What is the essential seed of the story and what are the best formats that will allow that seed to bloom?
ONE team: Product, video, audio, data and writing teams all need to be aligned. Know what to prioritize through silky smooth team communication.
Redefine success: We used to measure a win with a click, and it didn’t matter who clicked. Now, if we are laser-focused on the right audience, there are other engagement signals we can celebrate.

The best future editors will also be audience engineers: those who can spot the story and can work with teams to amplify it both to humans and to the machines.

Louisa Frahm: In the multimodal search era, publishers should strive to diversify entry points and guide readers through an expanded digital editorial experience. A single trend can spark a traditional article, YouTube clip, TikTok explainer and/or Reddit post that could pop on SERPs. The goal is to meet your readers anywhere and everywhere that they consume content, with text and visual offerings in timely windows.

Publishers need to provide answers to search-friendly questions across content on different platforms. Balancing quick-hit stats alongside expert analysis can simultaneously appeal to AI modules and encourage readers to dig deeper into your coverage. To execute a successful multimodal search strategy, it will be imperative to consistently educate stakeholders on evolving industry trends and secure cross-departmental collaboration with top-down support.

Deborah Carver: Multimodal is like all channel optimization: figuring out which details agents use to access and evaluate information so your brand can look good wherever you may show up. Sometimes, that means filling in “backstory” in the schema markup. Google doesn’t use that field to evaluate, but emerging news authority algorithms might. AI tools can make this tedious process much easier, if you have an eagle-eyed and brand-aware copy editor reviewing everything before it goes out.

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Join our podcast SEO community call with Steven Wilson-Beales [together with Trisolute]

WTF is SEO? — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:22:10 GMT

Hello, WTF is SEO? community!

Mark your calendars! We are thrilled to invite you to our next community call discussion hosted by your pals, Jessie and Shelby from WTF is SEO?, in partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard!

We’re diving into podcast SEO, with special guest, SEO, AI visibility and content strategy consultant, Steven Wilson-Beales!

Steven (who also hosts Beers and SEO with friend of the newsletter, ), will discuss what works, what doesn’t and how to actually get your podcast discovered.

We’ll dive into how to use SEO to maximize the visibility and discoverability of your podcasts.

If you’ve ever wondered:

Do I still need to do keyword research?
Should my title tags be long or short? Question- or keyword-focused?
Can captions and transcripts help search ranking?

This is the call for you. We’re cutting through the noise to help you figure out how to actually get your podcast discovered.

Overview:

Steven will share three essential pillars for podcast visibility.
We’ll open up the chat to explore how these strategies work in the real world.
Then, it’s over to our attendees! Bring your specific hurdles, your “is this still best practice?” questions and any technical quandaries.

If you’ve ever wondered how to go beyond the basics of podcast SEO, this community call is your chance to learn from one of the best.

Attendees are encouraged to bring questions.

Here are the details for the panel:

Date: Wednesday May 20, 2026
Time: 11 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. GMT
Host Time Zone: Eastern - New York/Toronto

How to join us on Google Meet:

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ngo-ctwn-kpo

Please note: By joining this call, you agree to abide by our WTF is SEO? community guidelines. Failure to respect our guidelines will result in your removal from the community call, at the discretion of WTF is SEO?.

ALSO!

We’re thrilled to partner with Trisolute News Dashboard, a widely used tool in the news SEO community, for this panel!

The Trisolute News Dashboard is THE best-in-class, award-winning news SEO tool serving online news publishers since 2012. We demystify the news SEO universe and increase publishers’ visibility with near-real-time data and actionable insights while helping to build search authority on Google News, SERPs and Discover.

Please note: By attending this event, you agree to make your name available to Trisolute.

Please reply directly to this email if you have any questions.

Your pals in news SEO,

Jessie and Shelby

Recommended reading before the community call:

Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

What does 'multimodal' mean?

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:21:57 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, back from a rainy weekend in Toronto! Those kinds of days call for museum visits and working on a fibre arts craft. This month, it’s embroidery — but also sewing: sewing a project bag for embroidery projects. The fibre arts converge!

This week: Multimodal search! How people are searching for information is changing. We unpack the shift from the “classic” text-only experience to the evolution of using many inputs to get a diversity of outputs.

🚨 Happening soon! Our spring community call is Wednesday, May 20 at 11 a.m. ET/4 p.m. GMT! In partnership with Trisolute News Dashboard, Steven Wilson-Beales will join us to discuss all things podcast SEO! Register to receive a reminder and ask a question.

The two-screen tango! Photo by Maxim Ilyahov on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

Over the last five years, search behaviour has fundamentally changed. The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT changed the game — and forced the biggest player in town (Google) to adapt.

Now, with Gemini powering AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google is more conversational, pulling from more sources to better reflect the full breadth of a user’s needs. Meanwhile, the explosion in popularity of TikTok, Instagram and Reddit has provided more visual, snackable and diverse ways to search. The concept of “multimodal” reflects this shift in content discovery.

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What is multimodal? How does it relate to search?

Multimodal refers to a system simultaneously using several, distinct inputs to process, understand and communicate information. This information is ingested across multiple content types, including text, images, video and audio. This means a system can process something with “senses” — by looking and hearing — to produce a more “relevant” answer.

Multimodal search is the act of using a variety of inputs to look for information. AI Mode, for example, is multimodal: users can type, use voice commands or upload an image to seek information. Sometimes, a person will use a variety of these approaches together to search, and receive multiple outputs, like data tables, links to maps, etc. That is multimodal search.

Multimodal is the ability to understand something through multiple formats, while multimodal search is the ability to find information about that topic in many ways. Modern AI usually does both.

