SEO for Publishers

If it bleeds it leads and if it isn't ranked, the story tanks. Learn how we achieve top rankings for current events and news sites.

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BrewDog, Foxtons, UNILAD, eBay, Just Eat, University of Cambridge, and other clients

Publishing results

A sample of the growth we've driven for our clients. Each links to the full case study.

900K
Investment News
Migrated
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1M
UNILAD
Increase in organic clicks
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21%
BrewDog
Increase in Position 1 rankings
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Our SEO Approach for Publishers

Our SEO agency have been very lucky to work with the biggest Facebook page in the world, receiving well over a billion clicks a year.

From doing SEO for news websites, we've learned a lot about how Google treats fresh information and what they value the most when it comes to ranking your news articles.

We felt honoured when our former publishing client mentioned us in the Drum and commended us as a core part of their company growth strategy.

The reason we were able to grow the news websites SEO so effectively is because we understood that the SEO strategy for publishers needs to be completely different from other SEO clients that the agency works with.

In particular, we need to be aware that almost 99% of news is going to be consumed on a mobile device so having a lightening fast speed optimise site is going to be of paramount importance. At the time, Google was also rewarding websites with AMP (accelerated mobile pages) by pacing them in the news carousel at the top of the page, therefore, we knew that would need to be a core part of the strategy.

Small insights like this, lead to huge organic traffic gains, that's why it's important to chose an SEO agency with experience in your field, so you don't get generic advice that every business receives.

Standardised frameworks. Bespoke delivery.

Every engagement runs on the same proven frameworks — so nothing is left to chance — then we tailor the delivery to your market. It's the major difference between Type A and other agencies.

REST

Strategy

Research, Evaluation, Strategy, Tactics — the phase that produces your keyword universe, content gaps and prioritised technical plan.

BOOM

Implementation

Broken site, On-page, Off-page, Measurement — the implementation engine, shipped in fortnightly sprints and prioritised by value, not issue type.

FEED

Answer-engine content

Content planned and structured to be surfaced and cited by AI search, not just ranked by classic crawlers.

DISCO

Digital PR

Discovery, Ideation, Sign-off, Creation, Outreach — coverage on the publications your customers actually read.

DDDD

Creative campaigns

Define, Design, Develop, Deploy — audit findings turned into shipped campaigns and the links Google actually counts.

From audit to compounding growth

  1. Phase 1

    Strategy

    We audit your site, market, and competitors, then build a complete blueprint of what to ship.

  2. Phase 2

    Implementation

    We embed with your team to ship the technical, content, and outreach work the strategy calls for.

  3. Phase 3

    Early traffic

    First measurable traffic shifts land in the early weeks of implementation as quick wins compound.

  4. Phase 4

    Breakeven

    Mid-engagement, organic traffic and pipeline reach the level the investment paid for.

  5. Phase 5

    Compounding

    Long-term, SEO compounds — every page indexed and every link built keeps working without further spend.

Frequently asked questions

How to do SEO for News Publishers?

The SEO approach for  anew website is totally different to that of a standard ecomerce or lead generation site. The main differences are the size of the site, the frequency of content published and the KPIs. The publishing client cares about page views and stickiness as they monetise through CPM advertising. They also have 2 types of content on the site that require 2 different approaches ephemeral content that’s controlled by the QDF algorithm (query deserves freshness) and evergreen content. Due to the size of most news sites, SEO strategy cannot be isolated to particular keywords or pages, instead you must build a strategy that is site wide so that the client can rank for big events that happen in their chosen beat.

What is SEO in Publsihing?

SEO in publishing is usually teaching news editors how to optimise the titles of their articles for more search exposure in Google in order to get in the top stories section. However, optimising for Google Discover is antithetical to standard SEO practice as it is not keyword based, rather interest based. Therefore, SEO in publishing is not just one strategy it is multiple strategies for Discover, Top Stories and then evergreen content.

Do online magazines and newspapers need SEO?

Yes. In particular, optimising for sections of the newspaper to rank for major upcoming events can dramatically increase the exposure of the stories that the journalists are writing. On top of this, developing a SEO strategy to consistently appear in Discover and Top Stories will increase traffic to the magazine or newspaper.

How quickly will we see results?

First measurable traffic movement lands in the early weeks of implementation. Meaningful pipeline impact typically lands mid-engagement once the technical and content work compounds.

What does the engagement look like?

We start with a strategy phase that builds your blueprint — technical, content, outreach — then we embed with your team to ship it. You get senior strategists on the account from day one.

Who actually does the work?

The same person you meet on the discovery call runs your account. No bait-and-switch to junior account managers. We're a small team by design.

Ready to compete for industry search?

Tell us where you want to grow. We'll show you how we'd get you there.

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