I’m the only SEO in my newsroom — help!

Here, we give expert takes on working as the only SEO in a newsroom. Learn how to get buy-in, balance technical and content work, and communication best practices across the newsroom.

Apr 15, 2024

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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, counting down the minutes until I see Bruce Springsteen in Syracuse, New York (and get to pop into a Trader Joe’s for all those weird, delicious snacks only available in America). Will I faint? Will I scream? Will I fix my hair up nice and make myself look pretty? Will I haul all the everything but the bagel snacks back over the border? Yes. To all the above.

This week: Expert takes on working as the only SEO in a newsroom. I asked SEO professionals working at a variety of publications for their top tips and expert insights on getting buy-in for search, balancing technical and content SEO work, as well as communicating best practices across the newsroom.

📅 Mark your calendars! Join us on April 17 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET/4 p.m. to 5 p.m. GMT, for a lively chat all about building a career as a news SEO! Click for more information about our spring community call.

*How much coffee does the solo news SEO drink? Is it half the consumption of two people? No. It’s double. Photo by Steve Ding on Unsplash*

Getting buy-in for SEO and working with the wider newsroom

Every journalist cares about the visibility of their work. As solo news SEOs, tapping into that desire is a logical first priority. Do this by getting editorial support for your efforts.

Makena Rasmussen, Audience Growth Coordinator for Industry Drive, frames SEO as a “visibility tool” for getting more readers to a story. “Getting our newsroom to understand that they’re not writing for a Google algorithm, but an audience who use search engines really helped it click,” she explains.

Expert tip: Avoid language that suggests writing or taking action “for Google.” Instead, focus on people-first language — you are writing for an audience who use search to find information.

Ulrik Baltzer, SEO Manager at TV 2 DANMARK A/S, echoes the value of not mentioning the search giant. Before working as a news SEO, Ulrik worked as a journalist, so he gets “buy-in for SEO by not talking too much about SEO.” He is careful not to overburden reporters with too much information, but shows journalists how they can use basic principles in their daily workflow.

Steven Wilson-Beales, Head of SEO & Editorial Product for Global in London, prioritizes internal communication and providing support to the newsroom. He suggests talking to teams consistently about what is — and isn’t — working for search.

Expert tip: Ensure your recommendations align with broader objectives of the team, vertical or newsroom. Editors don’t just need insights — they need to be able to understand that information and how to apply it, says Steven. “Simply providing a dashboard and then walking away is a guaranteed recipe for failure.”

During Time Out's morning news meetings, Ella Jinadu, SEO Manager, reviews the previous day's stories to understand what is driving traffic and what content may need to be re-optimized or refreshed.

Expert tip: When stories on a particular topic are performing well, Ella explains the work that went into helping those articles succeed. And when a story on a topic isn’t doing well — but should be — she outlines ways to potentially improve traffic. This reinforces that, while not every SEO pitch will succeed, there’s always something to build on for next time.

That transparency, Ella says, “helps drum home the message that we’re all on the same side, which is particularly important when you have a limited SEO resource.”

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Maximize your impact by training your colleagues

Coaching is key to expanding SEO as a tool for your newsroom: Focus on training, finding your champions and celebrating successes.

Extensive newsroom training can help build up search expertise amongst writers and editors, and help you avoid burnout from trying to do everything all the time. Establish and present best practices to the newsroom and continue to iterate as necessary.

Expert tip: Avoid thinking about training as a quick fix or one-off effort. “You should work 1:1 with your colleagues on a consistent basis,” Louisa Frahm, SEO Director for ESPN, says. Training can help build a team of search pros — writers and reporters who can make SEO part of their workflow, too.

Find editorial allies to help maximize the impact of your training and efforts. Allies can be reporters who are interested in performing better on search, or editors who consistently see positive results from your feedback.

“With enough effort, you can establish a strong collective of SEO advocates who can back you up and help create a productive environment for long-term growth,” Louisa says.

Expert tip: Ensure you — the main representative for SEO in the newsroom — are a consistent cheerleader, says Louisa. When search tactics work, highlight that success. Each win is a chance to underscore the value of SEO and demonstrate why it's worth the investment.

Caryn Shaffer, Senior SEO Editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer, also emphasizes the value of celebrating success. She communicates search wins as they happen on Slack, which is useful for getting others interested in tactics that work to capture that search audience.

Make celebrating wins part of consistent internal reports, too. After every tentpole or significant breaking news event, write a report that highlights your successes. Those victories should include content ideas that were suggested by reporters you’ve worked with, or trained on Google Trends or other keyword tools. Identify things that worked and can be replicated in the future. The goal is a 360-degree feedback loop that shows you’re paying attention to everything the newsroom is doing, too.

The bottom line: Every reporter cares about their story being widely read. Demonstrate the positive impact of SEO and reframe it as a visibility tool to get reporters on board with your efforts.

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How do you prioritize content vs technical SEO work?

