(Part 4) Decoding Google Discover: A Publisher’s Guide
Google Discover is a personalized content feed that recommends articles, videos, and media based on user interests, search history, and behavior across Google platforms. Unlike Google News, which focuses on timely updates, Discover delivers an interest-driven experience, often highlighting evergreen content like guides and how-tos. For publishers, Google Discover offers a distinct way to reach […]
Why News Sitemaps Matter for Publishers
A news sitemap is a vital tool for publishers in the fast-moving world of digital journalism. With the sheer volume of content being published daily, ensuring that articles are promptly discovered by search engines is crucial. A news sitemap acts as a structured guide, helping search engines quickly identify and index relevant news content, improving […]
Optimizing Existing Content: Best Practices to Boost Publisher Traffic
When publishers think about growth, they often focus on creating new content. However, increasing traffic doesn’t always require starting from scratch. By optimizing existing assets and refining content strategies, publishers can maximize their reach and visibility in search. Below is a list of practical steps you can take today to leverage your existing assets and […]
Understanding Google’s Content Policies
Google enforces strict content policies that publishers must follow to be featured in Google News, Discover, or the Top Stories carousel. This guide serves as a ‘map’ to help you navigate the essential content requirements, summarizing everything you need to know in bite-sized, actionable insights—without the need to sift through endless pages of Google documentation. […]
What We Learned About Google Organic Non-Branded Traffic Calculation and Why It Might Be Flawed
The Challenge: Google Search Console Sampling and Inaccurate Traffic Calculation When analyzing organic traffic, distinguishing between branded and non-branded traffic is key for understanding your SEO performance. Google Search Console (GSC) provides valuable insights, but its sampling method poses a challenge. GSC only shows a subset of total queries, and this sampling can lead to […]
What We Learned About SEO Task Prioritization
SEO task prioritization can be tricky—especially when balancing client needs, time constraints, and limited resources. Over time, we learned that the real challenge wasn’t just knowing what tasks to prioritize but how to ensure these tasks would actually get done. Here’s what we discovered through our experience. The Challenge: Prioritizing SEO Tasks in the Real […]
What We Learned About Server Migration and WWW Redirect Issues
Server migrations are complex, and even a small oversight can have significant implications on your site’s SEO and user experience. One common issue that arises after migration is a misconfigured WWW redirect, which can cause duplicate content and other SEO headaches. Here’s what we learned. The Challenge: Missing Redirects After Server Migration During a server […]
What We Learned About Getting Your News Article in Top Stories
The Challenge: Articles Not Appearing in Top Stories Many factors can prevent a news article from appearing in Google’s Top Stories, even if it meets SEO requirements. Since Top Stories are highly time-sensitive—typically lasting only 24-48 hours—rapid action is crucial. Ensuring proper indexing, optimizing headlines and meta titles, strengthening internal linking, and, in some cases, […]
What We Learned About Temporarily Disabling a Website
When a website needs to temporarily go offline, managing the downtime correctly is critical to avoiding negative impacts on indexing and organic search performance. Google generally advises against shutting down an entire site, but sometimes it’s unavoidable due to server migrations, maintenance, or emergencies. The Challenge: Minimizing Downtime’s Impact on Indexing and Organic Performance We […]
What We Learned About Fixing Logo Issues in Search Results
A business reached out to us because their logo, or favicon, wasn’t appearing in Google search results. Frustrated, they needed a quick solution to restore their brand’s visibility. From our experience, we know that a missing logo in search results can often be traced back to two main issues: improper implementation or a broken URL […]