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- SODP Dispatch - 20 October 2023
SODP Dispatch - 20 October 2023
Evolving your helpful content standards for 2024 and beyond, Google News SEO guide updates + more, and more tips and news for digital publishers
State of Digital Publishing
October 20, 2023
Happy Friday!
Today, let’s discuss how to evolve your helpful content standards for 2024 and beyond.
Over the past two months, publishers have been slammed with 4 Google system and algorithm updates, particularly the Helpful Content Update (HCU) and core algorithmic update, resulting in traffic slippages across the board.
While my industry colleagues across the board have provided their winner and loser analysis on queries and niches, we’re still focusing and deep in the trenches, taking a similar stand that Mushfiq has shared in minimizing this for our clients and SODP.
So, friends, in the weekly Editor’s Note, I’m offering three main tasks you can do to work on the fly but also lead you to change your SEO paradigm and mindset for 2024.
1. Major task: Prune your content based on SERP/competitor-based traffic diagnosis
Don’t take the CNET approach of just deleting all articles that haven’t generated traffic in a defined period; instead, evaluate whether 1) the content dropped off entirely is outdated and simply needs an update and 2) whether the dead weight content you have no longer reflects what your website is today or 3) whether you need to remove the content from your site even though it is driving you some traffic.
Here’s where Ahrefs Top page report steps in. After filtering the results for traffic decline (as per the screenshot below), if you see across your and competitors’ sites that there’s been a hit on clusters that are down more than 60-70% in that single update, question whether that content will be helpful moving forward as it could weigh down other content and your top stories visibility sitewide.
This signal also means other sites across industries have overdone publishing this content for SEO/traffic gains. It is likely flagged by quality raters to provide precedence to traditionally prominent sites, i.e., celebrity bio articles published not only across entertainment but sports, finance and lifestyle publications, which now only people.com is ranking for.
If the traffic decline has been experienced for several months, then that is a sign of a technical site issue or the need for the freshness and relevancy of your content.
FROM STATE OF DIGITAL PUBLISHING
SEO
[UPDATED] GOOGLE NEWS SEO GUIDE 2023: BEST PRACTICES FOR NEWS PUBLISHERS
Google News should be the focus of any digital media and content publisher, given the traffic it drives to news sites every month.
It’s been some years since Google last provided a news traffic analysis, but in 2020 it said it sent “Google users to news sites 24 billion times” every month. This equates to more than 9,000 clicks per second.
While ascribing a potential monetary value to these clicks is challenging, global financial consultancy Deloitte attempted to do just that in a 2019 study. The report, which Google has even cited, estimates the value of this traffic for large publishers at €0.04-0.06 ($0.04-0.06) per click.
Given the multitude of changes since its launch in 2002, however, ranking in Google News search results requires a greater degree of expertise and finesse than ever before. For publishers, that means staying abreast of, and applying, the most up-to-date search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
Read on to learn more about Google News SEO best practices and why they need to be at the forefront of every editorial strategy.
DIGITAL PUBLISHING
WHAT IS A CONTENT CREATOR? THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF THE CREATOR ECONOMY
Content creators are an integral part of the modern digital ecosystem. Responsible for entertaining, educating and influencing, these individuals have given birth to the creator economy.
With over 200 million independent content creators, the global influencer market value is projected to reach $21.1 billion in 2023, up from $1.7 billion in 2016. Its value is on track to reach $24.1 billion by 2025.
Digital content creators have proliferated thanks to an unprecedented surge in demand for information. Not only does the average person spend around 6.5 hours per day online, but the number of social media users continues to grow steadily, hitting 4.76 billion in 2023.
It’s essential, however, not to equate content creators solely with social media influencers. The term content creator is broad and covers many different disciplines, including the social media space. Digital content creators can be bloggers, photographers, videographers, and podcasters.
Let’s look at what a content creator is, the different types of creators and the content they make, and what hopeful entrants need to know to succeed.
LEARN WITH SODP
OCTOBER OFFICE HOURS: VIDEO CONTENT CREATION
You still have time to register for the October edition of Office Hours.
Hosted by Emily Brennan, a video content expert at Ezoic, the 1-hour interactive session will cover:
✅ What makes video content creation successful
✅ How to set up Humix for organic video content distribution
✅ Content placement and monetization strategies with examples.
PUBTECH2023: REDEFINING THE LANDSCAPE OF DIGITAL PUBLISHING
Don’t miss out on PubTech2023 – a virtual event for digital publishing and media professionals that’s free to attend.
Confirmed speakers include:
➡️ Aimie Rigas – Director of Audience Development, Publishing at Nine
➡️ Nikki Chowdhury – Digital Audience Lead (SEO, E-Comm & AI) at Vogue AU
➡️ Khalil A. Cassimally – Head of Audience Insights at The Conversation
➡️ Mili Semlani – Head of Content and Community at e27
+ more
NEWS SEO PLAYBOOK – 4-WEEK COURSE ON MAVEN
Join the November cohort of the News SEO Playbook corse.
Every strategy taught in the course has been developed based on the specific needs of news media publishers. The tactics that you will learn have been implemented on dozens of publisher sites, resulting in short-term wins and long-term success.
Here’s what one of the participants of the September cohort says about the course:
Great course! Full of insights and Vahe was instrumental in solving a ton of issues our publication was facing. Highly recommend!
TOOLS AND RESOURCES
Check out Keyword Insights – an AI-powered writing assistant, simplifying your journey from research to publication. Benefit from advanced editing, real-time content optimization, and a harmonious human-AI partnership. Learn more
Learn how a meme account became a go-to news source. Learn more
BITE-SIZED INDUSTRY NEWS
SEARCH
Google adds paywall markup validation to the Rich Results Test tool, helping publishers clarify protected content. Read more
BUSINESS OF DIGITAL PUBLISHING
LadBible owner acquires US-based Betches Media in deal worth up to $54m. Read more
SEO
Google has confirmed that the October 2023 Core Update – the third core update this year – has completed rolling out. The update started on October 5, 2023, and completed 14 days later on October 19, 2023. Read more
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
CBC’s Because News spent seven years making content for Instagram and YouTube. They got more views on TikTok within two months. Read more
SOCIAL MEDIA
X, formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet and retweet. Read more
AUDIENCE GROWTH
News publishers wrestle with declines in web traffic as companies like Google, Meta, and X back away from dependably amplifying and supporting journalism. Read more