Technical SEO for News Publishers

News publishers are often in a dilemma about when is the right time to publish news. Should they publish first or should they wait to publish the most accurate and comprehensive information?

One strategy is to initially publish a headline, a single line of text, and a "More to follow" disclaimer; then, as new facts are uncovered and verified, expand the article to provide more coverage of the event.

As per Barry Adams, from seoforgooglenews.com, being the first to publish a headline is not always the best approach, especially if the news is highly popular and other sources are already providing detailed coverage. In such cases, your content might not be indexed by Google if there is already sufficient information available on the topic.

As news events unfold and search volume gradually increases, it's not best to be the first with just headlines, but also not to wait for the perfect article. You might not get indexed by Google if the news is popular and there's already enough information available.

For publishing Breaking news

For news publishers aiming to optimize their content for search engines, the best practice is to publish a headline along with a summary that includes key facts.

This initial content should be indexed as quickly as possible using tools like Indexly's Auto Indexing service. Auto Indexing allows news websites to efficiently and scalably get their new content indexed by search engines, improving visibility and driving organic traffic to their sites.

Auto Indexing

Auto-indexing services provide an efficient, scalable way for websites to get their new content indexed by search engines quickly, helping improve their visibility and organic traffic.

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Managing Content Updates and Indexing

Once the initial news article is published, it’s crucial to keep the content updated as new information becomes available. This can be done in two ways:

1. Republishing the Story with a New URL: For major updates, republishing the story with a new URL ensures that Google treats it as fresh content, which can help with indexing.
2. Updating the Existing News Page: Continuously updating the existing news page and ensuring that Googlebot recrawls and reindexes it can keep the content relevant and visible in search results.

This can be done by Indexly's Instant Indexing feature

Instant Indexing

The key benefit of using Indexly for instant indexing is the ability to quickly get new content indexed. This helps websites enhance their search visibility and increase organic traffic.

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News articles often lose relevance minutes after publication. Therefore, being indexed rapidly is imperative. News sites experiencing faster indexing saw an uptick in organic traffic. This is because Google prioritizes timely content in news-related searches.

As per Google, there is a guide for Crawl budgets for news sites
This is an advanced guide and is intended for:

• Large sites (1 million+ unique pages) with content that changes moderately often (once a week)
• Medium or larger sites (10,000+ unique pages) with very rapidly changing content (daily)
• Sites with a large portion of their total URLs classified by Search Console as Discovered - currently not indexed

Crawl Budget Management For Large Sites | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers

Learn what crawl budget is and how you can optimize Google’s crawling of large and frequently updated websites.

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Optimizing Articles Before Publishing

It’s worth noting that because publisher websites, and particularly news sites, tend to be quite large and complex, technical SEO is also particularly important

Why Articles Should Be Optimised Before Publishing

One of Google’s quirks means that once an article has been crawled and indexed, any changes won’t necessarily be picked up by Google until it’s too late.

SEO for Google NewsBarry Adams

With news content, it’s your responsibility to ensure article headlines target the most relevant search queries, create high-quality internal links, and identify opportunities for 'explainer' content based on trending queries and competitor research.

Key Strategies for News Publishers

3.1 Optimize Page Load Speed

A fast-loading website is crucial for both user experience and SEO. News publishers should aim for a loading time of under 3 seconds. Utilize tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify issues that may be slowing down your pages. You can also consider optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and utilizing content delivery networks (CDNs).

3.2 Use Structured Data Markup

Structured data helps search engines understand the context of your content. By implementing schema.org markup, news publishers can enhance search visibility and appear in rich results. Using Article schema can also help feature your news content prominently.

Resource: Google Search Central: Structured Data

3.3 Implement Schema for Articles

For news publishers, the NewsArticle schema is particularly beneficial. It provides specific information about the articles, including headlines, images, dates, and more, allowing search engines to display your articles in a more engaging format.

3.4 Create an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap helps search engines quickly discover your content. It’s essential to keep the sitemap updated with fresh articles and remove URLs that no longer exist. This directly impacts how quickly new articles are indexed.

Resource: Sitemaps.org

3.5 Ensure Mobile Optimization

With a significant portion of news readership happening on mobile devices, it’s essential to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Use responsive design principles and test your site in Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.

Content Indexing Best Practices

4.1 Focus on E-A-T

Google emphasizes Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) in its quality guidelines. News publishers should focus on creating high-quality, factual content and ensure that authors are credible and recognized in their respective fields.

4.2 Monitor Crawl Errors

Use Google Search Console to monitor your website for crawl errors. Fixing these issues allows search engines to index your pages more efficiently. Regularly checking for errors can help maintain your site's health.

FAQs

1. What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to the optimization of a website’s technical aspects to help search engines crawl and index the site more effectively.

2. Why is Technical SEO important for news publishers?
Technical SEO helps news publishers get their content indexed quickly, improve visibility in search results, and enhance user experience.

3. What role does structured data play in SEO?
Structured data helps search engines better understand content context and can lead to enhanced visibility such as featured snippets and rich results.

4. How can I optimize my news website for mobile users?
Use responsive design, ensure fast loading times, and test your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to enhance mobile usability.

5. What is an XML sitemap, and why is it important?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs on a website, helping search engines crawl and index the site efficiently.

6. What tools can I use to monitor SEO performance?
Tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Indexly can help monitor your website’s Indexing in Google and Bing, as well as performance.

Why choose Indexly?

Indexly improves organic search traffic through several key mechanisms that enhance the indexing process and overall visibility of web content on search engines. Here’s how it works

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