How to Maximize Content Visibility

What Is SEO for Publishers & Why Is It Important?

Search engine optimization (SEO) for publishers is the process of improving online publications to make them more visible on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Publishers can use SEO to better attract traffic and generate revenue—especially if they rely on ad revenue for profitability.

Here’s an illustration:

Let’s say a publisher displays a banner ad at the top of their webpage. And it’s an awareness ad that involves the advertiser paying a certain amount of money for every 1,000 views. 

Perhaps the publisher is currently earning about $5,000 per day from this.

If the publisher implements a new SEO strategy to get more traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs), that can lead to more ad views and more revenue.

5 Publishing SEO Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Here are five challenges in implementing SEO for publishers. And tips for overcoming them.

1. Adapting to Google Algorithm Updates

Recent Google algorithm updates have caused some publishers to get less visibility and organic traffic from the SERPs and Google Discover.

Some specific challenges brought about by algorithm updates include the following:

• Google appears to favor content from bigger domains, perhaps because it views them as having more authority and expertise. As a result, some independent publications’ pages may struggle to compete.
• Google has started prioritizing user-generated content on forums like Reddit and Quora because of increased user demand for such content. Which some see as more unbiased than search-optimized content.
• Google’s SERP features have reduced the available space on SERPs for organic listings. So there’s more competition for search visibility.

Take the SERP for “ai data centers climate change.”

The top of the page is dominated by an AI Overview, a result from a forum-type website, and a People Also Ask (PAA) box.

Only after that do we see any results from publishers.

Overcome these algorithm-related hurdles by:

• Optimizing your content for Google’s SERP features: Create videos to rank for video carousels or an FAQ page to target the PAA box, for instance
• Growing authority by covering topics you’re knowledgeable of: Higher-authority sites tend to rank higher. Once people are familiar with your brand and trust it, they may go directly to your publication for information instead of searching on Google.
• Doing Reddit SEO: Engage in relevant conversations on Reddit so that when searchers view search results from Reddit, they may see your brand there

2. Getting Google to Map a Constantly Evolving Website

Google’s web crawlers have trouble keeping up with sites that publish tons of new content daily, which may cause these pages to take longer to rank.

The fix?

Direct Google toward the pages you want searchers to find (e.g., up-to-date content with ads and affiliate links). And steer it away from less important pages, like older articles and privacy policies.

These tactics will help Google map your site:

• Create a search-friendly site structure. Organize menus and articles hierarchically for easy navigation. Categorize your content by topics and subtopics to create a website architecture both humans and Google can understand.
• Optimize your meta tags. These are part of your website’s HTML and include meta descriptions and title tags. They signal page relevance, and you can optimize them in ways like including your target keywords.
• Optimize your sitemap. Update your sitemap routinely to help index your most important pages and articles. Check out this XML sitemap for an example of what this file looks like.
• Use robots.txt. Include “disallow” commands in your robots.txt (i.e., a text file with instructions for search engine robots) to tell crawlers not to crawl unimportant pages

Even if you’ve followed the above tips, it’s a good idea to check whether Google can access your content using the “Crawlability” report in Semrush’s Site Audit tool. 

It’ll show you issues that could prevent Google from finding and/or indexing important content on your site.

3. Making Paywalled Content Discoverable by Google

Paywalled content may hurt your search engine rankings if Google can’t bypass the paywall to discover and understand the page’s content.

To overcome this challenge, publishers can use Google’s flexible sampling guidelines or structured data to make paywalled pages discoverable while maintaining content protection.

Here’s how.

Flexible sampling is when subscribers (and bots) can explore a part of your content. Some models include:

• Lead-in: Offer part of the content (e.g., the first third) and require a subscription for the rest
• Metering: Offer an article quota (e.g., give readers access to a few articles per month) and require a subscription for additional articles

This is an example of metering:

You can also use structured data (also known as schema markup) to help Google identify paywalled content.

