SEO has become an important skill for journalists, but every publication has a different approach.
Illustration: Pixabay
Journalists can learn on their own
SEO journalists don't typically write about a single topic or niche. "Whatever people are searching for, we write about... There's a framework for it, but it's very diverse," says Malvika Padin, an SEO journalist who covers a wide range of topics.
She adds that working in SEO can be a great way to start a career because it allows you to “experiment a little bit with different topics,” which can help uncover talents or passions we hadn’t considered before.
Journalists often make great SEO copywriters, says Jill Starley-Grainger, Head of Content at Proof Content.
If journalists are looking to build their skills and knowledge, there are plenty of free resources online. The Beginner’s Guide to SEO from the Moz website is a comprehensive collection of almost everything journalists need to know about SEO.
If you need more practical information, Google Digital Garage’s Digital Marketing Fundamentals course is also free to access for everyone. It’s business-oriented but still useful and a good introduction to SEO.
Knowing the most important SEO terms and what they mean is also a great place to start when writing a story. In most cases, journalists will be given a list of “key phrases” to write around. Keywords and key phrases are the terms that people type into search engines.
“You need to figure out which one is most important and try to build your headline around that,” says Starley-Grainger. “Creating SEO-friendly headlines and subheadings helps pages and sites rank higher on Google and other search engines.”
But it’s not just about the keywords on the page, the links in the press release are also important. If the article page doesn’t include any links or other pages for readers to click on, the piece is called a “dead end page” and won’t have a chance to appear on the first page of search results.
Useful and free SEO tools
While most journalists may not have the budget to access the tools that larger organizations can afford, there are still free tools available to help them hone their SEO skills.
Google Trends is a tool created by Google itself. Photo: GI
Google Trends can help journalists spot keywords and phrases that are currently popular, while Google Keyword Planner will help them choose the right keywords if they're looking for something specific.
Journalists can also analyze keywords using tools like Ubersuggest and Answer the Public to find out what people are searching for.
Keyword Sheeter is another tool that pulls in tons of Google’s automatic keywords for any research term and helps you discover topics you might not have thought of otherwise. There are also many other paid SEO research apps and newsletters.
Finally, when starting your SEO journey, don’t forget the most important rule: Always write for real readers, not for search engines. Google will quickly detect and demote “over-optimized” SEO content.
Mai Anh (according to Journalism)
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