How does multimodal relate to news SEO?

For audience and SEO editors, there’s both multimodal search and multimodal content optimization. One is how people look for information, and the other is how we prime content for people to find it.

In both cases, it requires us to change and evolve.

In classic SEO, we focused on matching a text-based input (i.e., keywords) to a text-based output (i.e., written content in search results). With multimodal, we look at many different types of inputs and outputs.

Now, discovery is so much richer. It’s blue links on Google search results, yes — but it’s also short-form content on TikTok, forum threads on Reddit and long-form videos on YouTube. It’s all the formats on all the platforms people use every day to understand the world around them.

The shift in how and where people look for information requires a change in how we optimize content for discovery across the web.

Redefining our concept of search also means redefining optimization. Remember that search is a behaviour. SEO is a discipline that puts people first. The goal of SEO is to connect users with information they need in the format(s) they want.

As audience and SEO editors, we need to ensure our content is as diverse as the platforms it lives on. The aim is simple: meet our audience wherever — and however — they choose to look for us.

SEO is evolving — and multimodal is an example of that shift.

What the experts are saying

Multimodal search is a relatively new concept. Here’s how some SEO experts define it.

Search Engine Journal: “Multimodal search isn’t just about the difference between typing a query, speaking it out loud or snapping a photo. It’s about the way users fluidly engage across different platforms and media types to explore, evaluate and decide.”
Lily Ray: “Multimodal content optimization is the notion of producing content in different formats because large language models (LLMs) can indeed ingest different types of content like video, audio and images.”
Louisa Frahm: Multimodal means “you need to be anywhere and everywhere that your readers are consuming content.”
Steve Wilson-Beales: “Multimodal SEO optimizes for discovery across multiple inputs and outputs which can include text, images, video, audio, voice, AI-generated queries and more. This reflects the rapid changes to both the algorithms over the last three years and the evolution of user expectations. In short, the ways in which people consume information have exploded and it’s our job as SEOs to understand how the information is being generated and how it’s being consumed.”
Semrush: “A multimodal content strategy is the process of turning one high-quality asset into multiple formats — text, video, audio and visuals — so your message connects with audiences in the ways they best absorb information.”

Tell us: For a future newsletter, we’re looking for expert takes on how to implement a multimodal approach to content discovery. In 200 words or less, tell us how your newsroom is making your journalism more broadly discoverable.

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The bottom line: How people search has changed. As SEO and audience editors, how we optimize content for maximum visibility across the entire web ecosystem must also change.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Economist is hiring an Audience Editor (London, U.K.).

What we learned at ONA 2026

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:21:45 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a whirlwind (and windy!) week in Chicago for the Online News Association conference and a much-needed break. We were thrilled to present (again!) on what we’ve learned about running a successful side hustle without losing your mind.

We’re also so THRILLED to report that we hit 14,000 newsletter subscribers while presenting at ONA! What a joy to mark the milestone in a room full of smart, creative and thoughtful news professionals. Here’s to 15k!

This week: What we learned at ONA! Conference organizers managed to pack three days full with programming on the creator economy, building newsroom resilience and deepening audience engagement. We’ve recapped our favourite sessions on SEO, reaching young audiences, combatting news fatigue and wining on Reddit.

OUR FIVE FAV SESSIONS

Bringing readers back: Real-world tactics for combating news fatigue

News fatigue is real and it’s not just a branding problem.

As Angela Pacienza, The Globe and Mail’s executive editor, explained, audiences aren’t rejecting specific outlets; they are retreating entirely from news. To combat this, The Globe focused on stories around how people live and making the publication feel more fun and relatable.

Resources: Reporters moved to new beats that match topics around how people live, including happiness, time use, as well as service and advice. The stories are similar, but with a different framing. For example, the Happiness reporter previously also wrote about mental health; changing the framing to be more positive changed readers’ understanding of the information.
Alerts: Every day, The Globe sends a minimum of one push notification to a story specifically on how we live topics (like parenting). Previously, they mainly focused on breaking news.
Engagement: The Globe invested in community, running two on-site Q&As each week. The comments help build direct, positive relationships with readers.
Homepage: Relatable content was promoted in essential, prominent homepage spots.
Tone: Tone is an editorial decision. The newsroom treats human-centric stories as core news — not fluff.

The results: It worked. Open rates increased, engagement time grew and there were more positive responses coming from readers. And The Globe continued to do great journalism.

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Understanding audiences and algorithms in 2026: An overview in the age of AI

The brilliant Clara Soteras, a news SEO and audience growth consultant, covered the state of Google and publishing, reminding publishers that we must continue to lean into search, but think about it more holistically. She discussed the need to consider multimodal and multiplatform search, too.

Google is still the top channel of referral for many publishers by a large share. Publishers should focus on a niche market versus a volume market, and lean into their audience, community and core product.

Clara also said now is the time for creators on Discover, as more Twitter/X and Instagram content from influencers is surfaced in the feeds than ever. She says publishers should consider building a strategy around their high-value and marketable journalists and writers who show up prominently on these platforms.

Multimodal and multiplatform search was a through-line, as Clara urged publishers to think beyond Google. Consider all the ways and plates people search (by text, voice or image) and where (Google, Instagram, TikTok, etc.).

With this, the regular KPI of page views needs to go, Clara says. Focus on opportunities to connect with your core audience and be an authority on a topic or niche.

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Insights and solutions: How newsrooms can reach young audiences

Many publishers yearn to reach younger audiences, specifically Gen Z as they enter the workplace. Rahim Jessani, the founder of Bottom Up Media, and Sofia Bliss-Carrascosa from the Knight Foundation explained it simply: digestibility is what makes younger people consume the news they need.

