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SEO for Publishers: A Systematic Approach

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SEO for Publishers: A Systematic Approach

December 18, 2024

Attracting new and returning visitors to your website is a perennial goal for publishers. To grow and expand, you need a steady audience of potential new subscribers, webinar registrants, report purchasers, or event attendees.

Search engine optimization (SEO) for publishers is the process of improving the visibility of content (web pages, products, videos, events, images, etc.) in search engines. Ranking your content and products at the top of Google or other search engines has always been complex, and publishers may find it increasingly challenging.

Google Search Results Layout

Paid search ads take the top positions on a search engine results page (SERP) and are challenging to discern from organic search results. You have your traditional market competitors to contend with, but your biggest competitor on the SERP these days (and if you still need to, just wait) is Google itself. Google’s special SERP features can often span an entire page’s worth of real estate.

One of the newest SERP features is the AI Overview (AIO). Google started to roll out these AI-generated answers to queries in May 2024. Not only are AIOs providing answers to short questions, but they also can tackle much more complex, multi-step answers to queries like, “Create a 3-day vegetarian meal plan” that yields results that include the meal plan itself, recipes, shopping lists, and export features so you can get it all sent to your phone, Google Docs or your email. Expect to see a continued proliferation of AIOs on the SERP.

Other examples of Google’s special SERP features include product carousels, videos, people-also-ask boxes, featured snippets, knowledge panels, and local packs. This guide to SERP features explores the breadth of Google SERP features and how to optimize for them.

A Sustainable SEO Strategy for Publishers

While the competition for search visibility is formidable, specialized publishers who think audience first are already aligned with Google’s definition of preferred content, which should be “helpful, reliable and people-first.” However, specialized publishers need a systematic approach to SEO to ensure their high-quality, original content is findable, indexable, and following Google’s (and other search engines) most impactful search recommendations.

A systematic approach to SEO encourages publishers to:

  1. Establish a Solid Technical SEO Foundation
  2. Integrate SEO into the Editorial Workflow
  3. Provide Ongoing SEO Training
  4. Perform Regular Content Audits
  5. Measure SEO-Related KPIs

1. Establish a Solid Technical SEO Foundation

Before optimizing individual content or even template pages on our website, we need to ensure that the entire site meets or exceeds technical SEO best practices—otherwise, even the most comprehensive content will not make it to the top of the SERP.

There are a few critical processes involved in search:

  • Crawling is the process by which search engines discover and collect the content of web pages across the internet.
  • Indexing involves storing content in the search engine’s databases.
  • Ranking determines the position of a web page in search results for a specific query.

Use Sitemaps and Structured Data: Help Search Engines Find Your Content

Most Enterprise Publishing Systems (EPSs) and Content Management Systems (CMSs), including ePublishing, create and publish dynamic XML sitemaps that improve the visibility of your web pages by helping search engines crawl and index them effectively. Per Google Search Central, “A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them.”

  • For publishers of news content, make sure your specific news sitemap is accessible to search engines so that your breaking content is available to Google News, Google Discover, and other news aggregators as quickly as possible upon publication.
  • Publishers with subscription models want to maintain online visibility while using a paywall. Ensure your EPS/CMS follows structured data best practices to indicate paywalled content on your site.
  • Publishers who sell digital products need to use appropriate product schema markup to improve how your products appear in search results. Product carousels are increasingly common, and you want to be eligible to appear in those highly clicked spots in the SERP. Learn about Google’s Merchant Center here to manage how your products appear on Google directly and to load a product feed into Google.


Optimize Site Speed

Fast-loading web pages are crucial for search rankings, conversion rates, and user experience. A 2022 research study by Portent, found that “a site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3X higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.” Publishers need to make sure their websites are built and run efficiently. An EPS/CMS can help reduce page load times through automatic caching, automated image optimization and compression, removing any unnecessary code from a page, and lazy loading, which only loads images and content when the user scrolls down the page.


Avoid placing any critical content behind JavaScript

Ensure that all important content is easily accessible by search engine crawlers. When content is delivered via JavaScript, Google needs to take extra steps to process and render that content, which can slow down the crawling and indexing process. Some examples of content that may be behind JavaScript or delivered with JavaScript are related articles or products, infinite scroll content, interactive page elements like pop-ups or accordion content, and interactive data visualizations—just to name a few.

Make sure your EPS/CMS and website developers are knowledgeable about the intersection of technical SEO and website architecture and that they regularly audit and monitor website performance issues. Beyond auditing, you want your EPS/CMS team to be adept at prioritizing and implementing improvements.

2. Integrate SEO into the Editorial Workflow

The most efficient way to optimize your content for search visibility is to enable your team to implement on-page SEO best practices proactively. On-page SEO refers to improving different web page aspects so that search engines and users can easily discern what the page is about. Some primary examples of on-page SEO tips include using target keywords in meta tags (meta title, meta description, header tags) and URL, including links to other related content or products on your site, and embedding meaningful images, video, and graphics, as appropriate, to enrich your story.

