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The 2024 two-day SEO event for news publishers again showed it’s the benchmark for intense information, discussion, and learning around Google Discover, algorithm updates, site migrations, technical SEO, AI overviews, and more.
Last week’s fourth annual NESS News and Editorial SEO Summit, hosted by Polemic Digital’s Barry Adams and NewzDash founder and CEO John Shehata, drew together the cream of the SEO crop for an audience of SERP specialists and news publishers worldwide. What did they all learn?
The summit has rapidly become a must-attend event for the world's top SEOs, and featured a diverse range of topics presented by some of the industry's leading experts, including Glenn Gabe from G-Squared Interactive, Lily Ray from Amsive and of course the hosts themselves.
Representing the CMS for publishers crowd, we went to soak up the knowledge, run a booth to connect with publishers and SEOs, and to listen to what audience teams are saying.
Glide CPO Rich Fairbairn explained: "A huge part of what we do when working with publishers and media teams is helping them execute their SEO strategies, so it's vital to be at events like this, and bring insight back into our collective knowledge working with customers and to improve the product. We have run SEO events in the past for just this reason, and will be doing so again later this year in conjunction with John and Barry, and AWS."
Key takeaways included effective strategies for leveraging Google Discover, methods for news publishers to recover from Google's Core Updates and algorithm changes, insights into SEO strategies for political campaigns and live events, and best practices for website performance and optimisation.
Let's dive into the highlights.
In one of the summit's most compelling presentations, Glenn Gabe discussed what may have been the most tumultuous year of Google Search updates, which dramatically impacted traffic patterns for news publishers globally. We’ve learned firsthand from publishers of every stripe just what impact an algorithm update can have, so this session was No.1 on the agenda for everyone.
Glenn highlighted the rapid increase of AI-generated content and its potential negative consequences if Google perceives such content as lacking human input. His primary advice for news publishers was to prioritise writing for human readers rather than search engines, focusing on quality and helpful content that enhances user experience - including optimal ad placement, effective website presentation, and credible sourcing.
This aligns with Glenn’s well-known “kitchen sink” approach to remediation: rather than selectively addressing issues, publishers should strive to resolve as many problems as possible.
Key takeaway from Glenn’s presentation:
Bookmark Glenn’s GSQi blog for the latest SEO topics and give him a follow on LinkedIn and X.
With the US election in mind, John Shehata seized the opportunity to discuss live news and events SEO.
He emphasised the importance of planning content strategies using specific blueprints applicable to major events such as the Oscars, Super Bowl, the Champions League Final, elections, and other diaried events.
This was doubly interesting because Glide contains its own dedicated Live Reports CMS within the platform. We know that publishers have well formulated battleplans to cover big events and breaking news, and it was really useful to see how a matching SEO strategy gets built up to help get the best from the editorial oomph a live report generates.
Shehata asserted that successful live news coverage hinges on strategic planning, keyword research, competition analysis, good Core Web Vitals, and the incorporation of interactive elements like poll trackers and voting guides. He also stressed the importance of analysing past performance during similar events to double down on what works.
John’s pro tips:
Follow John on X and LinkedIn and check out the incredible Guides page on NewzDash.
Lily Ray shared her expertise on recovering from the challenges posed by Google Core Updates and preventive measures for news publishers. She discussed the different types of updates that can arise during specific events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic when Google turned its attention to medical websites.
Lily emphasised that Google employs distinct guidelines for evaluating EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), particularly on platforms like Reddit and forums, where “authentic human conversations” are valued.
“Google is trying to mix authoritative content together with authentic human conversations,” Lily explained.
She cautioned that issues such as low-quality or AI-generated content, excessive SEO manipulation, intrusive advertising, poor UX, and broken technical SEO can significantly hinder performance during Core Updates.
She also touched upon controversial content in Google Discover that can create problems during Core updates if editors keep mixing such articles with their main topics. These include highly political content, violent content, and anything that Google would recognise as hateful content by their standards.
Key advice from Lily to prevent Core updates impacting traffic negatively:
Be sure to follow Lily on X and LinkedIn for a steady stream of useful content! And don’t miss her blog on Amsive where she dives deep into the latest SEO trends with expert analysis.
Barry Adams looked at that most joyous of things - site migrations...arguably the biggest headache in any tech transformation and one peppered with risk if done badly.
He outlined an essential Do's and Don'ts list for publishers and other site owners when redesigning, restructuring, replatforming, or relaunching sites, and made it clear that any change can carry risks. He particularly cautioned that certain enhancements - such as URL updates - can result in the loss of link value and topic authority.
Barry says that the key to a successful migration lies in thorough preparation, and outlined several critical steps that website owners should take before initiating any migration.
Six Essential Steps Before Every Site Migration
For those considering combined migrations that involve a few or all types of migrations, Barry highlighted the potential risks and increased complexity. He stated, “The more you change, the greater the chance something may go wrong.”
To mitigate risks, he recommended isolating each migration element. For instance, after implementing a redesign, allow a period of 10-12 weeks for the changes to stabilise before introducing the next set of changes.
While combined migrations can be more complex, they also offer advantages, such as a faster process and the potential for short-term pain but quicker recovery and long-term growth.
Barry also shared a few examples of site mergers, illustrating the issues that can arise when two sites have mismatched topic authority. He referenced the 2022 merger between The Athletic, a sports news site, and the New York Times, as well as the Gillette Venus domain, which experienced a significant traffic decline post-merger.
Barry Adams’ Tips for Successful Site Migration
Barry has an excellent blog with these and plenty of other tips and tricks we highly recommend if you’re getting your site ready for migration.
You can also find him on BlueSky and LinkedIn.
For a deeper dive into SEO, here are lots more interesting articles and blog posts from NESS 2024 speakers.
Last but certainly not least check out our own Content Aware newsletter for media and publishing news and comment every week.
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