Backlinks from news sites are instrumental in raising a web page’s search engine rankings. That’s one of the conclusive findings from the Search Marketing Expo, or SMX Advanced, gathering, Neil Patel writes in Search Engine Journal.
Considering the importance of backlinks from authoritative news websites for search engine optimization, Patel recommends considering:
- Press releases to stay current and visible,
- Help a reporter out (HARO) to gain access to reporters,
- Personal branding to become an authority and spokesperson in your niche,
- Industry forums to obtain news coverage,
- Community involvement to obtain mentions and links in local papers,
- Blogging about current events to become a source of research and quotation from news sites.
In short, Patel seems to recommend a comprehensive PR program to achieve better search engine rankings. Other SEO experts believe press releases don’t carry as much authoritative weight as they have in the past. “Press releases are still beneficial for SEO in 2015, but their power and their nature are in the middle of a transformative shift,” writes Forbes contributor Jason DeMers.
Including your brand name in the same sentence as your keywords can increase the SEO benefits. Including your brand name in the title can help the brand name rank well in searches of your brand name. That provides a degree of control over your online reputation.
Press releases pose some disadvantages and challenges, Demers says. Although they provide multiple inbound links, their SEO benefits are diminished because they come from duplicate content.
Persuading prominent web publications to accept your press releases can be difficult. Being relegated to second- or third-tier publications reduces SEO benefits.
Because of the large number of news sites publishing large numbers of unedited press releases, Google’s algorithm now views press releases more skeptically. If you publish too many, or publish them stuffed with links, your rankings could actually suffer.
In addition, the costs of writing and distributing national or trade press releases can be high for small businesses.
How Websites Rank High in Search Results
Search engine optimization (SEO) experts at the conference’s Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors panel disclosed crucial elements of top-ranking websites, Patel explains.
Backlinks. Some experts have questioned if backlinks retain their priority in a constantly changing SEO environment. Yet research from Cyrus Shepard at Moz demonstrates that links are more important than ever. Patel recommends against old-school link-building campaigns and instead urges a careful white-hat strategy of obtaining relevant high-quality backlinks.
Interactive elements. High-ranking websites tend to contain interactive elements, such as social sharing buttons, embedded tweets, interactive infographics, polls and quizzes. Websites that lack interactive elements can still improve their search results with top-notch navigation, a clean interface, and superior design.
Readability. Well-performing web pages usually rank well on the Flesch readability scale, which measures how easy text is to read on a scale of 0 to 100 based on the number of words per sentence and the number of syllables in words. Readable text has an average sentence length of 12 words or fewer and no words over two syllables. Text that is hard to read has sentences averaging over 37 words and words averaging over two syllables.
Lists. List-based articles, or listicles, have long been a web hallmark. Both web surfers and search engines still love them, Patel says. Smartphone users and time-pressed web searchers want to find information quickly. Most importantly, users like structured content.
HTTPS. Google announced last year that HTTPS, or secure encrypted connections, will become an important ranking factor. SEO experts have not seen a critical impact yet, although some sites seem to have slightly improved their rankings with HTTPS connections. Still, if web managers can implement HTTPS, they should.
Keywords. Identifying relevant keywords is important, but web content producers don’t need to obsess over semantic variations of keywords. In addition, stuffing content with exact match keywords is a red flag for web spam filters.
User intent. The most important factor in increasing search rankings is satisfying user intent and user experience. In other words, rather than fretting over keywords and page optimization, answer users’ questions, provide the information they seek, and solve their problems. If you do that, your copy will naturally contain the right keywords.
User Experience is Crucial
Searchmetrics research this year confirmed that user experience is a crucial factor in strong search engine results. Websites that rank higher are better structured and more responsive. They offer superior organization and a user-friendly experience, according to its study, Search Ranking Factors and Rank Correlations – Google US 2015.
“Closely relate to the content and user experience are user signals such as time on site and bounce rates because they tell Google if people find your information useful and engaging,” said Searchmetrics Chief Technology Officer and founder Marcus Tober. “Google can measure these signals very effectively, for example by analyzing user behavior from people who use its Google Chrome web browser. So if you want your pages to rank well, you can’t get away with providing content that isn’t relevant or by providing a poor experience.”
Bottom Line: Obtaining backlinks from top news websites is one of the most crucial tactics for achieving better search engines results. Because of that, PR professionals who assume a major link-building role, should work with their SEO teams and consider user intent to improve the organization’s search engine results.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
