Content SEO: What every news SEO needs to know
To kick off the new year, we're going back to basics. These are must-know content SEO concepts!
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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from a restful extended newsletter break. We love this newsletter so much — but we also love knitting, sewing, playing video games and sleeping in on Sundays. But all jokes aside, it’s nice to be back for another great year of Google shenanigans.
This week: The must-know content SEO concepts! As we kick off a new year, we’re going back to the basics.
We’ve compiled a list of everything a news SEO needs to know — which is so much that we decided to split it into two newsletters. Today, we cover the content SEO concepts and explain what they are, how they work and what Google says on the record about them. Did we overlook an important point? Write it in the comments.
We’re excited to be working with Indiegraf for a free webinar on writing headlines that rank! Join us Feb. 6th.
Our next community call is slated for Feb. 19th. Keep an eye on your inbox for the official invite.
Let’s get it.
THE 101
What to know about content SEO
For those of us working in a newsroom, content SEO is your primary focus. It centres on the content you publish and all the work behind getting your journalism to have high visibility on Google. Think: on-page SEO, topic authority, keywords, links, etc.
E.E.A.T
What it is: E.E.A.T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — is part of the quality guidelines used by Google's human raters to evaluate if search is providing helpful, relevant content in results.
Introduced as E.A.T. in 2014, Google added “Experience” in 2022 to better reflect the value of first-hand experience. E.E.A.T is doubly important for Your Money or Your Life content, topics that affect a person’s well-being.
How it works: E.E.A.T is not a direct ranking factor, but is a useful self-assessment framework for publishers looking to produce quality content.
What Google has said: “Trust is the most important member of the E.E.A.T family because untrustworthy pages have low E.E.A.T no matter how Experienced, Expert or Authoritative they may seem.”
Topic authority
What it is: A sibling concept of E.E.A.T, the topic authority system evaluates a number of signals to determine a site’s credibility and expertise on a subject. It’s an incredibly important signal for publishers in particular.
How it works: By producing content with strong E.E.A.T — and linking those stories together — publishers demonstrate strong topic authority. A contributing ranking factor, building and demonstrating topic authority improves reader trust and can boost rankings.
What Google has said: Publishers looking for topic authority should “provide great coverage about the areas and topics they know well.”
Evergreen and durable content
What it is: Evergreen content is journalism on a topic that does not change over a significant period of time because it is not tied to a single, short news event. It should drive consistent traffic, not be seasonal and answer the W5s or How questions.
Durable content requires updates more frequently than true evergreen (once per day on a fast-moving file). It also has a shorter shelf-life than evergreen as it is often tied to a news event and likely to lose relevance once the news cycle or tentpole event ends.
How it works: This content provides a baseline level of traffic to combat seasonal ebbs and flows. It requires updates, but the cadence of refreshes varies between durable and evergreen content. It should provide general information and guidance to readers that remains accurate as the news cycle evolves.
Keyword research
What it is: Keyword research is the process of uncovering and analyzing queries, questions and related topics readers are interested in on a topic, which is how they seek information on search.
How it works: Using keyword research tools, publishers can understand the audience's needs and tailor content to the questions readers are actively asking; in turn, that can boost search performance and expand the reach of your journalism.
Search intent
What it is: Search intent is the why behind a query. There are four types: navigational, commercial, transactional and informational. It’s part of how Google determines how to connect readers with the right content.
How it works: Considered a ranking factor, search intent informs the kinds of links Google will return in results. Aligning your content — the type, format, approach of what you produce — with the query’s intent will improve your chances of ranking and decrease your bounce rate.
What Google has said: “To return relevant results, we first need to establish what you’re looking for — the intent behind your query.”
Types of keywords
What it is: Keywords can be broken down by the type, which explains what their purpose and intent is. Search intent helps inform the type of keywords, but there are additional branches that can be parsed out to inform your keyword research.