First, add HTML class names around the paywalled sections of your page. Google offers this example:

Then, add the NewsArticle structured data to tell Google that the page content is behind a paywall:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsArticle",
  "mainEntityOfPage": {
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "@id": "https://example.org/article"
  },
  (...)
"isAccessibleForFree": "False",
  "hasPart": {
    "@type": "WebPageElement",
    "isAccessibleForFree": "False",
    "cssSelector": ".paywall"
  }
}

4. Keeping Page Speeds Fast When Using Tracking Pixels

Tracking pixels help advertisers and publishers understand which ads contribute to visits, sales, sign-ups, and other conversions by tracking users’ behavior.

Poor tracking pixel practices (like adding unnecessary pixels to your pages) can cause your pages to load slower. Which can negatively improve your ranking performance.

Minimize the impact of tracking pixels on your page speed by:

• Limiting your pixel use: The more code you add to a page, the more likely you’ll slow down page speed. Prioritize essential pixels (e.g., conversion pixels). And don’t add pixels to pages you don’t need to track.
• Using asynchronous code: That means coding your page to load content and tracking pixel code simultaneously
• Tracking the impact of any changes: After adding or updating tracking pixels, check the impact of your actions by entering your URL into Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool

5. Dealing with Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on the same site compete with each other for the same search rankings.

In other words, it happens when two pages target the same keyword and satisfy the same search intent. Or if Google interprets them as doing this.

Keyword cannibalization can be hard to avoid for industry and news publishers that create multiple pieces of content on similar topics. And at scale.

Here’s how to solve it:

Use Semrush’s Position Tracking to find pages where keyword cannibalization occurs.

First, set up your project, then go to the “Cannibalization” tab.

You’ll see the following at the top of the report:

• The number of affected keywords: Keywords where you have more than one page ranking in the top 100
• The number of cannibal pages: URLs that share a top-100 keyword ranking with one or more other URLs

Then, scroll down to the “Cannibalization” section. And click on “Keywords” to get a list of affected keywords.

Click on the downward arrow to see the URLs competing for the same keyword. And the competing URLs’ rankings for the keyword (on the latest date in view).

Then, remove the potential for further cannibalization by doing the following:

• Combining pages with similar content into a single, comprehensive page. And redirect the alternate pages to the main page.
• Editing your pages to focus on different target keywords or distinct aspects of a topic

Mapping your keywords and topics—and checking if these overlap with existing pages’ target keywords and topics—before creating them can also prevent keyword cannibalization issues from cropping up.

9 SEO Tips for Publishers

Here are nine SEO tips for publishers to increase visibility and conversions:

1. Put Readers Before Algorithms

Creating content that resonates with readers and encourages them to share, link, and return to your site is more important than writing for search engine algorithms. 

Creating genuinely reliable and engaging content will likely improve your search rankings and organic traffic over time.

Google emphasizes this point:

Google’s automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings, in the top Search results.

Do the following to create quality content that resonates with readers:

• Ensure your content meets search intent (i.e., the motivation behind a search). For example, if users are looking for places to visit in Mexico, create an article that recommends Mexican tourist destinations instead of discussing the country’s history.
• Add original insights and research to your content. Interview experts to enrich your content with insights gleaned over years of experience. Or conduct surveys and present data to back up your claims.
• Avoid keyword stuffing, which is using keywords repeatedly and unnaturally. Both readers and search engines will find the content difficult to follow—they might even see it as spammy.

2. Do Keyword Research

Create relevant content for your niche by conducting keyword research, which uncovers the phrases your target readers type into search engines.

Your keyword research strategy depends on the type of publication you have.

Say you run an industry publication that produces in-depth guides on topics in your niche. Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool can show you relevant search terms for topics worth covering.

Enter your target topic and domain into the tool, choose your target location, and then click “Search.”