The first step in the integration of SEO into your publication’s workflow is to:

Establish clear SEO guidelines

Your company’s SEO guidelines don’t need to be written by an expert. Simply outline your key on-page SEO expectations in a straightforward document that content creators can easily access and follow. Ideally, your SEO guidelines should be part of your overall style guide.

Conduct Keyword Research at the Content Planning Stage

Ensure your team conducts keyword research as part of the initial content planning phase, not as an afterthought. Of course, the primary goal is always to select your audience's most relevant and essential topics. Still, keyword research enables you to expand related topics, use authentic language that echoes the voice of the audience, and find gaps that other content competitors have overlooked.

Please note that generative AI chatbot tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity cannot provide accurate, up-to-date keyword research data. Instead, use specialized SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Moz, which offer real-time insights on keyword volume, competition, and trends.

Use SEO-Optimized Content Briefs

Once you’ve done keyword research, include that information in an SEO-optimized content brief with SEO goals, such as keyword targets, meta descriptions, and internal linking. Many downloadable, SEO-optimized content briefs are available on the Internet, as well as tools within many SEO and marketing platforms that help you efficiently create SEO-inclusive content briefs.

Take Advantage of Your EPS/CMS Built-in SEO Tools

Most modern EPSs/CMSs have built-in features that remind publishers to use SEO-friendly keywords in meta titles, meta descriptions, URLs, etc. But AI has made implementing on-page SEO best practices even easier! Some CMSs for publishers, like Continuum and Ellington, enable you to enter your target keyword and create click-enticing headlines, AI-generated meta titles and descriptions, and more.

Equally impactful is Continuum and Ellington’s advanced taxonomy implementation across different types of content on your website. Their system automatically recommends related articles, posts, products, events, and sponsored ad content based on the taxonomy you create, which you can select to include in your content. This is a win-win on the front end for user experience, SEO, and publishers. The simpler it is to promote your relevant, premium content offerings to your engaged audience, the more likely they are to convert.

Use SEO Checklists

Before final publication, make sure your team uses an SEO checklist to resolve any issues and make real-time corrections. Again, there are ample examples of SEO checklists for articles and products online, and many systems have built-in checking systems to automate last-minute checks.

3. Provide Ongoing SEO Training

Most of the best resources and training for SEO success come from Google. But whether you use Google’s SEO training resources or other sources, provide your team with regular and recurring SEO learning opportunities.

Demonstrate E-E-A-T for SEO Success

One of the most critical things publishers and their teams need to understand is how Google judges quality. Google employs contract search results quality raters to evaluate the quality of their own search results. Comprehensive documentation published publicly called Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) exists. Within those guidelines is a framework all publishers should be knowledgeable of – EEAT: Experience (E), Expertise (E), Authoritativeness (A), Trustworthiness (T).

For publishers to demonstrate EEAT:

  • Experience (E): Reference and link to related content (webinars, podcasts, case studies), demonstrating practical experience in the subject matter. An EPS/CMS with extensive taxonomy implementation can make this seamless.
  • Expertise (E): Associate author credentials with their content, showcasing expertise through author bios and credentials. Again, a reputable EPS/CMS can do this automatically.
  • Authoritativeness (A): link and cross-reference your site’s other authoritative articles, reports, and videos to strengthen your authority.
  • Trustworthiness (T): write a comprehensive About Us page; be very wary of using AI-generated content as Google and other search engines have been fluctuating in their stances on AI-generated content. Link to reputable sources. Consider publishing your own editorial guidelines.

4. Perform Regular Content Audits

Conduct regular content audits to identify optimization and improvement opportunities and keep your team accountable for SEO implementation. Performing content audits will help you:

  • Update underperforming content
  • Optimize internal linking opportunities
  • Refresh older content to boost rankings

With proprietary tools like Sitebulb and Screaming Frog, there are many ways to automate audits. Share the results of your content audits with your editorial team to keep everyone in the loop about progress and to incentivize continuous SEO improvement.

5. Measure SEO-Related KPIs

Key SEO performance indicators to track progress include organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, click-through rates (CTR) from SERPs, and leads and sales. Some EPSs/CMSs automatically track these KPIs and offer insights into how editorial teams can improve their SEO strategy. Otherwise, use your analytics platform to measure these KPIs.

Building a Sustainable SEO Program 

The best way to build a sustainable SEO program is to institute a culture of SEO awareness and continual improvement across your publishing company.

The fundamental principles of journalism and SEO best practices converge in the aspirations of creating high-quality content and a great user experience for your audience.

An SEO program for publishers must be embedded in editorial workflows. An EPS/CMS with built-in SEO features allows publishers to systematically optimize their content without a dedicated SEO team.

Don’t get waylaid by focusing on the minutiae of algorithm updates; instead, consistently and systematically apply SEO best practices across your content creation processes.