The end goal of any journalist is to give as much as more important information related to any field to the largest number of people possible. The more people get information from good and reliable sources, the stronger the belief of our society becomes. That’s what any journalist and news portal wants, and that’s the ultimate goal of SEO for journalists. 

While many newspapers like The New York Times have print editions, other newspapers only have online editions. The usage of the internet between 2000 and 2020 in the US alone caused daily circulation to drop from 55.8 million copies per day to 24 million. 

Many news channels in the USA are also moving towards online services in the form of podcasts, broadcasts and news YouTube channels and some popular viewing channels are:

  • BBC
  • CNN
  • FOX
  • ABC NEWS
  • The American Life

What do we need for SEO for a journalist and in journalism ?

Search engine optimization or SEO is a set of optimization in creating content and information to rank high on search engine results pages 

(SERPs). In journalism, SEO can be used to attract a large audience to the news provided by your channel. For this, create stories and content that readers are interested in and attract the target audience on topics that rank high in news SERPs. With the sudden boom in the creation of digital content, search engines such as Google have become a reliable source for users to find what they need.

As we know much fake news is being spread almost every day, expanding the reach of quality and real news is important among the audience, and for that, Google is one of the great sources providing information. Besides that, journalists can also use other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo to gain visibility. With the proper Journalist SEO techniques, you can achieve your end goal of targeting the audience to read your news.

Here are some of the SEO tips for journalists:

  • Keyword research and planning for journalist 
  • Local SEO for journalists
  • Content creation for journalist
  • On-page SEO for journalists 
  • Off-page SEO in the field of journalism 
  • Social media promotion 

Okay, so now let’s discuss them one by one.

Keyword research and Planning for journalists SEO

Keywords are the pillars of content and SEO strategies. Google looks at the keywords in your content to understand whether they match the terms users searched for or not. If this happens, your page can be shown to the users in the search result page. Keyword research and planning help journalists find out what users are searching for and use that information to create stories according to their interests.

How do you do keyword research and planning as a journalist ?

Here are some of the relevant SEO tips for Journalist and in the field of journalism:

  • One of the ways to do keyword research and planning as a journalist is by using online tools. To do this, try to understand how users search about the subjects you address and aim to find with these searches.
  • The tools can be used in a way to identify keywords that journalists should target on their websites to increase traffic from search engines.
  • The lower the rank, the better your chances of getting ranked for the specific keywords.
  • For keyword research and planning, use tools such as Google keyword planners, semrush, and ubersuggest. These will give you an estimated idea of the search volume and competition of the searched keyword or phrases. Further, tools such as Semrush can also tell you what kind of content should be created on that particular topic: whether it’s informational, transactional, or navigational. 

For example, search the keyword “breaking news in usa” in Ubersuggest. The tools will tell you following information:

Search Volume: 14,800

Paid difficulty: 3, which is marked as easy

SEO difficulty: 87

Cost per click: $2.46

Keyword research and Planning for journalists SEO

Plus it will also give you suggestion for related keyword ideas such as:

  • latest news in united states of america
  • latest news in united states of america
  • breaking news in us today
  • cnn breaking news us
  • latest breaking news us
  • top newspapers in usa
  • top news stories usa
  • top us news stations

Keyword research and Planning for journalists SEO

Another great way to do keyword research is to use Google to the fullest. Yes, you heard it right. To rank high in google you need to understand how your target market is using Google. You might be interested in knowing what type of search queries they have or what they will type in google when looking for local news for their city, let say Miami. And, this is where google comes to your resume. To find what your target market is searching for, pay attention to these three section in your online search journey:

  • Google autocorrect suggestion
  • Related searches section
  • People also ask column.

For example, if you type “breaking news in usa”, you will see following auto suggestions made by google:

  • Breaking news in usa today
  • Breaking news in usa right now
  • Breaking news in usa now
  • Breaking news us
  • Latest news in usa immigration
  • Breaking news in us politics
  • Latest us shooting news

Keyword research and Planning for journalists SEO

Here are some related searches for the query ”breaking news in usa”:

  • Breaking news headlines
  • Usa news today headlines

Once you have the list ready, search the key metrics such as keyword difficulty and search volumes of these keywords on tools given above.

Keyword research and Planning for journalists SEO

Local SEO for journalists 

Local SEO basically refers to the process of trying to optimise your online visibility to show up in those local search results. If you are a journalist who covers news related to a particular geographical area, local seo for journalism is the technique you cannot afford to miss out on.  

Local SEO for a journalist means to create relevant and original content and have category pages for every kind of news. Suppose you publish news related to Miami. Think of yourselves, who might be looking for an accident to happen in Miami? The localities of Miami and nearby cities. So, for this, you need to optimise your website and its content so that it reaches its targeted market.

