More traffic for a news website ? SEO or SMO ?

26 replies
Hello,

I am the webmaster of a french news website ( similar to Mashable or The Verge, so not a newspaper website). The site was created in 2013 and included in Google News since September 2014.

Before getting into Google News, traffic came mainly from search engines because some "how to" articles ranked high in the search results. Once in GNews, the website traffic changed a bit : when an article appeared with a thumbnail into the News Feed, I naturally noticed a high pic of visits. Many times articles were placed at the top (even in the "most read articles" section). There, my stats exploded.

But as you can imagine, when the articles don't rank well in the feed, the traffic is small. And I can see the impact directly on the incomes.

I have a Fb page, Twitter and G+ but not many fans/followers (about 165 on Facebook and 20 on Twitter).

I've noticed that when my site reached 7,000 - 10,000 visitors a day (and it was often because just 1 article was with a thumbnail and got more than 50 "share"), it was very profitable, only with 3 adsense ads.

So, now I would like to keep that amount of traffic daily. But I'm a bit lost. That's why I'm thinking about hiring someone for that job, but what should I ask for : SEO or SMO ? Maybe I'm wrong but Mashable (I take this example because the website category is similar) seems to rely on Facebook or Twitter. And it has the snowball effect as well.

What would you do ?

(sorry if my message was long).
#news #seo #smo #traffic #website
  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    I should have write it simply but I have more things to say after yesterday.

    I talked to a SEO consultant about my situation. Shortly, he said that I could take a SEO coaching pack in order to know how to optimize my website for search engines. But for me, those courses are more for sites who sell things, not for news.

    I take Mashable as an exemple again, but I could named Kotaku, ... Those websites use social media heavily right ? The articles are shared a lot, so it brings a lot of trafic.

    Do you think that it's better to focus on social media trafic ?
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      There are without question some red flags here. I will assume you are producing and or posting content daily? In the last 2 years you have no real search engine presents? and basically you spoke with a "SEO Specialist" and they told you to pack sand... and directed you to a SEO course so you could learn how to do this yourself? ( you either insulted the person with a price requirement or your site is really that bad off - duplicate content or the site is sandboxed )


      Then throw in insult to injury with your Social media follower numbers... You need to really get a firm grip on what is going on, and why, and I would look for a decent Social Media expert to get you on the right track.


      Originally Posted by Matix45 View Post

      I should have write it simply but I have more things to say after yesterday.

      I talked to a SEO consultant about my situation. Shortly, he said that I could take a SEO coaching pack in order to know how to optimize my website for search engines. But for me, those courses are more for sites who sell things, not for news.

      I take Mashable as an exemple again, but I could named Kotaku, ... Those websites use social media heavily right ? The articles are shared a lot, so it brings a lot of trafic.

      Do you think that it's better to focus on social media trafic ?
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Try it and see. I would do both. Unfortunately i hate to work... and move... and even wake up... so i stick to paid ads. Social marketing is beautiful for some industries, and with a "news website".... i'm thinking is the logical route to go down. But do a small test and see how each performs and holds up to your thoughts/theories. This is the true way to find out.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahounddog
    Hello. I think Twitter could be a good way for you to get traffic. It's very news-oriented. The key is to build up a huge following. There are some techniques for doing so that. They involve following lots of people and waiting for them to follow back. But you have to be very careful not to get banned.

    Facebook could be good, too, but it's getting to be an expensive option.

    I'm really interested in knowing more about how you make this site work. Do you do it yourself or do you have help? Where do you get your news? How did you get it into Google News? I am also working on a news-oriented website and I'd be very interested in exchanging ideas with you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben West
    I think with anything news related, social media is the way to go for your primary source of traffic. If you succeed in spreading your content through social media, SEO will follow on behind without you having to put in any work.
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  • Profile picture of the author icoachu
    I would focus on engaging influential news leaders on social media and having them lend your site their credibility.

    Check out how other news sites do this.

    Very powerful and very cheap
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  • Profile picture of the author Hemanth Malli
    As per my knowledge view Social Media is one of best way to bringing traffic for websites.
    If you want only traffic then follow to social media, Create account on all social media websites and maintain it genuinely, and join their existing communities which has related your business or services and share link as well. I hope it will helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author cheapmatriscript
    SEO & SMO Is both are best to get more traffic...
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  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    Thank you all for your replies.