The speakers referenced a poll that suggests 51 per cent of Gen Z are still willing to engage with and pay for news, but publishers need to show up where they already are. Gen Z are on live streams, in the comments sections and on social media platforms — and hanging out in real life.

“Make time for this,” Rahim says, and consider ways to connect with them on a parasocial level. Rahim does a regular weekly live stream, where he plays Fortnite and talks about the news. He will sometimes bring a journalist who is an expert on the topic onto his live stream, too. At one point, someone asked him what is a publisher, and he did live playing Fortnite and having someone on to explain the answer.

Build for platforms you are on and know your audience, Rahim says. Include Gen Z in those conversations in your newsrooms, too. Don’t make them under-covered or under-represented, and allow personal value to come through the content. “Quality” journalism is still quality — it just changes to digestibility, authenticity and relatability.

Metrics that matter for newsrooms

Newsrooms often fall into the trap of “vanity metrics,” measuring what is easy rather than what matters. To truly understand your audience, avoid these three common pitfalls, say Abbey Gingras and Sophie Ho of News Revenue Hub.

Vanity metrics: High page views or increased story output don’t measure success if they can’t answer the “so what?” question.
Misalignment: Often, different teams have different goals. Or, they have competing goals. Without clear, consistent objectives, it’s impossible to measure success.
No context: Dashboards aren’t decisions and they don’t answer the, “is this good?” question. Without benchmarking against your own past performance or industry peers, a “10 per cent growth rate” is just a number without meaning.

A metric should answer the essential question: Are we moving our organization in the right direction? Measurement should drive decisions about what editorial efforts you prioritize, fund or stop doing.

To put this into practice:

Edit down your metrics, picking just one or two north star numbers.
Set a cadence for reporting. Daily reporting should focus on tactical metrics, weekly on performance and monthly on strategy.
Compare smartly. Start with your past performance, then your peers, then industry-level data.

How you compare the progress of your team or organization against a clear benchmark really matters. Context matters more than comparison.

What we learned about Reddit

While Reddit might not drive massive traffic, it’s great for community building and engagement, making it a high-priority platform for publishers. Many ONA sessions focused on Reddit. Here are some of the highlights.

Reddit is where people can find a human perspective behind the headlines. It attracts users who aren’t on other platforms — but spend a lot of time on Reddit itself — creating opportunities for publishers to foster deep audience engagement.

That comes with an added responsibility: community is part of the job. Publishers should check with moderators before posting to a group (or ask for guidance), confirm a story has not already been posted (using the Reddit Pro dashboard) and be ready to engage with (and respond to) comments in the forum.

Publishers should be generous with the number of stories shared and find ways to invite the community in. For example, when posting paywalled content, aim to use a gift link or post several paragraphs of the opening text. Share your content with geographically- and topically-relevant subreddits (local communities are especially active).

Reddit’s communities have a collective memory. Subreddits will remember AMAs (Ask Me Anything chats) from big names and players even years later. This helps build loyalty.

Some key facts about Reddit

Reddit has seen a 22 per cent YoY growth;
Most Reddit users continue to engage anonymously;
More than half of people in the U.S. visit Reddit weekly;
A large share (39 per cent) of Reddit users are not on Instagram;
Reddit is a unique platform in that users post — and discuss — your content for you.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Express is hiring a Senior Audience Editor (London, U.K., hybrid).
The i Paper is hiring a Head of Audience (London, U.K., hybrid).
The Podglomerate is hiring a Marketing Manager and Senior Marketing Manager (U.S., remote).

Do explainers still work? The experts discuss

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:21:11 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, reporting from the Online News Association conference in beautiful, windy Chicago! We’re presenting our learnings on how to build a side hustle while having a 9-5 — without losing your mind (or personal life)!

This week: Do explainers still work? With Google’s AI summaries taking up more of the search results page, answering top-of-the-funnel questions — and perhaps this prediction — we wanted to ask the experts: is there still value in journalism that answers the W5?

Our all-star panel (the best of the best!) includes Alexia LaFata, Senior SEO Manager with experience at New York Magazine, The Verge, Polygon and more; AI and News Discovery SEO Strategist Louisa Frahm, as well as Vivienne Goizet, Editorial SEO and AI Project Lead.

Let’s get it.

WTF is SEO?: Explain in your own words what an explainer is.

Alexia LaFata: An explainer is a piece of content that boils a topic down into the essentials and explains it for an audience. That’s my one sentence description. There is a lot more to say, but in one sentence that’s what I would say.

Louisa Frahm: I firmly believe that an explainer is a simple and straightforward piece of content that is objective in nature. It’s really trying to get to the heart of what you’re talking about without beating around the bush. You’re getting to the meat and potatoes right away and breaking it down into simple-to-understand terms that can appeal to a wide audience with a wide range of backgrounds.

Vivienne Goizet: It’s a longer content piece, like a glossary entry or something. It really explains a topic from a variety of angles, not just one perspective. It’s not just like an encyclopedia entry.

WTF is SEO?: With the changes that we’ve seen to Google lately — AI Mode, Google Zero, chatbots, etc. — do explainers still work for publishers?

Alexia LaFata: I think when you interrogate the word “work,” you can have different answers to this question. Do explainers “work” in the sense that you’re going to get the same amount of gangbusters search traffic you might have gotten from one piece a couple of years ago? I don’t think so. The search results landscape has changed so much. There are so many options for users to click that would satisfy their intent, and that one explainer may not be the thing they want.

But, do I think explainers are still really essential for the coverage of any news topic? Yes.

