This document provides an overview of how news publishers can leverage Google Search to drive traffic to their websites. It discusses how Google Search has more monthly visitors than Google News and how searchers have higher intent when using Google Search compared to browsing Google News. The document then provides tips for news publishers on developing topic areas of expertise, creating different types of SEO-optimized content formats to attract searchers, and measuring key performance indicators to optimize content for Google Search.

1. Search for Relevance
Why News should target Google

2. Agenda
1. What do I know?
2. Search vs. News
3. Why Google Search
4. What you thought you knew about SEO* is outdated
5. How to take advantage of Google Search
6. All you need to know about Google News (in a slide)
*Search Engine Optimization
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3. Anthony Moor
‘80s-’90s: TV reporter, much of it
in San Francisco at KRON-TV
‘00s: Newspaper.com
editor-in-chief and change agent:
Rochester, Orlando, Dallas
2010s: Silicon Valley media
startups: Editor, Dir. of PM, SEO
Now: StoryCraft - a startup
content marketing agency focused
on storytelling for brands
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4. Today’s talk is about
Google Search
4

5. Google Search vs. Google News
Google Search
● The Internet (mostly)
● What you get when you search at
google.com
● ‘Organic’ results
● Search ads
● More and more: Lots of specialty
information boxes and features
Google News
● Human curated set of news publishers
● News as classically defined (“what’s
new?”)
● Content appears on the Google News
page and associated apps
● Top Stories box (wherever it is found)
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6. Why Google Search?
I mean, like, I know everyone searches
there but I’m a news publisher and ‘Top Stories’ shows on
the page so aren’t I covered already? Plus mostly people use it for other things so...
6

7. 63 billion
...monthly visits. Google News has 540 million
*Source: SimilarWeb (May 2019)
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8. It’s also about intent
● News consumers are
browsers, a low intent state
● Search is action oriented -
seekers are on a mission
○ They are high intent, moving
down a knowledge funnel
■ Do something (buy, download…)
■ Find out information*
■ Go somewhere online
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Google calls these
“Do, Know, Go.”
*50-80% of queries (Source)

9. Searchers are willing to offer more in exchange
● Searchers use information to
accomplish a goal
● Search content is a utility - it
helps people get something done
● This is classic service or
solutions journalism:
News only provides
awareness
Providing info to people engaging
here increases your value to them
● Navigating the school system
● Reviews of area attractions
● Life, health and family advice
● About local government
● What to do about [topic]
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10. Search-optimized content is efficient, evergreen
You write it once, it builds an audience over time and maintains its value
Vaccinations vs. measles outbreak
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Source: Google Trends

11. What’s more, Google Search is is now a greenfield,
more optimized for journalistic skills than ever.
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12. A brief history
of SEO
Search is finally starting to
give quality content its due
Early days:
● 10 blue links ranked by...
○ Popularity: Inbound links
○ Relevance: Keywords matching
the query in the search box
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13. This rewarded
bad behavior
Crappy writing
● Stuffing keywords in text
● Hiding keywords in white
● Scraping and copy-paste
● Content mills
● Splogs
Link schemes
● Comment spam by bots
● Trading links with partners
● Paying for links
● Syndicating your content
stuffed with more links
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14. Remember when you
were kind of afraid to
click the top link?
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15. It’s a different
ecosystem now
1. Better tech and strong
editorial standards
2. A more complex SRP* design
3. A growing ‘Google Tax’
4. A new discovery paradigm
*Search Results Page
15

