Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Which news organizations are having the most success with the Google News standout tag? I monitored “Featured” articles in Google News for 90 days to find out. Basically most weekdays I’d check Google News once or twice a day. Related posts: The Google News Standout Tag: Does it Work? The Results.

News 159

News Study Google Journal 159

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Google News Optimization Tips by Adam Sherk on September 3, 2009 This week Google put out a video to give publishers more information on how Google News works and how best to optimize for it. This is data driven and not an “arbitrary decision.”

News 158

News Google Tips Press Release 158

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

The Google News news_keywords meta tag is now available to all publishers that are approved for inclusion. It is nice that Google News is trying to accommodate publishers and allow for more witty, print-style headlines. But it is fair to say that Google News has always been a strange beast.

News 162

News Google SEO Publishing 162

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 22, 2011

User reactions have been mixed so far (some find them overwhelming or borderline obnoxious) but Google is touting the user benefits and the expanded sitelinks appear to be here to stay. Do Google’s Expanded Domain Results Apply to News and Video Listings? Rich Snippets: Increase Google Visibility for Reviews through Microformats.

Google 215

Google URL Sites Issues 215

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 3, 2013

Whenever I do a presentation on Google+ for publishers I mention that quite a few news and content brands are among the most followed pages. The point being that Google+ does indeed offer good opportunities for audience development, engagement and content promotion. The Most Followed News and Content Sites on Google+.

News 161

News Sites Google Content 161

Adam Sherk

JULY 8, 2011

Earlier this week Search Engine Land reported that Christian Oestlien, the Ads Lead for Google+, had posted a message asking businesses to hold off on using personal accounts to create business pages and that non-user profiles would be shut down. Related posts: Google Social Search: Are You in Your Target Audiences’ Social Circles?

Google 111

Google News Engineering Report 111

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 14, 2010

I saw Malcolm Coles’ post on Google’s reading level scores for UK newspapers and thought it would be fun to do the same thing for US news sites. Last week Google released a new search filter that allows users to refine search results by reading level. So what reading level does Google assign to major news sites in the US?

Sites 232

Sites News Google Yahoo 232

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Essentially Google has turned up the dial on its “query deserves freshness” algorithm. Last week a search on “joe paterno” brought up these results one page one in Google: [Click to enlarge the image]. It is simply a recent event that illustrates the Google freshness update in action. What You Can Do.

Reputation 155

Reputation Google Wikipedia Embedding 155

Adam Sherk

JULY 10, 2012

The demographics of Google+ are typically described as predominantly male and young. But that is not always the case; sites that are geared towards women are drawing a Google+ audience that is largely female. For example, take a look at the +1 Audience Report from the Google Webmaster Tools profile of a major fashion site.

Google 119

Google Fashion Sites Report 119

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

News publishers are all too familiar with the fact that Google News doesn’t always do such a great job of favoring original sources in its story clusters. Today I noticed an example that is worth pointing out because you’d think Google News would be able to handle it properly. Google News Optimization Tips.

News 121

News Google Syndication Aggregator 121

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 1, 2010

In reading a post on Google Operating System about the Most Shared section on Google News I found it interesting that a press release from NASA was among the leaders.

Press Release 127

Press Release News Google System 127

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 20, 2009

Google employee “Inbal” later provided a more specific time window, indicating “the rate at which we recrawl may vary, but we try to go back and check for changes in article content within the first 12 hours after we first find it.” I went looking for an updated story in Google News today and was able to find an example.

News 101

News Google Syndication Press Release 101

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 1, 2009

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Does Google News Sitemaps New Format Help Publishers? by Adam Sherk on December 1, 2009 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.

News 104

News Publishing Google Press Release 104

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Sharing and discussing content is a key component of Google Buzz, so it’s a natural fit for article promotion and audience development. To what degree that happens depends on how well Google does at improving the interface and functionality. Related posts: Google Social Search: Are You in Your Target Audiences’ Social Circles?

Sites 118

Sites News Google Facebook 118

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 20, 2011

For the past couple years Google has been embedding a Hot Trends graph in the regular search results for the top 100 fastest rising terms. Did Google discontinue this feature? Then in December a colleague pointed out that the graphs were no longer being embedded in the search results.

Embedding 114

Embedding Trends Google Tools 114

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 24, 2010

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Do Google’s Expanded Domain Results Apply to News and Video Listings? But CNN did get two embedded video listings on the page, beating out YouTube: Finally, for the query “mosque near ground zero ABC” NPR and AP got the Google News listings, not ABC.

News 113

News List Google Embedding 113

Adam Sherk

MAY 22, 2009

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Google News Wants Title Tags to Match Headlines? So it appears this tip is intended to make it easier for Google News to understand the correct title for articles, as opposed to being a “must do&# to prevent an issue.

News 100

News Google Syndication Press Release 100

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Google Social Search: Are You in Your Target Audiences’ Social Circles? So if you link to your Twitter account on your Google profile the people you’re following on Twitter become part of your social circle. If not how do we get there?

Google 109

Google Google Reader Press Release Survey 109

Adam Sherk

MAY 13, 2009

Initially Google is supporting data on reviews and people. Initially Google is supporting data on reviews and people. You can follow Google’s guidelines for marking up structured data to learn how to do it, including the specific properties for reviews. But now is a good time to begin experimenting with it.

Review 100

Review Google Embedding Press Release 100

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Believe it or not, being indexed in Google and Google News is actually good for news sites. Google-less? Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now! – If You de-Index Will They Still Come?