When you’re thinking about establishing your topical authority around a subject, and being present in all of the essential conversations for a topic, absolutely. I think it’s even more crucial now to write explainers that target those topics your audience trusts you with, so that you are showing up on those search results pages.

I think this is a moment for long-tail keywords as well. In the past, we used to be able to do one of those giant explainers that would cover every part of a topic. It was really broad for search intent. But now, honing in on exactly what your target audience is looking for via those long-tail keywords and writing explainers for them is so valuable, especially if you’re choosing topics that the Large Language Models (LLMs) haven’t had time to learn about yet. You’re getting in that space before it’s easily summarized or before the information disseminates throughout the internet.

These explainers also do well in Google Discover. I think publishers forget about Discover for explainers. So even more of a reason to target those really specific, unique long-tail queries is to have value in Discover.

I also think explainers are still essential for your brand. They’re essential for your link equity — how you’re able to link all the different pieces of content that you write around a topic. You need explainers to link. If you just cover a topic once, you won’t have that nice web of content to show Google and users that you actually do cover this topic comprehensively as part of your brand.

You definitely can’t not do explainers just because of the risks of AI. You still need to think about them in terms of your holistic news strategy.

Louisa Frahm: First off, I second everything Alexia said. I believe that explainers still have a place in this AI landscape that we’re in. I’m going to throw it out there because it’s always in the industry all the time: is SEO dead? We hear about this all the time. It’s like, “is SEO dead?”

I’m going to address it through the lens of explainers because while I firmly believe that SEO is not dead and we all still should have jobs, I do think that certain principles and practices that previously worked for SEO have started to fade away and aren’t as effective anymore.

One of those things is evergreen explainers that used to exist where it was “set it and forget it.” You create this explainer, it can just drive traffic without being frequently updated. That is fading into the past.

Explainers are absolutely still a necessity, but the way you treat them is changing with AI. If you want to improve your odds of appearing in those search features when people are searching during those newsy windows, you need to prioritize building the right content library, being very familiar with it and being very closely in tune with the news cycle of your brand.

You need to know when to go in and refresh those explainers, getting them back in front of readers at the right time. That way, you’re sending that freshness signal as well over to Google to improve your odds of appearing. I would stress that the updates process has been really critical.

Also, this AI era of search that we’re in, multimodal search is where it’s at, right? Search isn’t just defined by the first page of Google anymore. Search isn’t dead because people are still searching for things online, but the scope of it and where you reach your readers has really changed.

Performance isn’t only defined by, “how did you show up on the first page of Google?”

This can widely vary depending on what your brand is, but that could be things like your app, newsletters, social media channels and Reddit. Alexia brought up Google Discover. That’s another important place. The nature of getting the most out of your explainers is absolutely shifting, but the need for them has never gone away. It’s your surefire way to really elevate your E.E.A.T in a time when inaccuracies run amok. You really want to be presenting yourself as that legitimate resource to readers.

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WTF is SEO?: Given this new era, what adjustments do publishers need to think about, consider and implement right now in order to make explainers still really work for them?

Vivienne Goizet: I strongly believe that we’re going from just publishing an article and people can consume it, to more how we allow people to interact with the article.

For example, if you have an article that explains what ETFs are, and you have answered all the questions, a person has more questions. Another article they want to read should be linked in it, or you have some form of chatbot that they can ask about the article. If you start implementing those now, and making it an experience, explainers will actually be able to drive more traffic. And, the traffic that comes from Google will be more valuable because people stay longer on the site. You have more engagement from the visitors.

Alexia LaFata: There are so many SEO best practices that folks should have been following that I think are just going to become even more essential now. For example, having an explainer that leverages subheads is going to be even more crucial, because already people are reading on their phones all the time. Sites need to be mobile first. It’s intimidating to read giant walls of text; you have to break it down for people to easily consume your content. And that is even more important for AI, so that AI can really understand what your content is about.

Framing content for the human reader is essential and will help get your SEO suggestions across to editors as well. Speaking as a former editor, I understand the value of really centring that searcher, that reader, in SEO recommendations. And the humans in this AI era are crucial, too, because humans are still searching.

I also think freshness is key for maintaining trust. Louisa mentioned this, but setting it and forgetting never really worked. Depending on the topic, you always needed to keep an eye on the competitive landscape for whatever keyword you were targeting and make sure that you were staying relevant in search results. But now, due to even more competition, you need to illustrate you’re really up to date on your news topic more frequently. Having a dashboard to keep track of all those pages is essential.

Topical authority is also still important. Having a hub page, a landing category page that surfaces all your different kinds of content about the topic you’re covering, including the explainer, is even more essential. If the goal of explainers now is to illustrate that topical authority, you really need to illustrate it across the board and for your whole brand.

Finally, Vivienne touched on this too, but having something else for people to do on the page is key. I do think qualified user stats about how people use AI search are real. I have found that people are extremely qualified when they come from these chatbot interfaces and AI search. So, can you give somebody something else to do when they land on the explainer? Is there a newsletter they can sign up for? Is there a subscription they can explore and sign up for?

Whatever the extra step is, this is key to do because that will give you an extra KPI. This era of news journalism is so dependent on ad revenue. And we did volume for the sake of volume. I think we need to alter our definition of success in many ways with SEO. Having that extra step, that extra KPI, helps all of us continue to illustrate the value of SEO.

Louisa Frahm: I totally agree with all of it. Off what Alexia was just saying, the way that we define how this type of content performs is really shifting.

I think we need to be reshaping what defines success. Even if you are making it into those modules, the click-through rate isn’t there. Trust and having brand visibility are an increasingly important metric; just overall brand visibility in different channels. And that relates back to multimodal search, how you need to be anywhere and everywhere that your readers are consuming content.