How it works: There are many types of keywords (and this list is not exhaustive!):
The seed keyword is the topic or base keyword you are interested in. It is the starting point of your keyword research process, and usually one or two words.
The main-focus (or primary) keyword is the main phrase you are targeting for a given piece of content. Primary terms should be captured in headlines, URLs and in the body of a story.
Secondary keywords are supporting players. They provide additional detail and information for the primary term. These are related queries, which are used to find content on a specific topic, but not the main focus of your coverage. Capture secondary terms in the meta description, or as a section of an explainer.
Branded keywords are terms that include your website’s brand and is unique to your site’s domain. They are part of an organization-wide search strategy and are usually shortcuts to typing a website’s address into the browser bar.
Non-branded keywords are all the search terms that don’t reference your site or domain.
On-page SEO
What it is: On-page SEO is the work of optimizing individual pages (aka stories) to improve their chance of ranking on search.
How it works: Each on-page element can be optimized following best practices.
Headlines: The most important text on a page. Headlines should front-load relevant keywords and stay within the 70-90 character limit. There are up to five headlines Google cares about, each of which can be individually optimized.
Subheadings: Typically in an
<h2>tag, effective subheadings can rank on search, and should pull in secondary search terms and/or answer relevant queries. Google uses them to “better understand the content on the pages.”Meta descriptions: Used to provide additional information for the SERPs, meta descriptions can help drive the click-through rate for pages. These should be between 150-160 characters.
URLs: Keep URLs short and descriptive, and include main-focus keywords. Avoid special characters. In breaking news, don’t update a URL more than twice.
Images: Stories should carry an image in the correct format (generally jpegs) and size (small enough so the page loads in under 2.5 seconds). Image file names should be keyword focused; images should also have useful alt text.
Search volume
What it is: Search volume is the number of people searching for a specific keyword over a selected period of time, usually measured by months. It's one of the most important SEO metrics as it can be used to determine if there's enough interest in a topic that it warrants coverage.
How it works: Search volume is usually determined by third-party platforms or tools that scrape data from Google Keyword Planner, a tool that is part of the Google Ads platform, or Bing Keyword Planner. It is then provided as a metric to determine the overall difficulty to rank for a respective keyword.
The bottom line: The concepts in this newsletter are just the beginning of the complex field of SEO. Be sure to focus on what makes the most sense for your publication’s goals and needs.
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THE JOBS LIST
Audience or SEO jobs in journalism. Want to include a position for promotion? Email us.
Fox News is hiring a SEO Editor (New York. N.Y., hybrid).
The Toronto Star is hiring a Team Editor, Newsletter & Social (Toronto, Canada).
The Toronto Star is hiring a Digital Producer (Toronto, Canada).
RECOMMENDED READING
Google news and updates
🤖 Search Engine Land: Google’s market share has dropped below 90 per cent for the first time.
🤖 Barry Schwartz: Google has partnered with The Associated Press to provide more real-time data for its Gemini app.
🤖 Axios: Despite legislation requiring it, Google won’t add fact checks in its ecosystem in Europe.
🤖 Barry Schwartz: Google has updated its Manual Actions for News & Discover Policy.
Even more recommended reading
🤔 Roger Montti: Evidence surfaces indicating that Google detects AI-generated content within a specific context for search quality.
📉 Lily Ray: Looks like Reddit is dropping on search for the first time in more than a year of huge growth.
💡 Sarah Scire: Audience editors offer advice for “dispiriting” times in social and search.
🔍 George Nguyen: From the experts: 25 SEO tips for 2025.
🏆 Lily Ray: IndexWatch: SEO winners in Google U.S. Search for 2024.
💻 Aleyda Solis: How to integrate LLMs into your SEO workflow.
🪄 Genie Jones: Entity SEO: The guide to understanding what entities are and how to use Google’s tools to your advantage.
🍔 Marie Haynes: Using Gemini to get insight into your E.E.A.T.
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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
A brilliant resource for anyone getting into SEO (and a good reminder for everyone like me who's had too much time off 😅)