    @ahounddog
    Yes, my website is updated daily. I have 3 other writers who help me. I select the news by visiting other websites (english or french websites) and I write on topics that match my website categories. It was difficult to get included in Gnews because I was rejected at first, without any explanation. But the Google news forum helped me and I finally did it.

    @icoachu
    Two articles were quoted on two major french websites since I'm in Google News (and one is the french version of Gizmodo).

    @savidge4
    Yes, my website is updated daily (5-6 articles, with pictures/videos if needed). I have some "How to" articles that give me traffic from search engines (first place).
    The SEO Specialist is supposed to be well known (on a forum), he shares free SEO kit, things like that as well, but I kinda had a feeling of not being heard. I didn't ask for prices at all. First, I explained my situation (like in my OP). But the SEO course quickly came on the table. I tried to have more explanations about other websites that seems to rely a lot on social media for their traffic, but he stayed focused on his individual coaching pack (700 dollars a basic course : 2 days of preparation (?), and half a day of skype session).

    I never did anything for my social media pages except subscribing to other related websites/writers. I see many websites using services to get fake followers but I prefer to stay away from that kind of services.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
      I've got a lot to do today, so just dropped in to browse around a little before getting started.

      I certainly wasn't planning on getting wrapped up in any long discussion, but with all the crap that's been posted in response to your question I felt that you deserved much better.

      You did get some good feedback though.

      Originally Posted by ahounddog View Post

      Most of what is out there in the internet marketing world, and even on this site, is geared toward people with sales-oriented sites. Not a lot of people understand how to operate the kind of site you have. So be careful whom you listen to. That said, there's good advice on this thread. I like icoachu's idea lot, and I plan to try it myself.
      I'm glad someone else saw fit to warn you about the quality of answers you receive. I agree 100% with hound dog. Promoting a one page sales site, or even an affiliate blog is not at all like building a following for an authority site.

      Originally Posted by icoachu View Post

      I would focus on engaging influential news leaders on social media and having them lend your site their credibility.
      My only disappointment here is that I felt the coach could have been much more verbose. Getting your articles mentioned/quoted by some of the influential news leaders on social media could not only lend your site additional credibility, but also creates some awareness that may not exist with their current readership. If well received, it can lead to some good syndication opportunities with those news leaders (repeat exposure with good distribution numbers). In marketing, we call it "buzz".

      Originally Posted by Matix45 View Post

      Yes, my website is updated daily. I have 3 other writers who help me. I select the news by visiting other websites (english or french websites) and I write on topics that match my website categories. It was difficult to get included in Gnews because I was rejected at first, without any explanation. But the Google news forum helped me and I finally did it.
      Congrats on the inclusion in Google News! That will help reinforce everything you do from here on out.

      You said that you have 3 other writers plus yourself, and that you write on specific topics. Is it safe to assume that you are writing original content? Is it all "news", or do you also do a regular editorial piece?

      Two articles were quoted on two major french websites since I'm in Google News (and one is the french version of Gizmodo).
      Set a goal to have that happen at least once per month (more often if you can make it happen). This is, of course, largely out of your hands - but you publish news daily, you scan the news daily to identify worthwhile topics to write about, you've been at this a while... you should by now have a feel for what others are publishing. Become one of their sources!

      BTW - that's where the editorial piece can be most useful to you. Everybody out there is reading the same news sites to get current topics for their own site. Publish an "opinion piece" and there is no competition. You will get on their "radar" simply because you are giving a unique interpretation of the topic of the day, rather than the typical rehash of the facts that were originally reported by Reuters (or the NYTimes, etc.)

      The SEO Specialist is supposed to be well known (on a forum), he shares free SEO kit, things like that as well, but I kinda had a feeling of not being heard. I didn't ask for prices at all. First, I explained my situation (like in my OP). But the SEO course quickly came on the table. I tried to have more explanations about other websites that seems to rely a lot on social media for their traffic, but he stayed focused on his individual coaching pack (700 dollars a basic course : 2 days of preparation (?), and half a day of skype session).
      I really don't think SEO is key for you (beyond the basics).

      You mention that you write for multiple categories. You should have links below each article to "Related Articles", and since you publish multiple articles per day, those are related simply because they are "current". Give your visitor a way to see (at a minimum) "Today's Edition".