I’ve been trying to provide positive case studies to my stakeholders showing trends and that we are providing that information to readers in the windows when they need it is extremely important.

We have to consistently think about shaping that conversation correctly to minimize panic and make it clear that this is still helping our brand and elevating our brand. This is also hopefully encouraging long-term loyalty with our readers. Because that’s what we want — repeat visitors, people coming to us directly.

That loops in another evolution of search in this mix: personalization. That’s becoming a bigger thing in search. Now, we have preferred sources in Top Stories. If you are that source in AI Overviews and maybe popping up more in Top Stories, people may select you as a Preferred Source. That’s only going to help you more.

And finally, we all have to be in the same sandbox. For a long time, SEOs in newsrooms were kind of like in our own sandbox and [other teams are] in their own sandbox over there. They are like, maybe we’ll come in and play with you, but we really have our own thing over here. But that’s not optimal anymore. You have to all be in the same sandbox and you have to all be playing together.

I’ll say it again: multimodal search is mixed up in everything. When you look at a search results page now, it could be Reddit, it could be YouTube, it could be anything.

I would really stress to anyone in a newsroom, if you’re still getting that pushback for separation, we have to really be vigilant about making it clear this is no longer optional. For our survival as brands, we need to be interconnected. That collaboration element is essential. You need to be on the same page and be employing strategies that complement each other.

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WTF is SEO?: How do you think publishers should think about explainers? And in 2026, what makes a good explainer?

Alexia LaFata: Consider that long-tail keyword pool as the first step in making a good explainer. Make sure you’re really targeting the topics that your audience would know you for. That will increase your chances of getting clicks and engagement on those stories. And Discover is key, because usually those long-tail searches are a little more interesting, a little more detailed and they’re going to be surfaced to folks that have those interests in their Discover feed.

Leverage subheaders. Use opportunities to break up big pieces of text whenever you can.

We talked a lot about multimodal search, too. If there is an opportunity to create a video component for an explainer, that’s great. Videos can be more valuable for certain kinds of content in the news space. Depending on the explainer, if there’s a chance to create something fresh that could be surfaced across another channel — social media, YouTube, whatever it is — that’s only going to add to your potential to surface in search results. You’re killing two birds with one stone there. So, find opportunities to rework content for another channel.

Finally, understand that the value that explainers have has changed, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean they’re less valuable. It just means we have to think about them differently. We have to not put all of our eggs in our explainers. We have to treat them as part of the overall ecosystem of how we’re covering a story, as opposed to the thing in isolation that is going to save our SEO strategy. That has changed, and the landscape is going to continue to shift and change.

Vivienne Goizet: I love what you said about the overall ecosystem because I think that is the way to go. We are talking so much about what will save us from AI. It will be that you have an established brand. We are all working for amazing brands, but when it comes to explainers, we have to think, what does my brand really stand for? What are we the topic authority on? And then make explainers that cover everything about it so people and Google and the whole internet knows we are the authority on the matter.

Louisa Frahm: You have to prioritize your audience. Like, this era is scary. There’s a lot of uncertainty. But if you prioritize the needs of your audience and you get to know them on a deep level and you’re really in tune with them within the particular news cycle of the beats that you cover, that’s what makes a good explainer. That gives it its evergreen appeal. It’s something they can search for at any time. A topic that kind of resonates across the board, but then when breaking news hits, it can be quickly refreshed and become even more important.

I’ve just seen time and time again that those end up being the most successful: where it was very well done on an evergreen basis, where it could have appeal throughout an entire season, but then when there is breaking news, it can be refreshed and show that in-house expertise.

And again, back to multimodal. I love what was previously said about hitting every single channel, like creating different versions of it. We just have to think bigger and better. We have to think that much bigger as SEOs.

We’re not just SEO people anymore. We’re audience people now. And I think that’s the name of the game.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Forward is hiring a Deputy Director of Audience (New York, N.Y., hybrid)
The Forward is hiring a Social Video Producer (New York, N.Y., hybrid).
Citycast is hiring an Audience Development Manager (Salt Lake City, U.T., hybrid).
The Telegraph is hiring a Head of Community (London, U.K.).

Google news and updates

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:21:44 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, wondering where the heck March went. Shelby is currently in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida for a leadership program, but made sure to see the Toronto Blue Jays play their final spring training game in Dunedin. Bucket list item, check! Meanwhile, Jessie is back from a busy work trip to NYC (but don’t worry, I still made it to a slew of book and stationary stores, and spent $14 on three — yes three! — chocolate-covered dates). Time — and us, apparently! — never stops.

This week: A recap on Google news and updates, plus some of the (many) reports we’ve seen out in the world about the state of publisher traffic. There’s a lot swirling around right now. Let’s dive into some of it.

Next week: We will be in Chicago for the Online News Association conference! We are speaking on Monday about sustaining a side hustle! Send us a note if you want to grab a coffee! ☕

Ah, all the possibilities of an empty Google tab. Credit: Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE RECAP

Google runs experiment replacing news headlines with potentially AI-generated versions

What happened: Google confirmed it is testing replacing site-written headlines with AI-generated versions in organic Search results in blue links. Google spokespeople told The Verge this is part of a “narrow” test that is not yet approved for wider use. They said the goal is to identify content on a page that’s useful to readers and better match the query to the title. So far, it does not appear to be happening to Top Stories headlines.

In the example below, Google replaced the original headline (Oversensitive and overreactive: what is nervous system dysregulation and how can it be resolved?) with a truncated version (Nervous system dysregulation – Oversensitive and overactive).

Screenshot showing the search results link for a story from The Guardian with a rewritten headline.

