{"id":15885,"date":"2022-10-26T09:13:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T09:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/content-tagging-policies\/468144\/"},"modified":"2022-10-26T09:13:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T09:13:06","slug":"how-to-create-content-tagging-policies-for-news-publishers-via-sejournal-tomcrewe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=15885","title":{"rendered":"How To Create Content Tagging Policies For News Publishers via @sejournal, @TomCrewe"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 2022 was one of the most turbulent months of recent times for news publishers.<\/p>\n

The month started with the Helpful Content Update<\/a>, which targeted low-quality, unhelpful content.<\/p>\n

That was swiftly followed by the September 2022 Core Algorithm Update<\/a>: one of Google\u2019s broader updates, which overlapped with the September 2022 Product Reviews Update<\/a>, targeting low-quality affiliate content (among other things).<\/p>\n

For some of the biggest publishers in the game, this has caused major disruption, with publications like the Metro seeing a 40% decrease in visibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an industry that often relies on fairly turbulent traffic sources such as breaking news stories and Google Discover, appropriate content tagging can provide the safety net in which traffic consistency can be somewhat more reliable.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working with several large news publishers across entertainment, football, gaming, music, and healthcare this year, some of which attract tens of millions of users each month. They all seemed to be lacking in one particular area: content tagging.<\/p>\n

Why Content Tagging Is Important For News Publishers<\/h2>\n

When used appropriately, content tagging can help to boost a publication\u2019s organic performance massively. However, many publishers are getting it wrong. Three of the main motivations for optimizing content tagging are as follows.<\/p>\n

Stronger Topical Authority<\/h3>\n

We know that with Google\u2019s various updates, there\u2019s a big focus on ensuring that websites that are a genuine authority for the user\u2019s search query are ranked higher. For news publications, becoming an authority relies on a number of factors, such as author specialties, relevant backlinks, and expert content.<\/p>\n

With content tagging, you can pull all your expert content on a particular topic into one place, making it easier for Google to crawl, find the connections between different articles, and understand just how authoritative your publication is in this area.<\/p>\n

This means each article is directly supported by a tag page and multiple other relevant articles, giving Google more confidence in its topical authority.<\/p>\n

Safety Net Of Consistent Organic Traffic<\/h3>\n

Tag pages can do much more than pull all of your articles together, though. They can actually become strong landing pages that rank for high-volume, generic keywords.<\/p>\n

Due to the nature of tag pages being a central hub that can answer various questions on a specific subject, Google is more likely to rank a tag page within the normal organic listings (rather than Top Stories, etc.) for a high search volume generic query.<\/p>\n

For example, when someone searches for \u201cLove Island,\u201d there isn\u2019t a huge amount of context behind what the searcher is looking for about Love Island. By serving a tag page, Google gives the user a wider variety of content to consume, therefore increasing the likelihood of satisfying their search intent.<\/p>\n

Using the Metro as an example, a quick look in Semrush<\/a> shows tag pages potentially pulling in hundreds of thousands (and in many cases millions) of organic users each month.<\/p>\n

\"Metro<\/p>\n

\"Metro<\/p>\n

Screenshot from Semrush, September 2022
<\/em>
And most of this tag page traffic, unsurprisingly, is coming from the high volume, generic keywords such as\u201d\u2018Love Island\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"Metro<\/p>\n

\"Metro<\/p>\n

Screenshot from Semrush, September 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

When the Metro also ranks in Top Stories for \u201cLove Island,\u201d they\u2019re doubling the chances of capturing the click.<\/p>\n

If they do happen to see a drop in organic performance for their Love Island articles, their site still has the safety net of the tag page to pull in the traffic from high-volume, generic keywords.<\/p>\n

That is, if the tag page maintains rankings, of course.<\/p>\n

What Can Happen Without A Tagging Policy<\/h2>\n

Having started working with a few large publications which haven\u2019t properly implemented a tagging policy, I\u2019ve seen firsthand how messy things can get when a tagging policy isn\u2019t in place.<\/p>\n

When not properly trained on the ins and outs of content tagging and how it relates to SEO, writers have added endless random tags to articles, creating masses of tag pages that offer no real benefit to the website.<\/p>\n

From an SEO perspective, these are the issues this causes:<\/b><\/p>\n