SEO for news websites

Optimizing the SEO for news websites is a unique challenge. In a landscape where speed, relevance and authority are crucial, news websites must ensure that their content is always discoverable. How can you ensure that your news website appears at the top of search results, even in a crowded, competitive market? In this article, I dive into the specific SEO strategies that news websites can use to maximize their visibility.

The important role of SEO for news websites

News websites have a constant stream of new content, but it’s not enough to simply publish articles. The speed at which your articles are picked up by search engines often determines whether your site remains relevant in search results. It is essential not only to publish quickly, but also to ensure a robust SEO strategy that ensures your articles consistently perform well.

It is important to channel the power of the written content and optimize it for Google. This is done through high quality content as well as technique (Google must also be able to access it properly).

What stands out about SEO for news websites?

I have done a lot of work for news websites. Some things I notice about news websites.

  1. Many mistakes are made with canonical tags (there are often multiple variants of one page or content clusters that are not quite right).
  2. There are many ups and downs in traffic because of Google News, this is otherwise not a problem but it did strike me.
  3. It often goes wrong with getting enough crawl budget to get articles indexed (and left indexed) quickly.
  4. A news website is a great way to naturally get lots of inbound links. This does not work as easily with a commercial web shop.
  5. There are an awful lot of pages, many of which are outdated, this needs to be handled properly.

Often an SEO journey for news websites is complex and you need to know a lot about (technical) SEO to bring it to a successful conclusion. Below I give some tips, but I would always hire a specialist to help with this.

On-page SEO strategies

Unique headlines and meta descriptions: Every news article should feature a unique, powerful headline that makes the gist of the story clear. Meta descriptions should be short, relevant and enticing, encouraging users to click through.

Use of tags and categories: Organize your content by using relevant tags and categories. This not only helps with the internal organization of your site, but also ensures that search engines better understand and rank your content.

Internal links: Use internal links to connect older, relevant content with new articles. This extends the life of your articles and helps search engines understand your site’s hierarchy.

Technology must be right

XML Sitemaps for News: Make sure you have a specific XML sitemap for news articles. This helps search engines find and index your latest content quickly, which is especially important for time-sensitive news articles.

Canonical tags: news articles are often updated or reused, canonicals are essential to let search engines know which version of an article is the primary one. This helps avoid problems with duplicate content.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages): Consider implementing AMP pages. AMP allows your content to load at lightning speed on mobile devices, which is not only good for users, but also helps you rank higher in Google’s mobile search results.

Structured data and Google News

Structured data: Use schema markup to enrich your news articles with structured data. This helps search engines understand important information such as publication date, author, and the topic of your article. Rich snippets, such as carousels or highlighted snippets, can significantly increase your visibility.

Google News: Make sure your website complies with Google News guidelines. This includes using clear and consistent source information, fast load times, and a strong focus on current and reliable content.

Speed and mobile-first

Page speed: News websites need to load lightning fast. Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze where you can make improvements. Optimize images, minimize the use of heavy scripts, and use caching to reduce load times.

Mobile-first indexing: With the shift to mobile-first indexing, it is crucial that your news website is fully optimized for mobile devices. This means not only responsive design, but also user-friendly navigation and readable text without requiring users to zoom in.

Content distribution and link building

Social Media: Use social media and tools like Flipboard or Apple News to spread the word about your articles. This drives more traffic to your website and can also contribute to better SEO through increased engagement.

Backlink strategies: Focus on getting backlinks from reliable and relevant sources. This can be done through press releases, collaborations with other media outlets, or publishing exclusive, valuable content that others want to quote.

Evergreen content: While news is often ephemeral, it can be valuable to create “evergreen” content – articles that remain relevant over time and generate constant traffic. These can serve as cornerstones of your website, with lasting SEO benefits.

Conclusion

SEO for news websites requires a balance between speed and accuracy, between fresh content and technical optimization. By taking a focused approach that includes both on-page and technical SEO, and investing in strong content distribution and link building, you can ensure that your news website consistently ranks high in search results, even in a highly competitive market. Be sure to always stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and techniques to ensure your news website remains relevant and visible.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
Five stars
My clients give me a 5.0 on Google out of 78 reviews

I have been working for 12 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 9 August 2024. The last update of this article was on 14 January 2025. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.