Prioritize content SEO first if you work for a smaller publication, and technical SEO if you are a bigger — or longer established — news outlet. Technical SEO, says Oleg Korneitchouk, News Publisher Consultant, is a function of scale — and can come after you demonstrate the initial value of SEO in the newsroom.

Show your worth as a solo news SEO by pitching stories, optimizing individual articles and enhancing E.E.A.T signals. Content SEO can produce results — i.e., traffic — in less time.

Technical SEO work is the foundation for great, long-term content SEO success, says Ryan Gosling, Pro Football Network’s Director of Search Intent and Strategy. “You need to get the foundation right before trying to build the rest of the house.”

Expert tip: If your outlet publishes a high volume of stories, it’s more likely technical improvements will move the needle. Smaller publishers with fewer stories can see a better return from focusing on content ideas and better on-page SEO.

For Ulrik, technical comes first. “If I landed a job somewhere else, my first order of business would be to look at how well the news organization is delivering its content from a technical standpoint,” he says. Once the site is not "dragging down the newsroom's journalist output," Ulrik says, then you can begin to change your focus.

Putting technical improvements first, of course, relies on having developer resources or the ability — and skill — to personally make site changes.

Expert tip: If you can’t make technical recommendations, content can be the lower-hanging fruit that delivers short-term wins. “Technical SEO is an investment which tends to be weeks- or months-long projects with moderate expectations,” Yunus Emre Oruc, Audience Development Editor at Middle East Eye, says.

Ella echoes this, saying that SEO experiments are executed more quickly in editorial (thanks to close, hard-earned personal relationships) than technical tests. “The things we want to try for SEO editorially are fairly quick to implement,” she says.

That said, ideally as a solo news SEO, you're working on both in tandem. Set clear expectations with all stakeholders about the timelines to see positive results.

Expert tip: Consider impact versus effort: Is your time better spent on technical or content SEO? The time you spend fighting over technical changes is time you're not planning editorial strategy for tentpole events, optimizing stories or designing experiments. Decide what demonstrates your value the best.

For example, Makena says that comprehensive news SEO training was the investment that enabled her to then focus on the big-picture, technical work. Makena is the only one who would spot structured data issues or opportunities to enhance the on-site experience. Having SEO training in place — so editors can make smart content decisions on their own — frees her time to focus on technical considerations.

As a solo news SEO, ask yourself: What is the work only I can do? From there, figure out what other work is taking your time and energy away from those efforts. If you’re the only person in the organization with SEO knowledge, that’s the first thing that should change. Raising the baseline of search comprehension is a worthwhile investment.

Expert tip: Strive to have everyone fluent in Google Trends and headline best practices so you can focus on higher-level work. Establish workflows that help free up your time and energy.

The bottom line: Smaller publishers should focus on content first, while bigger newsrooms should look to technical work. That said, balancing both is ideal, but requires clear timelines and resource allocation. Building SEO knowledge in the entire newsroom is always worthwhile. Make information-sharing part of your work.

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How are you communicating best practices?

Over-communicate best practices and establish workflows that support implementing those tactics on stories as much as possible.

Yunus looks at individual articles before publication, making use of a dedicated Slack channel where on-page optimization (headlines, subheadings, internal links, etc.) are discussed for each story before publication.

Expert tip: Keep key stakeholders — and the wider newsroom — informed on changes to your overall SEO strategy, and communicate broadly any changes to best practices. Internal audience reports are a great place to share lessons and reinforce standards.

“I put a lot of effort in translating data into easily understandable information the journalists can then use to make informed choices about topics to cover — and ways to cover them,” Ulrik says.

Caryn has made SEO training part of the introduction all new employees receive when they start at the Inquirer. She also hosts regular SEO office hours for all staff on specific topics. She compiles a report of search wins every week, which is shared on Slack and via email to the newsroom.

“The goal is to share our victories and circle back on how our SEO efforts have helped our journalism do well. The other goal is to help people learn more about what types of stories do well on various search platforms,” Caryn says.

Ella shares informal updates on key learnings daily at the morning news meeting. This helps ensure best practices filter out to the entire team, she says.

Meanwhile, Makena prioritizes really comprehensive best practices documentation, which empowers editorial to be independent and make informed decisions.

Documentation — including checklists for on-page SEO — means Makena can be less hands-on with each story, instead focusing on bigger projects or technical SEO. “I don’t need to give as much individual story guidance … we try to empower our managing editors to be able to make day-to-day SEO decisions and just rely on me for a final gut check or advanced guidance,” she says.

Ryan stresses the importance of working directly with reporters. “Far too often, people work in silos. We need to break those silos down and ensure that we are sharing our observations with the people impacted,” he says.

Expert tip: Ryan says to start a conversation with stakeholders to explain the why behind a recommendation. “More often than not, having that frank conversation and being open about the why behind the choices you are making will help both of you get on the same page,” he says.

The bottom line: There are many ways to incorporate SEO best practices into the newsroom. However, a through line is the value of regular collaboration, comprehensive training, solid documentation and an open dialogue between editors and reporters.