Title: Navigating the Rollercoaster: Google’s Ever-Changing SEO Landscape and its Impact on the News Industry
Imagine a boss who rarely communicates, constantly alters performance metrics, and penalizes you without explanation. That’s Google, in a nutshell, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) for news organizations. Since its inception, Google has revolutionized the search industry, but for newsrooms, attempting to appease the world’s most influential algorithm can feel like a never-ending guessing game.
In the early days, SEO was relatively straightforward. All it took was sprinkling a few keywords into headlines, such as ‘Salman Khan Diet Plan’ or ‘Smartphones Under 10,000′, and the traffic would pour in, much like a sudden dust storm in Delhi during June. In the 2010s, SEO in newsrooms was akin to horoscopes in newspapers – not fully understood, but effective in attracting readers. All you had to do was cram keywords into headlines like an overstuffed vada pao, and Google would reward us with page views.
However, we weren’t optimizing for Google; we were gaming the system. And the system, it seemed, didn’t mind. The mantra was “Content is king,” but in reality, content with the right keywords was more like an emperor.
Google, of course, was aware of this situation. In response, they began releasing updates annually, focusing on what truly mattered. These updates, which have since become even more frequent, demonstrate the company’s commitment to its core business. Names such as Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird were assigned to these updates, each one brutally changing the game.
Suddenly, keyword stuffing was no longer tolerated. User experience became paramount. Headlines needed to be meaningful and engaging. One day, an evergreen article on “budget smartphones” might be driving 100,000 daily pageviews. The next day, it could disappear without a trace, leaving no memo or explanation behind, just a “core update.”
These updates feel like passive-aggressive messages from a boss who refuses to offer constructive criticism. One day your article is trending, the next day it’s missing. Welcome to Search Result Purgatory.
The pursuit of growth is inevitable, but when did growth stop being exhilarating and start feeling like a never-ending treadmill? Click-through rates (CTRs), impressions, time-on-site, scroll depth – these metrics have become the daily crisis in modern newsrooms. In editorial meetings these days, SEO experts sound like astrologers, predicting the future based on the positions of the planets.
Yet, you continue to chase growth, because traffic equals ad revenue, which in turn equates to job security (sort of). The struggle lies in maintaining journalistic integrity while appeasing the SEO gods’ thirst for high CTRs.
AI, E-A-T, and the New Normal
If you thought the algorithm changes were over, think again. Google’s latest major “core update” is E-A-T, which isn’t a restaurant chain but stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.
Suddenly, your bylines need bios. Your news site requires schema markup. And your reporters need to be experts, not just fast typists. Meanwhile, AI-generated content looms in the background, waiting to replace us all with polite but soulless summaries.
Dear Google,
We’re not asking for special treatment. We just need a moment to catch our breath. A chance to be journalists and digital citizens. We understand the web is messy, and you’re trying to clean it up. But could we please have some stability? A heads-up before a traffic nosedive?
Because the truth is: We’re not trying to game the system anymore. We’re trying to work with it. We want to write stories that matter and stories that rank. If SEO is the new editor-in-chief, can we at least get the style guide?