      I never did anything for my social media pages except subscribing to other related websites/writers. I see many websites using services to get fake followers but I prefer to stay away from that kind of services.
      I'm assuming you have a separate business page on each of the "social" sites. If not, create it. You have to work within the confines of their design, but make each of those social pages as professional as possible, and theme them as much alike as possible to promote your "brand".

      Once that's done, if it isn't already...begin posting to each of your business pages one time every day. That post should be a "teaser" to either 1) your editorial or 2) the top news article you have published that day. Likes and shares will vary depending on 1) how interesting the topic is, 2) how controversial, funny, informative it is written, 3) the wording of your social post - remember, it's a "teaser", so tease.

      Lastly, vary the wording of your social post from one social platform to another. They are essentially ads, and by varying the content of those individual ads, you increase the chances of at least one of those variations striking a chord and therefore being liked and shared.

      P.S. I'm sure you know this already, the life of any news story is limited, so all of the above just gets the ball rolling. Stop, and the ball will quit rolling
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      Coming Soon... Rapid Action Profits (Pro)

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  • Profile picture of the author ahounddog
    Matix,

    Most of what is out there in the internet marketing world, and even on this site, is geared toward people with sales-oriented sites. Not a lot of people understand how to operate the kind of site you have. So be careful whom you listen to. That said, there's good advice on this thread. I like icoachu's idea lot, and I plan to try it myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    @ahounddog

    that's what I thought with the SEO expert. That's why I opened this thread here, because it's better to have more experienced people comments. I've seen several topics about news websites on Warrior Forum but not on the french forum where I found the SEO guy.

    And the good thing about social media is the snowball effect. Clearly, when I get a lot of visits was when an article was shared a lot. This way :

    Article posted (at a good moment ? because I took the place of big sites in Gnews) > article shared > even more views from social media > even more views from Gnews because thr article was in the right sidebar.
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  • Profile picture of the author bettaiebahmed94
    You need to focus on both i wanna succeed on the internet business
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  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    Online, I stumbled upon services like Taboola or Outbrain. Did someone with a news related website try it before ?
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  • Profile picture of the author anurana
    It means that your website is not properly monetized.You should ask to readers for subscription to increase email listing and place social media icons on every post.You can get huge traffic from emails if you did not get traffic from search engine.

    SMO is another useful technique to increase relevant traffic so jump into the social media to reap the benefit from it but it needs time so keep patience.
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexNeo2009
    You need to build loyal customers. Purely rely traffic on search engine is very risky. One way you can do is provide free Whatsapp/SMS for latest news.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahounddog
    Damn good post, Sid.
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  • Profile picture of the author cookiesfromhome
    Banned
    I think social media is the best way to get instant traffic on your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author nazninshetu
    According to me, you should increase the Social media sites follower/ fan. Beside these you have to do some SEO to increase your site page Rank & traffic.
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    Hi

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  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    Wow, thank you very much Sid for this very detailed reply.

    You said that you have 3 other writers plus yourself, and that you write on specific topics. Is it safe to assume that you are writing original content? Is it all "news", or do you also do a regular editorial piece?
    Yes that's right, the content is 100% original. For the moment, it's only news (not product reviews or movie reviews for example). I plan to do editorials in the future.

    Also, several months ago, I saw a news on twitter from The Verge about Snapchat hack. I looked on Gnews France, nobody was talking about it yet. I decided to write about it but even if I was the first, my article didn't show by itself on the feed. It's only when other websites talked about it that it happened.

    Set a goal to have that happen at least once per month (more often if you can make it happen). This is, of course, largely out of your hands - but you publish news daily, you scan the news daily to identify worthwhile topics to write about, you've been at this a while... you should by now have a feel for what others are publishing. Become one of their sources!
    My articles were quoted because the articles were at the top on GNews, so I guess the writer read and quoted because the articles were the first on the page.

    You mention that you write for multiple categories. You should have links below each article to "Related Articles", and since you publish multiple articles per day, those are related simply because they are "current". Give your visitor a way to see (at a minimum) "Today's Edition".
    Indeed, I have "Related Articles" below each article. For example, if the visitor read a news about the Iphone 6, the related articles will be the other last articles about it.


