Adam Sherk

  • About
  • SEO
  • Social Media
  • PR
  • Publishing

Does Google News Sitemaps New Format Help Publishers?

December 1, 2009 by Adam Sherk

Google News genre tag

In November Google announced a new format for Google News Sitemaps with several changes including new tags that provide additional detail on each submitted article. Google is using words like “more flexible,” “easier to submit,” “more control” and even “exciting” to describe the new format and transition period. That may be getting carried away but […]

The Most Common Causes of Duplicate Content on News Media Sites

October 8, 2009 by Adam Sherk

Although search engines keep improving on their ability to deal with duplicate content this continues to be one of the main SEO issues facing news and content sites. Even when the engines do a reasonable job of filtering out duplicates in their results, sites are essentially shooting themselves in the foot by splitting internal and […]

Free Tools for Monitoring Hot Search Trends

October 1, 2009 by Adam Sherk

UPDATE: For a more current list see my newer post: The Best Tools for Keyword Research, Competitive Analysis and Trending Topics. A tactic that some news and content sites employ is monitoring Google’s Hot Trends list in an effort to identify hot topics and then quickly produce matching content around them. Does this work? Sometimes. […]

Google News Optimization Tips

September 3, 2009 by Adam Sherk

This week Google put out a video to give publishers more information on how Google News works and how best to optimize for it. I pulled out some of the more useful tips, combining information from some of the slides with additional details provided by Google’s Maile Ohye. Article Ranking Factors within a Story Cluster […]

Yahoo Adds Enhanced News Results to SearchMonkey

August 31, 2009 by Adam Sherk

On Friday Yahoo announced new additions to its SearchMonkey enhanced results, including options for news content. SearchMonkey allows sites to use structured data to include additional information in their Yahoo search results such as addresses and phone numbers, review scores, pricing, etc. For news sites, the publication date and a photo can be added to […]

5 Ways to Deal with Seasonal Dips in Search Engine Traffic

August 25, 2009 by Adam Sherk

July and August are a time when many content sites see a seasonal dip in all forms of traffic, including search engine referrals. Major stories that emerge (such as Michael Jackson or the health care debate) can bring large spikes in search traffic, but it’s common to see the numbers drop after May and not […]

Google News Now Recrawling Updated Articles

August 20, 2009 by Adam Sherk

This week Search Engine Roundtable highlighted a Google News Help thread in which Google confirmed that it is now able to recrawl articles that have been updated within a “short period of time” of the original publishing. Google employee “Inbal” later provided a more specific time window, indicating “the rate at which we recrawl may […]

Great Example of a Multimedia News Article from ESPN.com

August 14, 2009 by Adam Sherk

Recently I wrote about the importance of including meaningful content in videos embedded in press releases. Today I came across a great example of how to incorporate video and other multimedia content into a news article. This ESPN.com article on Michael Vick signing with the Philadelphia Eagles features a video player right below the headline […]

Article Highlights: Good for Users, Good for Search Engines

July 28, 2009 by Adam Sherk

CNN story highlights

Yesterday Steve Rubel pointed out how the article highlights on sites like CNN.com and iMedia Connection are a good time saver for him. CNN.com places a “Story Highlights” section with bullet points to the right of the headline, for example: While a great feature for users, article highlights are also an effective SEO technique. The […]

Yahoo News Syndication: Attribution Links Not SEO-Friendly

July 9, 2009 by Adam Sherk

Google results comparing Yahoo News and LiveScience.com

In my post on syndication best practices I noted that one way to reduce the likelihood that partners will outrank you for own content is to require a link back to your original on every syndicated article, for example: This article originally appeared on Example.com: [direct link to original article, ideally with the headline as […]

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Subscribe and Connect

Follow @adamsherk

About Adam Sherk

Adam Sherk is an SEO and PR consultant helping publishers with digital strategy and audience development, including enterprise SEO, public relations and social media marketing.

Adam is VP SEO and Digital Strategy for Define Media Group.

Recent Posts

  • 8 Critical SEO and Digital Marketing Opportunities for Publishers
  • How Much Google News Traffic Do Publishers Get? Here’s Data on 80 News Sites.
  • 10 Things That Expose Good Sites to Google Panda
  • Mobile Visits Account for 40% of All Traffic for Publishers
  • The Best Tools for Keyword Research, Competitive Analysis and Trending Topics

Categories

  • Public Relations
  • Publishing
  • SEO
  • Social Media

Popular Posts

  • The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases
  • 5 Ways that Social Media Impacts SEO
  • Media Relations Gone Wrong: How Not to Pitch a Journalist (Video)
  • The Most Common Google News Errors and How to Avoid Them
  • SEO Guidelines for Sponsored Content and Partner Links
  • 8 Social Media Questions Publishers Should Be Asking Themselves
  • Top Link Building Tactics for Publishers
  • The Best Free (or Cheap) Tools for Blogger and Influencer Outreach
  • A Simple Workflow for Keyword Research for Content Planning
  • Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools
  • The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics
  • Editorial SEO Tactics for the Newsroom
  • SEO Metrics for Publishers: How are You Tracking and Measuring Success?
  • Free Tools for Monitoring Hot Search Trends
  • Google News Optimization Tips

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed on this blog are Adam Sherk's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his company or its clients.

Sitemap | RSS | © 2009-present AdamSherk.com