The information should reach as many people as possible. The more people get information from reliable sources, the stronger and more stable our society becomes.
That is what every journalist or news portal wants, and that is one of the main goals of SEO for news websites.
Especially now, in the age of fake news, expanding the reach of quality information is crucial.
So, if one of the great sources of current information is Google, credible journalists and media outlet should dedicate themselves to gaining visibility in the most used search engine in the world. Without leaving aside the rest of search engines such as Bing, Yandex, among others.
That is why SEO is no longer exclusive to Digital Marketing, also invading newsrooms, newspapers, magazines, and, in general, websites that disseminate information of interest.
New tasks for journalists
Journalists need to worry about fact-finding and news writing, but now they also need to know what SEO is, how to use keywords, and how to get backlinks. It is also important to have a technology platform that allows them to serve large numbers of users quickly and effectively.
A slow website that does not meet the minimum requirements demanded by the main search engines will not be able to position itself in the main results and will gradually lose relevance.
Okay, getting to the top positions in Google is not an easy task. Journalists do not have this experience, and the competition is huge! This article will help you understand how the search engine works and how to stand out in it.
But first, we must agree to the following
a.- Content is the KING on the Internet.
b.- Good content without a good technological platform = failure.
c.- Good technological platform without good content = failure.
d.- We may believe that we have the best technological platform that may exist in the market, but that does not guarantee that users will adopt and use it.
As I mentioned before, the platform is fundamental, a website that loads quickly allows pleasant navigation for the user, and last but not least, provides valuable information to the reader, these are extremely important factors that you should consider when thinking about reaching the first places in internet searches.
Let’s now go into the fundamental concepts about SEO you need to know to apply it to journalism
First of all, you need to understand that Google’s mission is to organize all the information on the internet to provide users with the best answers to what they are looking for.
To do this, Google uses bots and algorithms that crawl, index, and rank web content.
For bots to crawl and index your pages, they need to be able to find and understand what they say. This is the first step of SEO.
But the golden ticket is ranking. Since Google’s creation in 1998, the search engine has constantly been evolving its powerful search algorithm, which defines the ranking of websites on the search results page (called SERP).
In the beginning, the search engine did nothing more than evaluate if the searched keyword corresponds to the website content. Then, it started to consider links from other websites as a sign of the authority for a given webpage.
Today, the algorithm is already so intelligent, with a multitude of classification criteria, that it understands which pages offer the best user experience.
Therefore, this is the focus of an SEO strategy: offering the best user experience.
In the case of SEO for journalists, this means delivering complete information, publishing original content, consulting reliable sources, and developing pages that load quickly and work well on any device, among many other factors.
It’s clear, then, that SEO is not just a matter of coding and programming. Although technical optimizations are essential, content is the main engine for SEO strategies.
On news websites and portals, the quality of the content is even more important.
Google is very concerned about the reliability of content delivered by news websites, intending to protect users and fight the spread of fake news.
In addition, Google knows that many users search for recent news on the internet and, in those searches, prioritizes results from websites and news portals.
It’s no coincidence that Google created Google News and the Main News section, highlighting the journalistic coverage of several media outlets.
It’s all about trust
Google trusts in journalism. So, show them that they can also trust your media outlet.
To achieve all this, one of the most convenient technologies is the one offered by the use of WordPress, which offers us very interesting tools in the form of plugins.
Some of these plugins are responsible for optimizing the website to adapt it to the requirements of search engines, others provide support in writing, guaranteeing legibility and good use of keywords, and others are responsible for keeping the website updated and with sufficient security to maintain the bad guys from a distance.
But the idea is not to have to deal with so many technical aspects, just make sure to generate valuable information that provides knowledge to readers, the rest can be handled by a specialized company like ours.
For more information, you can contact us and we will gladly apply the information and opportunities adapted to your needs.