In the case given above about the accident news in miami, you can focus on local keyword and phrases such as the one given below:

  • Accident in miami
  • Accident in miami today
  • Accident in miami yesterday
  • Accident in miami garden
  • Accident in miami this morning

Local SEO for journalists 

How could you do Local SEO for journalists ?

Here are some of the Local SEO strategies for journalists and in the field of journalism:

  • Build good relationships with local journalism communities and organizations and promote your services to their members.
  • Use local keywords and phrases related to your news genre and preferred locality. Suppose you publish entertainment news for New York City, you can use these keyword suggestion:
  • Latest entertainment news in ny today
  • Celebrity news in new york city
  • Make sure to include your news website in the conference program or on the event’s website.
  • You can also compile a list of local journalists who have written about your industry or niche. The next thing that you should do is to reach out to them directly with pitching opportunities.

Stay focused on creating news content 

An essential part of SEO for journalists is creating original and relevant content. Content creation is always important in the field of journalism as without content you cannot write and provide any kind of news and information. You have to be careful about what you write and publish.

What are the strategies for making good content for a journalist ?

The relevant SEO tips for journalist are:

  • The headline shouldn’t be offensive and misleading and the concept of the content should be clear and correct.
  • By using relevant keywords and internal links you can make your content remain evergreen.
  • You should always try to make short sentences and make your article realistic by using bullets and sub-headings.
  • A journalist uses an inverted pyramid method, which means the most important information or news comes on the top followed by less important news.
  • People like to get overall information of a particular situation or political events. THerefore, try to explain complicated things in simple words. Plus, you can use graphics such as images, videos, or infographics to explain the concept in a much simpler language to your users.

For example, look at this infographics published BBC news by during the 2020 United States presidential election:

Stay focused on creating news content

On-page SEO for journalists

On-page optimization refers to the pages of the website itself. With SEO for journalists, you have to make sure that your on-page optimization is up to the mark.

How do you optimize your on-page SEO for journalists ? 

Here are some of the relevant on page SEO strategies for your journalist site:

  • You should always try to place keywords at the beginning of the title. This is because a good headline also contains relevant keywords to score in the search engine and with the readers.
  • Interlinking is very important, especially for your news site. You should use URLs while writing an article and they should be clear and short. You must make sure that the URL is relevant to the article. 
  • You can use images and photographs so that the readers can clearly understand looking through the pictures what your article is all about.

Off-page SEO for Journalist

Off-page optimization refers to elements that are not directly observable on your website. Search engines look out for content that is:

  • Well-written
  • Well-researched
  • Free of cost. 

Off-page SEO optimization is significant as it provides search engines with additional signals that act like a vote of confidence for your website. For that, the content needs to be high quality, relevant, and engaging for the readers.

How can you do Off-page SEO for your news site ?

Here are some of the relevant SEO tips for your Off-page optimization:

  • One of the main elements of off-page SEO optimization for your news site is link building. Backlinks from a reputed source can help to improve your search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your website. Make sure that the backlinks are:
  1. Coming from a high domain authority website
  2. The content on the website should be relevant to what you are offering
  3. The anchor text should contain your targeted keyword
  • Social media engagement can also help to improve your search engine ranking by signaling to search engines that your content is relevant and high quality.
  • Make sure your link profile includes deep links to your specific article and content.

Promotion of the content on social media platforms 

Social media might be one of the best ways to increase traffic to your website. It is because social media is the only platform that is used by everyone, be it youngsters or adults, genZ or millennials.. You can become popular overnight through social media; this is the power of social media in today’s world. 

People are now dependent on social media more than ever. They read everything that comes on social media, whether the information is real or fake. Promoting your content and articles as a journalist on social media can help you to reach your end goal i.e. to spread your news to your target audience.

How to promote your content on social media ?

Here are some of the relevant SEO tips to promote your content on social media being a journalist:

  • Via social media, you can easily and quickly share your latest content and news. It is because social media helps to interact with your audience. In this way, you can know what your target audience wants to see on your website.
  • Social media helps to build a good reputation so a journalist should be able to influence their target audience through their articles.
  • Look at these social media channels of reputed news site and analyse their content strategies:
  • The New York Times
  • CNN
  • FOX
  • BCC
  • A real content and article will help a journalist to seek the trust of their readers.

Conclusion: 

SEO for journalists is not a one-time fix . Optimisation is an ongoing process that requires constant watch and frequent updation and adjustments. Using these SEO strategies can be beneficial in the field of journalism. Since media has also become digital, and they mostly like to publish online, using these SEO strategies can lead to significant benefits for journalists.