In the example below, Google replaced The Verge’s full headline (I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything) with a 27-character version.

Screenshot showing the search results link for a story from The Verge with a rewritten headline.

Why it matters: Google tweaking titles is not new. They’ve cut headlines based on pixel width in search results, or cut headlines at/before punctuation (like a colon) before.

However, these AI-generated headlines could undermine efforts by editors to write titles that are accurate, enticing and properly reflect the reporting. As Lousia Frahm wrote on LinkedIn, if a headline’s meaning or accuracy is changed, the “long-term audience trust will be compromised.”

Google showing AI Overviews for breaking news queries

What happened: Industry expert Glenn Gabe reported seeing AI Overviews surfacing for breaking news queries. It appears to be happening more frequently, even pushing the Top Stories box down on SERPs.

The mobile SERP for the query “aj greer connor zary” surfaces an AI Overview, video carousel and “what people are saying” social panel. No top stories news box was visible.

The good news: Publisher links are very prominent in the AI summary, unlike earlier examples that did not have any citations.

The bad news: As clear in this example, publisher visibility on Google Search is decreasing by the moment, and since AIOs negatively impact click-through-rates, publishers will see fewer visitors from the platform.

Why it matters: In May 2025, Google’s own vice-president of news partnerships, Jaffer Zaidi, said at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress that AI Overviews are “purposefully not triggered for hard news queries.”

This meant publishers were safeguarded — or “safe-ish,” as friend of the newsletter Barry Adams put it — from the invasion of AI summaries in news-based results. And even back in 2024, Google said there were “strong guardrails” in place for news and health topics, saying AIO summaries wouldn’t surface for those terms.

This is now clearly not the case.

Screenshot from Press Gazette article that includes the comments from Zaidi that AIOs are “purposely not triggered for hard news queries.”

Some “soft news” queries were already triggering AIOs at a high level — especially those around evergreen or long-term news events like the Ukraine war. The increase in AIOs for new breaking news terms is another threat to publisher traffic.

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Search traffic is falling for some publishers, according to a Chartbeat study

What happened: Smaller publishers — those with less than 10,000 daily page views — are experiencing the biggest traffic declines in the era of AI, falling by as much as 60 per cent, a recent Chartbeat report found.

The study, which looked at broader trends with search, social and AI across 4,000+ sites, found a 6 per cent decline in 2025 from 2024 in the average number of weekly page views. (This is within the normal range for traffic fluctuation.)

Medium (10,000–100,000 daily page views) and large (more than 100,000 views) publishers have experienced traffic declines from traditional search engines at different rates.
Medium-sized sites fell 47 per cent, while large outlets fell 22 per cent. It’s likely this is due to higher direct traffic and brand awareness.

Why it matters: Publishers — especially small outlets — need to rely less on external platforms to deliver consistent traffic. Outlets need to build direct relationships with readers, prioritizing on-platform engagement.

Google responses to the CMA’s consultation on potential requirements for Search

What happened: In response to proposals put forward by the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Google said the company is working with the organization to ensure the Search requirements for the digital market rules promote “fairness and choice while protecting user experience.”

Google outlined three ways it can “best serve the British public”:

Keep Search results fair and useful: Google says it designed its ranking systems to show the most “relevant highest-quality results for your query,” and that some third-party proposals “could expose our systems, and thus our users, to manipulation and abuse.” Google says these proposals would make it harder to fight spam and slow down improvements.
Make it easy to choose your favourite services: Google says a frequent pop-up prompting users to choose their favourite search engine would be invasive. They propose a “less intrusive, permanent central switch” in the device’s settings.
Give publishers even greater control: Google maintains that “helping people web content remains central” to their approach. As a result, the company is developing further updates to the controls to let sites specifically opt-out of generative AI features in Search.

Why it matters: The requirements could set a precedent across the globe. Google is eager to get ahead of any impact on its market share, so indications that the company is willing to make adjustments to AI opt-out is extremely notable.

And while Google also said features like AI Overviews “make links to sources more prominent,” the user behaviour still does not encourage a click through to the publisher. These rules may impact how Google approaches links in AIOs.

Other Google news and updates

Mordy Oberstein: Google is testing a new “Google News Showcase” label in Discover. It’s similar to how Discover treats Twitter/X posts on the platform.
Matt G. Southern: Google is making AI Mode’s Personal Intelligence free for users in the United States.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Athletic is hiring a Director, Data and Analytics (Remote).
Indiegraf is hiring a Publisher Success and Enablement Lead (Remote, B.C.).
The New Yorker is hiring a Senior Director of Audience Development and Analytics. (New York, N.Y.).
Warner Bros. Discovery is hiring a Director of Business Development (New York, N.Y.).
Bloomberg is hiring a U.S. Audience Editor (New York, N.Y.).

Even more recommended reading

🤖 Mike Anderson: “We improved keyword rankings for our blog by 34 per cent in 3 weeks.”
🗞️Benjamin Mullin, Erik Wemple and Katie Robertson: How Jeff Bezos upended The Washington Post.
🧩 Madeleine White: Spektrum’s evolution of audience segmentation and testing.
🚦Danny Goodwin: Yahoo’s CEO says the biggest threat to web traffic is AI Mode.
📓 Crystal Carter: What is prompt tracking?

What did you think of this week’s newsletter?

(Click to leave feedback.)

Catch up: Last week’s newsletter

Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.

Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley

Paywalls: Expert tips for technical and editorial SEO

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:21:09 GMT

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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from the INMA Subscriptions Summit in Toronto! Against a backdrop of AI and the changing Google ecosystem, we talked about whether or not SEO is still worth the investment (spoiler: we think it is!).

