6 Months of SEO Optimization for Vertical Media: 64% Growth in Search Traffic

Company Overview

A vertical media company with a 35-year history, originally have focused on print media, is gradually transitioning into the digital realm. At the time FB could bring stable traffic, suddenly, the traffic from Facebook just gone and no way back.

In April 2022, I have joined the company and focus on SEO, traffic growth, and optimization.

Task and KPI Set

The primary objective was to increase search traffic.

Secondary objectives included acquiring traffic from the exploration feature and spotlight news (the primary sources of traffic for the media).

Results of Phase One Optimization

1. Search traffic increased by 63.9% (calculated up to October 2022).
2. Overall website traffic increased by 46.5% (calculated up to October 2022).
3. Google Exploration traffic grew by over 200,000 page views.
4. Referral traffic increased by over 50%.
5. Search exposure increased by 37.8%.
6. The number of search queries increased by 24.6%.
7. Articles occupied Google’s search results first page.
8. After four months of optimization, in August 2022, traffic reached the highest level in the company’s 35-year history.

Update: After 13 months of optimization, search traffic grew by 134.7%, referral traffic increased by 67%, and overall website traffic increased by 166.6% (as of May 2023).

During the four months of optimization, social media traffic consistently declined.

It’s important to be aware that media and brands have different operations and key performance indicators. While brands prioritize conversions, media companies prioritize traffic. Therefore, this article focuses primarily on traffic-related metrics and optimization of content pages.

1. SEO Checkup:

A structured approach to assessing the current status, identifying areas for improvement, and planning additional elements.

2. Website Optimization:

Implementing best practices recommended by Google Search Central, including:

1.breadcrumbs

2.structured data

3.article table of contents

You can see apparently improvement after you try the above 3 items.

3. Content Optimization:

The critical aspect is the structure of the content.

A well-structured article is not only user-friendly but also favorable for web crawlers.

A hierarchical content structure, such as the pyramid principle is recommended.

Make sure you have H2 and H3, your content can at least keep 2 stages.

You can check the pyramid principle here.

Build a KeyWord list

Prepare a keyword suggestion list with various categories such as primary keywords, related terms, and long-tail keywords, helping editors choose topics for content creation based on keyword competitiveness.

Something also need to pay efforts

1. Internal Linking:Effective internal linking, especially for critical content, enhances user experience and SEO performance. Prioritize essential content for more internal links.
2. Content Expansion:To maintain or improve rankings, it is essential to provide follow-up content for high-performing topics, both horizontally and vertically. Consistently expanding on these topics can help secure a stable position in search results.
3. Alt Text for Images:Properly optimizing image alt text is a basic yet often overlooked aspect of SEO. It can significantly impact image search and accessibility.

4.System and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Daily report

1.performance of website yesterday

2.websites ranking

3. top 3 traffic articles: this is to ensure that the SEO process is well-organized and consistently executed.

4. review keyword yesterday:you can do it with GSC report to tell them like “new”, “rise”, “popular(boom)”, “throwback”.

5.Google trend:select keywords from Google trend.

Daily articles discuss

Share the daily reports with editors and discuss the priority of different topics, what’s worth expanding, what’s need to keep optimizing.

Weekly keyword

I usually seek new ideas for topics of content. How to set H2 , H3 for each content, reference information and so on. After this, I will check and optimize weekly.

Data Dashboard

I created a data dashboard by using Looker Studio that provides a quick overview of key performance metrics, such as website traffic, search performance, and keyword ranking.

This dashboard can make up by 2 part,

Traffic

1. compare with previous period
2. tracking outside traffic: to observe search traffic
3. compare with last year traffic

Search Console

1. exposure and keywords track
2. stage of searching and number of users
3. Bubble chart
4. search keywords ranking
5. site search ranking
6. keyword URL

Bubble chart is kind of frequently use to create new article, it’s allowed you can find out the keywords need to expand and the keywords you don’t find before.

Content Upload Guidelines

Developing comprehensive content creation guidelines that cover not only SEO elements but also aspects related to user experience and engagement.

Regular Optimization of Existing Contents:

Regularly revisiting and optimizing older content that might have become outdated can help recover lost traffic and improve rankings.

Inhouse SEOer Outlines

Build process

Not only your own but also your team, since SEO need longer time to accumulate and see the performance.

FYI,here’s the daily, weekly, monthly routine operations for me and my team.

Mine

1. GA report
2. analysis of google console
3. analysis of search trend and select topic
4. existing articles need to be optimized
5. report of data from each channels yesterday→daily report
6. new articles discuss meeting
7. optimized existing contents
8. monitor competitors

Weeky routine

1. update keywords list
2. update topics list
3. QC & Optimization: Keyword Selection Article → Rank Monitoring

Monthly routine

1. analysis keywords: to check wether Imp. and search keyword keep growing
2. analysis data of websit

Team’s

1. daily topic: editors will provides ideas for new articles
2. editors weekly report:leader of editor will provide how competitor did and what we gonna do for next steps.
3. weekly selected keyword articles(need to update the status on report)
4. next month theme meeting

Summary

This is probably the longest and most heavily illustrated article so far. I’ve observed that most SEO-related sharing in the market focuses mainly on branding, with little mention of media.

With this rather special and somewhat challenging media work, I’d like to share some different operational approaches, hoping it will be helpful to everyone. I also welcome discussion and exchange of ideas!

The next step is to continue leveraging content operations to amplify the effectiveness of SEO optimization.

Please read: Content Operations: The Key of Successful SEO

If you think this article is well-written, please give me 5–10 claps, or even fewer if you feel that way, to let me know if I need to work harder.

If you find this article inspiring, please share it with your friends, as they might need it too.