16. It’s a different
ecosystem now
1. Better tech and strong
editorial standards
Content quality measured by
E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, Trust
and YMYL: Your money or your life
Read Google’s 160 pages of
guidelines, they play right into
professional journalism’s strengths
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17. It’s a different
ecosystem now
1. Better tech and strong
editorial standards
2. A more complex SRP design
There are more ways to display on
the search results page now. The
algorithms are different,
mysterious and these features
change all the time.
Ad
Top organic result
Organic results 2-4
Local business cluster
Knowledge Graph
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18. Ad
Top organic result
Organic results 2-4
Local business cluster
Knowledge Graph
It’s a different
ecosystem now
1. Better tech and strong
editorial standards
2. A more complex SRP design
3. A growing ‘Google Tax’
The ‘blue links’ are being pushed
further down the SRP, and deliver
fewer clicks than they used to.
Local business cluster
Organic results 5-9
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19. It’s a different
ecosystem now
1. Better tech and strong
editorial standards
2. A more complex SRP design
3. A growing ‘Google Tax’
4. A new discovery paradigm
Google is becoming a portal. It’s
showing ‘entities’ that are
topically adjacent to a search or
connected in people's minds.
Searchers can travel far and wide
before clicking into a ‘result.’
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20. Adding it all up, the
message is twofold:
1. Focus on what you can
control, not hacking Google.
2. Be strategic. Use Google
Search for new audience
acquisition only, and provide
high quality information
services to convert visitors to
supporters who come to you
directly in the future.
This sounds like a job for
journalists.
“Start with the thing you actually have
the most control over: and that's the
content itself.”
“We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re
offering the best content you can. That’s
what our algorithms seek to reward.”
“Your writers need to be creating
content that is comprehensive and
authoritative enough to compete for
organic visibility.”
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21. OK let’s light this puppy
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22. Search strategy,
simplified
1. Put a stake in the ground on
a topic where you are expert
2. Bolster your claim by
creating related SEO content
around the topic
3. Provide searchers with
calls-to-action that meet
their broader goals and your
business goals
4. Market your topical
authority with study,
enterprise or investigative
pieces around the topic
5. Rinse and repeat
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Supporters
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23. Consumer goals
● Searchers looking for information.
○ Do - Transact
○ Know
○ Go (to a particular website)
● Research what they need
○ what are they typing here?
○ What service and solutions journalism
can you do to help? Ask them!
○ What’s the competition like?
■ Who shows up online in search?
○ What can you provide that’s
differentiated, better, uniquely
valuable to the consumer?
Figure out goals first
Your goals
● Use search to reach a new audience.
○ Who do you want to attract?
● Turn ‘know’ searchers into those
who ‘go’ or ‘do’ on your site
○ (“Grow traffic” is not enough)
○ Capture an email address
○ Gain a subscriber
○ Provide a one-off product: A guide,
service, tool or book
○ Move them further down the funnel
using your services
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If searchers do one of these, they
become your supporters. That’s
your conversion metric.
This is your target
query type

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Info Query
Examples
Google answers simple
queries directly* so
target complex ones
*Their ‘featured snippet’ often
steals some content but puts you at
the top - above the blue links

25. Develop topics and a supporting story budget
● Topics become service hubs
● SEO-optimized stories link to
your hub and bring in audience
○ Research keywords for story ideas
○ There are many tools to help
○ This is an SEO’s bread ‘n’ butter
Living in Indy
Raw queries ready to be filtered into
a few concise info stories to create
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26. Determine the content formats you’ll create
Different content formats attract
searchers at different stages in their
journey, so all work together to
drive them toward their goal*.
Studies
Guides/Hubs
Comparisons
How-tos/Tools
Ranked/Categorized Lists
Info-rich answers
Reviews
Checklist-style listicles
Advice columns
26*And make it more likely they’ll convert into a supporter

27. Write it well. Here are some pro tips
Write efficiently. SEO content is a utility. People aren't there because
they want to read, they're there because they need information to get a
job done.
Be direct, concise and to the point. No digressions, anecdotal ledes, or
quirks unless it improves comprehension.
Do not stuff keywords. That’s so 2009.
Anticipate your reader’s next step and point the way.
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28. Content structure* matters
Signpost the story for easy scanning
● Synopsis at the top that answers the story
● Use section headers
● Use bullets or numbers if appropriate
● Make pull quotes of secondary points
● At the end provide the next steps
● Ask for your due (if it isn’t a ‘next step’)
28*Your code should reflect this structure too

29. Make sure your template doesn’t screw you
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30. Have experts review schema and page design
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Schema labels the information in articles.
It helps Google understand what’s there
and extract it for display on the SRP
Page design (UI/UX) visually structures the
information in articles. It helps readers
navigate your pages better.
As a rule of thumb, if you are using
Schema to structure standard features in
content, those features should be
standardized in the visual design, template
and editorial toolset too.

31. Measure and optimize
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Key Performance Indicators
● SRP CTR - Regardless of position on the SRP, are people clicking through efficiently?
○ Rank - Watch for growth but once you’re on the first page of search results, it’s not a
primary measure of success, as visibility is affected by the complexity of the SRP
○ Traffic - Secondary measure. You want lots but it’s affected by rank and SRP CTR.
● On-page conversion - Once people get to your page, do they take an action*?
○ Hard Bounce Rate - Do they leave within 15”? That’s likely a pogo stick back to
Google which is a negative signal for the quality of your content
*A business outcome as defined by you

32. 32All you need to know about Google News Source: Moz Whiteboard Friday

33. Thank you.
Anthony Moor
anthony@storycraft.me
(650) 906-1599
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