This week: Paywall SEO! We recently teamed up with Harry Clarkson-Bennett and Barry Adams for a masterclass on paywalls. The session was so insightful and informative that we’re sharing some of our favourite learnings. The full recording, slides and a tipsheet from the masterclass are also available for purchase (use WTF10 at the checkout for a discount).

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Let’s get it.

THE HOW TO

Editorial strategy for paywalls

Paywalls can have a negative impact on your site because of engagement signals like Navboost (which takes into consideration users interaction data, like bounce rate when someone hits a paywall). Paywalled stories also have a shorter shelf life in Top Stories due to this.

Behaviourally, readers also learn which sites have paywalls and learn not to click. For these reasons, publishers must paywall content effectively and strategically.

Effective editorial SEO with a paywall is all about value: knowing what your readers want to know, but can’t find anywhere else.

Consider access rules that vary by channel. Readers who arrive from a high-intent platform like search should encounter more friction than those who arrive from social. Consider different rules for each section or desk, too (i.e., business and investing readers are more niche than entertainment readers, and may have a higher propensity to pay).

The paywall journey is essential. It’s how readers go from the first entry point of your brand to becoming a paid reader.

This could start with a free, non-gated piece of content, like a live blog or explainer. From that top-of-the-funnel piece, link to locked, high-value content (like The Athletic’s The Beast or The Globe and Mail’s Most Livable Cities projects). Linking from free to premium content drives people to consider value. It shows readers the breadth of your coverage, creates a second click, pushing them closer to converting.

News SEOs need to work with colleagues in product and engineering to ensure the registration CTAs are clear, effective and technically sound.

Testing is crucial. Test, test, test — and adjust your paywall strategy based on your learnings.

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Technical considerations for paywalls

When it comes to technical SEO for paywalls, there are several considerations, including choosing the right way to implement the paywall (client- or serve-side) and having proper structured data.

There are two technical implementations for paywalls. They’re either client-side (in the browser via JavaScript) or server-side (in the server before the page loads for the reader).

Both options have upsides. Client-side rendering is easier to implement, whereas server-side implementation provides a watertight paywall to limit tech-savvy users trying to circumvent the gate.

However, they both have limitations, too. Server-side rendering is more challenging to implement and less flexible, while client-side rendering paywalls often have page speed and CLS issues. Ultimately, knowing what paywall to pick — and ensuring it is technically sound — is a subjective investment for your organization.

The most common issue with publisher paywalls is not having the correct structured data.

Publishers need to correctly use JSON-LD schema and proper CSS to mark paywalled content.

The attribute “isAccessibleForFree” needs to be set to “False”;
Pages must have a specific CSS selector (i.e., a tag like “premium-content”) to signal what sections are paywalled;

The correct implementation of this markup enables Google to properly crawl your content. Without it, the gate is less effective and could cause ranking issues.

Ask your technical SEO questions

The business case for paywalls

There are four primary reasons a publisher would implement a paywall: generate consistent revenue, allow for collection for first-party data, improve advertising value and force effective — sometimes ruthless — prioritization within an organization.

Paywalls are not about growing your readership. They are a value extraction tactic.

A paywall trades for known value. Reach can often be unreliable; some stories or months drive enormous traffic because of the news cycle, then drop off dramatically. The known value of paywall revenue is much more consistent. Trading scale for stability ensures publishers can build sustainable, long-term businesses.

Subscriber revenue is more valuable to publishers than any other stream because it is predictable, sustainable and less prone to platform fluctuations (like those on Google, Facebook, Twitter and countless other referrers).

While reach has long been a key metric for publications, a new, a custom north start metric can replace it and add a unique value for readers. The metric should include key pillars like content and subscription quality, retention and subscription growth, engagement and whether or not readers are developing a habitual relationship to your outlet.

However, this shift requires your outlet to think critically and provide real value in the lives of your readers.

Without that, people will not convert; or if they do convert, they will be more likely to churn.

Trade reach for revenue

The bottom line: How a paywall is implemented will vary among publishers and their business goals. News SEOs must ensure the paywall is technically sound — especially with the right structured data — and is supported by an effective editorial strategy built around the organization’s business goals.

#SPONSORED - The Classifieds

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

The Associated Press is hiring an Audience Data Strategist (New York, N.Y.).
The Times is hiring an Audience Editor (News and World) (London, U.K.).
The New York Times is hiring an Audience Editor (Washington, D.C.).
The Atlantic is hiring a Senior Associate Editor focused on Community (Washington, D.C.).

Ask a News SEO: Deborah Carver

WTF is SEO? — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:21:41 GMT

Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from busy weekends! Jessie spent equal time quilting and basking in the first sunshine of the season while Shelby got her annual haircut, removing more than six inches and a lot of baggage. Spring! We love her.

This week: Ask a News SEO with Deborah Carver! We talked about all the ways search is in flux, getting into the weeds of the pillars of brand building for publishers and the importance of social deep mining. Plus: why publishers need to focus on being more human.

Let’s get it.

THE INTERVIEW

WTF is SEO?: What are your thoughts on the state of search for publishers right now?

Deborah Carver: It is absolutely in flux, which is not something I would have said five years ago. I chose SEO over paid media in my career just because it’s slow. It doesn’t change quite as often — SEO changes over a course of about five years.

If you look at the history of what Google’s been doing, it’s not that it all follows in a trajectory, but the past three years have obviously been huge with chatbots coming onto the scene.

In the past year, at least personally, my search behaviour changed from Google-only to Google and Claude — as far as where I find information, like if I’m doing research for a client or writing a newsletter. I will often go to Claude to find some sources that Google’s not going to show me.