You’ll see keyword suggestions based on your initial phrase, plus information like:

• Intent: The keyword’s search intent.
• Volume: The keyword’s average monthly search volume. Keywords with higher search volumes can bring in more traffic but can also be more competitive.
• Potential Traffic (Pot. Traffic): How much traffic you could get from ranking for the keyword
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %): A percentage score of your specific site’s chances of ranking in the top 10 for that keyword. The lower the score, the higher your chances.

You can also click the topics on the left to filter by subtopic:

From there, choose the keywords that best fit your brand’s content strategy.

For instance, you may want to target keywords with commercial intent if you intend to publish pieces with affiliate links. Since readers may click these links to buy something you’ve promoted in your content.

You could also go for keywords with low PKD %, as these will be easier to rank for.

3. Update Your Content for Freshness

Keep your content fresh—meaning updated and relevant—so it ranks well for news-related and other time-sensitive search queries.

Examples of queries that require content freshness include the following:

• “trending memes”—where searchers are looking for the latest viral memes
• “olympics sailing results”—where searchers want the latest Olympics sailing results
• “train breakdown”—if a train breakdown has just happened in the searcher’s city
• “blackpink concert dates 2025”—where searchers want dates for Blackpink concerts happening in 2025

People who search these queries want the most recent and up-to-date information. So search engine algorithms will prioritize ranking content that provides it.

Keep your content fresh by:

• Using media monitoring tools to closely follow discussions in your niche. That way, you’ll be in the know about recent events. And can update your pages—or create new ones—to cover them.
• Updating your pages in response to the latest developments. For example, information can become inaccurate following a change to the law. Update any pages containing references to that law as soon as possible.
• Regularly auditing your pages for underperforming content. Auditing your site reveals pages that have begun to slip in performance. And updating those pages will keep your content fresh and can improve your search rankings.

4. Optimize for Google News

Optimize your content to appear on Google News, which provides users with a personalized feed of news articles from various publishers based on their preferred topics.

Google ranks publishers’ content in Google News using factors like:

• Your content’s relevance to a news topic
• Your publication’s authoritativeness
• Your content’s freshness
• Your content’s location and language

So, optimize your content accordingly. For example, you can do the following:

• Research keywords relevant to a news topic you want to cover, and add these keywords to your content
• Publish your content soon after relevant incidents happen
• Create content in your target readers’ preferred languages

Getting backlinks (links from other sites to yours) can also increase your publication’s authoritativeness.

Then, track your content’s Google News performance in Google Search Console. By going to the “Performance on Google News” report.

Image Source: Google Developers

5. Use Structured Data to Make Your Pages Stand Out

Structured data makes paywalled content more discoverable and also helps Google understand your content better, so it can create more eye-catching and clickable listings on SERPs.

For example, structured data can tell Google what a news article’s headline and main image are. So Google can prominently display those elements on the SERP:

This makes news articles more clickable than a plain blue link.

Types of structured data that are relevant to publishers include the following:

• Article
• NewsArticle
• Review
• Video
• Speakable

Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper makes it easy to generate structured data.

First, choose the appropriate data type from the list.

Enter the URL of the page you want to apply the markup to or paste the page’s HTML. Then, select “Start Tagging.”

The tool will load your page on the left and a “Records” panel on the right:

Highlight the elements you’d like to mark up and select the corresponding data point.

For example, highlight your article’s author and choose the “Author” data item from the pop-up menu.

The tool will take the author’s name and place it next to the “Author” field on the right side.

You can also tag items on your page manually. On the right side, scroll down until you see the “Add missing tags” button.

Click it to open a pop-up window for adding tags manually.

Continue adding markup items.

When you’re done, click the “Create HTML” button at the top right of the screen to generate structured data you can add to your site.

Click the drop-down menu at the top to choose between JSON-LD (recommended) and microdata.

Copy the code. Then, go to your content management system (CMS) or other website platform and paste the code into your page’s

section.

After you’re done, check that you’ve implemented your structured data correctly using Site Audit’s “Markup” report. 

It’ll show you which pages have schema markup and if any of your pages have invalid structured data.

