Why Search Should Be Part of Your Digital Strategy

By Adriana Lacy • Issue #7 • View online

Happy Monday, all.

This week I want to talk a little about search, why it’s important in your editorial strategy and search trends to look out for in 2019. As always, I’m available on Twitter (@adriana_lacy) and email.

Let's Google It

An off-platform strategy is not complete unless Google is factor. While platforms like Facebook have been traditionally strong in the past as a referrer for most publishers, things are changing.

Search is often a gateway for many readers to your site. Even subscribers, who have access to on-platform products like apps will still find your big story through search.

For those who may not have a sole person dedicated to search on your team, here are three good places to start if you want your publication to start thinking more about search this year.

1) Prioritize Good Journalism

When people hear “search,” they often think about those really awful stories that pop up after a major event. Remember Newsweek’s headlines last year?

Newsweek and the race to fill Google with suicide news - The Verge

Coverage of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade’s deaths was graphic, clickbaity, and tasteless. It’s part of a larger trend.

www.theverge.com • Share

A good search strategy isn’t just producing a story about any and everything that people are searching on Google.

A good search strategy is about considering which stories will help your readers understand the world while still sticking to your organization’s core values.

2) Use Google Trends

Speaking of Google … if you’re not utilizing Google Trends, start now. Trends gives you an inside look at what people are searching for on any given topic. You can check searches that have happened in the past day or even go back to a specific time or look in a geographically based location.

What I love most about Trends is its versatility. You can see what people are searching for during a particular event (for example, when Roger Stone was arrested earlier this week, many people took to Google: “who is roger stone?”) or you can see what search trends exist around a reoccurring event.

For example, the Super Bowl is coming up in a few days. You can get ahead of the game by seeing what people searched on Google last year around that time, and see if any of those searches have potential to be a breakout story this year.

Oh, and did I mention all of this is free?

3)Think Evergreen

Search does a great job at capturing readers during breaking news events. But it can also be utilized in the long-term, capturing readers for months or even years after the original article is written.

Let’s try it.

Google: “how to cure headache”

Once you search this, Google will serve you a pop up box from an article written in 2011.

As a reader, your first result will be to click this article to see more. This evergreen strategy can extend to more newsy events as well.

Explainer articles that ask questions like “what is the government shutdown” and “what is brexit” are great for search, becuase as updates to these stories continue to happen, people will take to search to ask those same questions.

What I'm Reading

Google shares tips for success in Google News search results - Search Engine Land

Danny Sullivan, public liaison for Google Search, posted on the Google Webmaster blog some tips on how to succeed in Google News in 2019.

searchengineland.com • Share

Why Voice Search Will Dominate SEO In 2019 -- And How You Can Capitalize On It — Forbes

By 2020, 30% of all website sessions will be conducted without a screen. Voice search allows users to browse the web the Internet and consumer information without actually having to scroll through sites on desktops and mobile devices. And this new technology may be the key to business growth.

www.forbes.com • Share

Google Explains its Own Company's Approach to SEO - Search Engine Journal

Google has provided an inside look into how the company approaches SEO for its own properties.

www.searchenginejournal.com • Share

The Authority Report — Parse.ly

The data analyzed in this report includes 8 billion page views for 1 million articles across our network of thousands of sites from April and May 2018. We used natural language processing to classify our network’s content into standardized categories and relevant topics. Individual articles in this study can be associated with more than one category and contain several topics

learn.parsely.com • Share

Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets — The Guardian

What can we learn about ourselves from the things we ask online? Seth Stephens‑Davidowitz analysed anonymous Google search data, uncovering disturbing truths about our desires, beliefs and prejudices

www.theguardian.com • Share

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By Adriana Lacy

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