That’s the biggest advantage of chatbots: you can instruct them to ignore marketing websites and only show publisher websites.

There’s definitely this new added behaviour on top of all the other news behaviours that we have built over the past 20 years. But, none of the old behaviours are really going out of style. It’s just one more thing people are doing. This will change more, but it’s people who are information-seeking — like the typical news consumer — and curious. They’re going to more sources: a news feed, social feed, [Google] Discover or a chatbot. It’s not just going through the blue links [on Google].

As a publisher, having a clear brand will continue to be extremely important. The brand of the publisher itself seems to matter more than the general idea of journalism or publishing when people are trying to find trusted sources.

WTF is SEO?: Brand is something that we’ve talked a lot about. If you’re a publisher who wants to become a known brand on search and in the AI ecosystem, what are the pillars to invest in?

Deborah Carver: Having a consistent brand message that can last for years. Investing in that message and researching what will resonate with your audience. Having that message in all of the channels where you distribute content.

If I’m on Instagram and I see a Minnesota Public Radio post, I know it’s MPR because of the way it looks. That’s the physical branding. Then, the words that we use to describe our brands on About pages and [social] profiles. If a consumer is trying to find stable information, it is the same no matter what channel you’re looking on. You can adapt it for word counts and for social behaviour, but it’s mostly the same consistent message across the board. That’s number one.

Publishers want to jump on the newest thing. They want to be present in AI (although, I don’t know how many publishers are actually saying that); but they want to be present on this new channel. But then you forget that people still use your website every day. I don’t think there’s a day I haven’t gone to The New York Times since I was 25. I’m going to be in the nursing home like, “let me see the website.”

There are always going to be new ways of consuming information. But people — especially with news — like their habits. It’s about making sure that we’re not jumping on new things that alienate our existing audience, because that audience is the best representative of our brand.

The best kind of referral is word of mouth. Links are great, but it really is the audience perception of your brand. What do they do and who do you not want to lose?

One of the things that happened with The Washington Post is they changed their brand entirely and alienated their existing audience base that they’d just spent a lot of money gathering.

Be consistent and empathetic to the fact that your audience of news consumers are often really busy people trying to find information. Make sure you’re not losing that audience with new channels. Show your audience what’s most important and make sure that’s coming through on all channels.
News brands need to be very attentive to the fact that there is so much information. We’re all trapped in our algorithmic feeds and it’s up to news publishers to counter that.

I think publishers being a stable source of truth and a stable brand — that’s the long play.

That comes from consistency, listening to what your audience needs and structuring your content so your audience can understand that you’re acting in their best interest and not in the algorithm’s best interest.

WTF is SEO?: How does listening to your readers fit into the bigger audience strategy?

Deborah Carver: I do a lot of social listening and UX [user experience] research for brands. For audience research and social listening, you want it to be triangulated in some way.

Having focus group interviews with audience members and stakeholders once a year to ensure audience perception aligns with stakeholder goals is really critical.

I still do a lot of search listening and mining for my clients. I deep-dive into Google Ads data to see how search terms are changing around broader trends. I look at how people are finding a website via Google Search Console and identify other iterations of those keywords to understand not only how people find the site, but how they are interacting with news.

I’m a big fan of Google Trends for up-to-the-minute info and to monitor the conversation to see what has changed in an anonymous, aggregated way.

While eavesdropping on social media is great, having that anonymous data from Google provides more grounding. Social media conversation is very of the moment, whereas keyword data reveals the things people wouldn’t necessarily say in public. You search for things you don’t post on social media because you’re trying to figure out what is going on.

I’ve worked with the Google Ads API for a long time, and I find it often provides better, more grounded data than some of the standard trend tools.

WTF is SEO?: What are examples of things publishers are doing well right now?

Deborah Carver: I’m going to use Minnesota examples because news here has been extremely important to our daily survival.

Local publishers have done well ensuring their headlines align first with the facts, and then with the trends. It’s about making sure the “truthiness” stands out. If you are a news consumer looking for unbiased, classic journalism reporting, you can find it. It aligns with the natural way people search: “I need to find these facts because they’re affecting me right now.”

The stability of truth remains when there’s a lot of other noise and information out there. Our communities in Minnesota are linking to each other; that’s worked for finding information. News sites like Sahan Journal, Minnesota Reformer and Racket are collecting each other’s good information and shouting out each other’s stories. They’re working together to create an information environment. It’s a huge differentiator and a way to surface information that is not dependent on an algorithmic feed.

The biggest opportunities right now are understanding who your audience is and how they want to find your information.

That may not align with everything we’re hearing as far as AI trends. But, you need to have a good assessment of your data and the data that your company owns — not what everybody else is saying.

Finally, having a good user experience. Make your site more reliable than Google AI Overviews. Make it a stable source of truth. Look at your website’s search experience, too. Are people finding the information that they need? Can you make it better? Are they searching for things that they’re not finding?

It is a relatively small percentage of users [using the internal search function], but it can diagnose some pretty large problems.

WTF is SEO?: What do you think is the biggest challenge going forward for publishers?

Deborah Carver: Balancing understanding who your audience is and who your audience could be.

Not just digital signals, but also mixing those with human signals. Maintain that brand along with a very authentic social network, where competing news publications within the ecosystem also support one another. It is a social network of sorts where the community works together to support good information.

News publishers are finding the ways to create those networks. That’s a bigger opportunity than trying to show up in AI search all the time. We’re in an era where there’s so much technology. It’s time to be more human. Finding community is what keeps you rooted and that’s what keeps readers coming back.

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THE JOBS LIST

Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.

NBCUniversal is hiring a Senior Manager, SEO & AI Search Strategy (New York, N.Y.)