6. Optimize Your Images

Optimize your images so your pages load faster and are easier for search engines to understand— which can improve your pages’ search rankings.

To reduce your images’ load speeds, compress them with a free tool like TinyPNG. 

Just upload your image, and the tool will compress it (i.e., make the file size smaller).

Compressing your images may reduce their quality. So, find a good balance between file size and quality.

Also, set up lazy-loading on your site to ensure images only load when they appear on the screen.

This way, your pages won’t load images until users are ready to see them. Which can help your pages load faster.

If your site runs on WordPress, you can install a plugin like LazyLoad to do this.

Last but not least, add alternative text (usually called alt text) to your images to help search engines understand their content. Which can increase your images’ chances of ranking well.

Plus, alt text improves accessibility for visually impaired users, which can further increase engagement.

Alt text also appears when an image can’t load. That way, even users with slow internet speeds can still understand the image’s contents.

Most content management systems have image alt text settings, which means you don’t need to add alt text to your image’s HTML directly. 

Here’s what this setting looks like in WordPress:

Keep your alt text descriptive and concise and add relevant keywords where appropriate.

7. Add Internal Links to Share Authority

Internal links are links that connect pages within the same website, and they distribute ranking authority and help search engines understand the relationships between your content. 

Find authoritative pages and orphan pages (i.e., pages with no internal links pointing to them) using Semrush’s Site Audit.

Create a project within the tool. And click on “View details” under “Internal Linking.”

The “Internal Linking” report will show you which of your pages have the most authority and which ones have the least authority.

Click on “# issues” beside “Orphaned sitemap pages” to get a full list of URLs.

Add links from your authoritative pages to related low-ranking or orphaned pages.

8. Build Backlinks to Grow Readership

Build backlinks to grow referral traffic from other sites and to help your rankings.

Google uses backlinks to figure out whether your site is trustworthy. Backlinks from authoritative websites signal to Google that it can trust your content.

A higher level of trust can lead to better search rankings and more organic traffic.

Here’s an example of a backlink on a publisher’s website:

Newsworthy stories and in-depth features naturally attract shares. So, you may earn backlinks with minimal effort.

You can also publish content in partnership with another publication, influencer, or brand. Or encourage them to link to what you’ve created.

Find out what types of content attract backlinks with Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.

It also shows you the sites your competitors have gotten backlinks from. And those sites may be willing to link to you.

Type a competitor URL into the tool and click “Analyze.”

Head to the “Referring Domains” tab. Then, look at the “Root Domain / Category” column of the “Referring Domains” section.

Here, you’ll see the sites that link to your competitor and that might also want to link to you.

Next, click the “Indexed Pages” tab.

Here, you’ll see which of your competitor’s pages have the most referring domains, indicating the most popular types of content your audience enjoys.

Use these pages to inspire the content you create.

9. Use Canonical Tags to Rank the Right URLs

If you have multiple URLs pointing to the same page, use canonical tags to help web crawlers index and attribute ranking power to the page URL you want to rank.

A canonical tag is HTML that looks like this:

This tag lets you set your page’s “official” URL (also called the principal or primary version). This is important if your publication has parameterized URLs due to filtering, tags, or archiving.

For example, here are two URLs that direct to the same article:

• “https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/10/moon-cat-behavior-science/680320/”—which is the page’s official URL
• “https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/10/moon-cat-behavior-science/680320/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral”—which contains parameters identifying where the reader came from

The publication wants all the ranking authority to go to the official URL, not the parameterized one. So, it can add a canonical tag that points to the official URL.

Your CMS should offer options for setting up canonical URLs.

For instance, you can install the Yoast SEO plugin to automatically add canonical tags to all your pages if you’re using WordPress.

Boost Your Readership and Revenue with SEO for Publishers

If you want to bring in readers and revenue through search engines, invest in SEO tools to implement the tips above.

Semrush provides over 50 of these tools in a single platform. 

Sign up for a free account to try them.