News 101

News Google Hitwise Press Release 101

Adam Sherk

JUNE 5, 2009

While it’s good news that Google is continuing to improve its ability to deal with JavaScript, this change also impacts the way that many publishers display sponsored links on their sites. Is Google going to run out and start penalizing sites with sponsored links in JavaScript? Google News Wants Title Tags to Match Headlines?

Publishing 100

Publishing Google NoFollow Guidelines 100

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Google AdWords: Keyword Planner. Google’s Keyword Planner has become a hassle for new users to set up since it now requires having an AdWords account. Google Trends. Editorial teams like using Google Trends because there is no sign-up or login required. Google Webmaster Tools: Search Queries. Search Trends.

Analysis 241

Analysis Research Trends Tools 241

Adam Sherk

APRIL 3, 2013

This topic has been in the news recently with Google first issuing a reminder that any links within sponsored content should not pass PageRank. How do publishers ensure that sponsored content complies with Google’s guidelines? In addition, do not include sponsored content in your Google News sitemap.

Guidelines 260

Guidelines SEO NoFollow Module 260

Adam Sherk

APRIL 30, 2013

Google+ Tools. But Google+ is a decent method as well, since Google Authorship participation results in people adding links to their blogs and sites they contribute to on their profile. And since social media and Google+ in particular have an impact on SEO there are also secondary benefits to locating influencers there.

Blogger 196

Blogger BuzzStream Influencer Tools 196

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 14, 2015

As a user I like the new hosted and mobile-specific article formats, be that Facebook Instant Articles , Apple News Format or Google’s AMP project. App Indexing for both Google and Apple is another growing trend. The support information on the Google Developers site covers the main opportunities. Google News.

SEO 100

SEO Syndication Marketing NoFollow 100

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Use keyword research tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Google Insights for Search to evaluate and refine candidates and discover popular variations. Check what news stories and press releases currently come up for your top candidates in Google News and Yahoo News. Google News Optimization Tips. Title/headline.

Press Release 206

Press Release Tips Adwords Yahoo 206

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 17, 2013

So as I stumble across the finish line, here are my top posts of 2013 by pageviews: The Most Common Google News Errors and How to Avoid Them. Google+ Engagement for News Sites: Top Performers and One-Year Growth Rates. The Google News Standout Tag: Does it Work? SEO Tips for Infinite Scrolling.

SEO 129

SEO Publishing Social Media Sports 129

Adam Sherk

MARCH 26, 2013

According to Google Trends, yes. Google Trends Graphs No Longer Embedded in Search Results? While doing some research I was surprised to see that search interest in the keyword phrase [celebrity gossip] peaked around 2009. As for celebrity gossip, despite the decline it is clear that it is still a priority term.

Adwords 133

Adwords Embedding Comparison Trends 133

Adam Sherk

MARCH 16, 2010

Google, Bing and Yahoo are all experimenting with various forms of real-time results now and making deals with Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. In its “Latest results” Google blends results from Google News and Google Blog Search with updates from Twitter and Facebook Pages, offering multiple paths in for news and content sites.

Sites 143

Sites News Yahoo Engineering 143

Adam Sherk

APRIL 24, 2012

It has been a couple years now since page speed has been an official Google ranking factor and one year since the launch of PageSpeed Online , the Web-based version of Google’s tool for analyzing site performance. Related posts: Google Page Speed Ratings One Year Later: News Sites Range from Up 27% to Down 73%.

Sites 187

Sites News Yahoo Comparison 187

Adam Sherk

JULY 9, 2013

I also wanted to point out some helpful tools to use at various stages of the process: Google AdWords Keyword Tool (soon to be discontinued in favor of the Keyword Planner which requires an AdWords account). Google Trends. Site Analytics (Omniture SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics, etc.).

Research 183

Research Content Hitwise Adwords 183

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk Why the News Business Isn’t Profitable by Guest on September 10, 2010 This is a guest post from Aaron Goldman , author of Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google. You just Google it, right? came over from Google. Or trying to find a handyman?

News 121

News Press Release Survey SEO 121

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 12, 2011

Socialbakers is also now branching out into Twitter, Google+ and others but Facebook is still the major focus. The catch is you need to be using Webtrends, so this is not an option for those on Omniture or Google Analytics. Socialbakers. Their Engagement Analytics Pro offers performance monitoring and competitive analysis for Facebook.

Analytics 253

Analytics Tools Lithium Facebook 253

Adam Sherk

MAY 15, 2012

And Google+. And what the heck is Google+? We get a lot of releases. –But mine is really important. I sent it to you on Twitter. And Facebook. I took a picture of it and shared it on Pinterest. I have no idea what release you are talking about. –Seriously though, my press release. It says “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.”

Press Release 269

Press Release Vocus Video Embedding 269

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 1, 2009

I personally found that Google Trends tends to be a little more sensationalistic than the others. Real-time Blogroll (via Google Reader) About.com Founder Scott Kurnit Launches Huge New Startup Called "AdKeeper" New Digg Buttons Released - Upgrade Now! Here are some free resources for identifying hot topics and search trends.

Trends 146

Trends Tools Embedding Digg 146

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 16, 2013

In working with publishers one of the things I’m most frequently asked to do is troubleshoot problems with Google News. Anyone on staff at a news or content site can attest to the importance of Google News and news search optimization. Not an approved source – site not showing up in Google News? Eligibility and Indexation.

News 261

News Google Embedding How To 261

Adam Sherk

APRIL 13, 2010

Home About Contact PR Publishing SEO Social Media Subscribe Adam Sherk 25 Major News Sites Ranked by Page Speed by Adam Sherk on April 13, 2010 Now that site speed is officially a Google ranking factor, site performance and page load time are important for SEO as well as usability. So how well do major news sites perform in these areas?

Sites 161

Sites News Yahoo Journal 161