Technical concepts every news SEO needs to know
Must-know technical SEO concepts, including how Google works, what algorithm updates and ranking signals are, plus the value of backlinks for publishers.
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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back again! Just like Eminem, who gave millennials another reason to celebrate the 90s. We’re just nostalgic people, okay?
Jessie helped make a quilt sandwich in sewing class working on upcycling a sweater, and did a sauna/cold plunge circuit (unfortunately, health influencers are correct here: the ice bath is a gamechanger). Shelby ate many variations of seafood for three consecutive days and played the best board game ever. Lego combined with strategy? I’m hooked.
This week: Must-know technical SEO concepts. Following our content SEO guide last week, this edition explains core concepts like how Google works and ranking signals, as well as backlinks and other points of note. Add a comment if we missed something crucial.
We’re excited to partner with Indiegraf for a free webinar on writing headlines that rank!
Our next community call is slated for February 19 at 3 p.m. ET/8 p.m. GMT. Join us!
Let’s get it.
THE 101
What to know about technical SEO
Technical SEO is all about how your site works and how Google understands it. This discipline focuses on optimizing the crawlability of your site, metrics around page performance and more.
Crawling, indexing and ranking
What it is: How Google works. This is the three-step process Google uses to find all content on the internet, and determine what shows up in search results when a user hits “enter” on a query.
How it works: Google works in three stages: crawling (using automated programs, aka crawlers, to find pages that exist on the internet and understand their contents), indexing (where Google adds a page to its extensive library of items) and ranking (deciding which content should show up on search results when a reader inputs a query).
What Google has said: “Google Search works in three stages, and not all pages make it through each stage.”
Ranking factors
What it is: Factors Google considers when deciding what content should appear in Search results. There are so many (so. many.) factors that play into Google's myriad of ranking systems that inform search results.
How it works: Editors don't have much direct control over factors like domain authority, but can help identify concerns with page speed and mobile friendliness, while aiming to build up a backlink profile. Ranking factors editors do have control over include quality of content and freshness, topic authority and on-page SEO elements and more.
What Google has said: “Search algorithms look at many factors and signals, including the words of your query, relevance and usability of pages, expertise of sources, and your location and settings. The weight applied to each factor varies depending on the nature of your query.”
Algorithm updates
What it is: How Google attempts to update and refresh the search landscape by changing the systems that determine ranking. Google says this process is to provide "high standards of relevance and quality.” In recent years, the quality of results has caused frustration among everyday users, and the volatility of updates has prompted concern and frustration in the SEO industry.
How it works: Google makes thousands of changes to their ranking systems every year; some are small, and others are seismic. Google will announce major updates — for example the spam, core or the recent Helpful Content Update — but may not publicize smaller tweaks. Rollout for these major updates can vary from days to weeks and sometimes even months as Google makes its changes public.
What Google has said: “In general, most sites don't need to worry about core updates and may not even realize one has happened.”
Website architecture/site structure
What it is: The way a site is set up. Good website architecture makes it easier for Google’s robots to find, crawl and index your most important pages while interpreting E.E.A.T signals. This includes a homepage that reflects the priorities of the site, links to important pages, a navigation that includes priority categories and tags and access to all URLs in some way (aka no orphan pages).
How it works: Robots will crawl links from homepages and navigations and follow them to discover new content. Good site structure makes it easier for robots to ascertain the topic expertise of a site, determine its authority and rank its content higher in search results.
Internal linking
What it is: Internal links are hyperlinks that connect pages on your site together. Done well, it can help drive internal referral traffic. It’s also an important ranking factor — the more links pointing to a page, the more authority and value that page is perceived to have.
How it works: A link connects page A to page B (and B to C, and so on). Links tell search engines which pages are related and important (gauged by the number of links pointing to a URL). They also help crawlers understand the structure of your site. Redirects — 301 status code URLs that have moved destinations — can diminish a page’s link value.
What Google has said: “I think it’s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important” - Google’s John Mueller.
Backlinks
What it is: A link that connects site A (another news outlet) to site B (your site). Considered one of the most important ranking factors, an external source linking to your site is a sign of authority. Search engines use backlinks to signal importance, and will rate a page with a higher number of backlinks from credible sources better.
How it works: When an external site links to a URL on your site, it passes an extra level of authority Google recognizes and rewards (if the site is in good standing). It's an external endorsement/sign of credibility.
Backlinks power the "Highly Cited" label in Top Stories, too.
What Google has said: “It's important to clarify that any legitimate link building strategy is a long-term effort. There are those who advocate for short-lived, often spammy methods, but these are not advisable if you care for your site's reputation.”
Core Web Vitals
What it is: First launched in 2020, Core Web Vitals are a series of metrics that measure your site’s user experience. It evaluates page speed, interactivity and the visual stability of a page. The better the user experience, the better the page should perform in search.
How it works: The three metrics of CWV are Largest Contentful Paint (load time of main content), Interaction to Next Paint (interaction delay of a page), and Cumulative Layout Shift (the visual stability of your page). Google Search Console includes reports on each CWV metric; monitor for spikes as that indicates a problem on your site. “Perfect” CWV scores don’t really exist; prioritize an overall quality experience on your site for readers.
What Google has said: “We highly recommend site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search and to ensure a great user experience generally.”
Structured data
What it is: Structured data is a standardized way for providing “explicit clues” to search robots about the meaning or context of a webpage. It can provide all of the details for recipes, an author’s credentials, the rating for a review and more.
How it works: Structured data is written in a coded vocabulary that search engines can understand, interpret and surface “rich results” such as reviews and LIVE badges in SERPs. It's almost always written in JSON-LD. Most search platforms agree to follow structured data rules outlined on Schema.org.
What Google has said: “You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content.”
Duplicate and thin content
What it is: Thin content refers to URLs with negligible value (often tag, author or video pages with limited text or links), while duplicate content refers to pages that are too similar to other pages (often daily recurring templated files, regional variants or syndicate content).
How it works: Thin and duplicate content adds needless bulk to your site and splits traffic to multiple low-value destinations. Google can penalize URLs that don’t provide value. This content should be avoided.
The bottom line: The concepts in this newsletter, along with our last issue, help give you an understanding of the basic principles in SEO. Continue to elevate your knowledge by optimizing what you can and where it makes the most sense.
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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 Editorial director for newsletters (New York City, N.Y., hybrid).
Dotdash Meredith is looking for a writer to join the News and Deals team (NYC, N.Y.).
RECOMMENDED READING
Google news and updates
🤖 Google: The company updated its search quality raters guidelines document with many of the updates regarding spam policy.
🤖 Google also updated its site reputation abuse policy and manual actions section.
🤖 John Mueller: “Though sometimes ‘’doing SEO’ will cause a site more problems than not doing anything at all.”
Even more recommended reading
🧑💼 The Verge: Google agrees to crack down on fake reviews for UK businesses.
👎 NewzDash: SEO winners and losers from the presidential inauguration.
💸 WSJ: Substack advertising is turning writers into part-time sales reps.
💰 Ahrefs: 100 most expensive keywords for Google Ads.
⬆️ Gaetano Nino Dinardi: HubSpot has lost 80 per cent of its SEO traffic since March 2024.
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
Some sound concepts here Jessie and Shelby, super valuable for Substackers getting to grips with SEO! I would stress the importance of user experience and engagement too, something as a tech SEO, I find myself talking about more and more. Enriching your content with enticing headlines and interactive elements like quizzes and polls, good imagery, graphs, charts and video - so long as they don't distract from the purpose of the piece. Lastly, stay away where you can from things that take away from a good experience, like too many ads or anything popups!