    I'm assuming you have a separate business page on each of the "social" sites. If not, create it. You have to work within the confines of their design, but make each of those social pages as professional as possible, and theme them as much alike as possible to promote your "brand".
    Yes, I have a page on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus (other plateforms aren't really used in France, it's mainly Facebook and Twitter). Currently, I'm working on a new logo that will be add to social media covers (now, it's a website screenshot).

    I also manually post articles on social media pages (I didn't find a good plugin yet, I tried a service but it was only for twitter and it didn't add the thumbnail).

    That post should be a "teaser" to either 1) your editorial or 2) the top news article you have published that day. Likes and shares will vary depending on 1) how interesting the topic is, 2) how controversial, funny, informative it is written, 3) the wording of your social post - remember, it's a "teaser", so tease.
    I can tease even for tech news (for example) ?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
      Sorry I didn't get back to this earlier...

      Originally Posted by Matix45 View Post

      Yes that's right, the content is 100% original. For the moment, it's only news (not product reviews or movie reviews for example). I plan to do editorials in the future.
      If I were you... I would accelerate my efforts on getting editorials out. You don't have to do those every day. You might have a "Friday Musings", or some such - but make sure you're publishing your real opinion (it's easier to stay consistent if your opinions are your own and if you're adamant). Write what you want... NOT what you think the readers want to hear, even if your opinion may be somewhat controversial.

      Yes, I have a page on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus (other plateforms aren't really used in France, it's mainly Facebook and Twitter). Currently, I'm working on a new logo that will be add to social media covers (now, it's a website screenshot).
      Again, the more quickly you can get that done, the more quickly your branding starts getting out there.

      I also manually post articles on social media pages (I didn't find a good plugin yet, I tried a service but it was only for twitter and it didn't add the thumbnail).
      I wouldn't post the whole article to the social media pages. Your goal should be to get the social followers to your web site. You can give them so much more there (including all the previous, related articles) and that is where your monetization resides.

      I can tease even for tech news (for example) ?
      Oh yes.
      I get a daily email from codeproject.com (techy/nerdy site). Every day they have links to tech news from various web sites in the industry. Here's a snip from today's mail:

      Industry News
      Revenge of the nerds: Microsoft reorg bodes well for the techies
      Another look at the cheese movement
      Source: Infoworld

      Yes, androids do dream of electric sheep
      "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."
      Source: The Guardian

      Apple does more to protect your privacy than Microsoft, Google, and Facebook
      "Private eyes, they're watching you"
      Source: Beta News

      Zero-day exploit lets App Store malware steal OS X and iOS passwords
      Now that's 'Thinking Different'
      Source: Infoworld

      Teenager murdered after tracking down lost smartphone
      "It’s just a phone — it’s not worth losing your life over"
      Source: The Verge


      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      © 2015 The Code Project. All rights reserved.
      These aren't quite what I'm suggesting for your social media "teasers", but each is a 3 line "teaser" with the article title, the editor's comment (often tongue-in-cheek), and the source. They are all links to "technical" articles.

      Hope this helps, and at some point I'd love to hear what you've done and how it's going.
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      Coming Soon... Rapid Action Profits (Pro)

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  • Profile picture of the author deepakrajput
    I think you need to focus on both SEO with SMO, it will help to increase your website ranking with traffic. also PR of the site.
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    • Profile picture of the author Justin Ford
      I think if your website is very new then SEO is better for first time. Because i think Google do not like unexpected ton of traffic as a new website. SEO always working well and slowly develop in your website traffic that are very smart for google. But SMO is very fast and easy way to getting visitor for your website. But as a new website google does not like this unexpected traffic.
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      Less is more. Keeping it simple takes time and effort.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matix45
    If I were you... I would accelerate my efforts on getting editorials out. You don't have to do those every day. You might have a "Friday Musings", or some such - but make sure you're publishing your real opinion (it's easier to stay consistent if your opinions are your own and if you're adamant). Write what you want... NOT what you think the readers want to hear, even if your opinion may be somewhat controversial.
    Okay, that's a great idea for a day during the week, it sounds good.

    Again, the more quickly you can get that done, the more quickly your branding starts getting out there.
    I hired someone to do this job. The social media pages will have a more "pro" theme.

    I wouldn't post the whole article to the social media pages. Your goal should be to get the social followers to your web site. You can give them so much more there (including all the previous, related articles) and that is where your monetization resides.
    I have miswritten (it was nightime here). What I usually do is that I post the article title + image + link on the social media pages.

    I get a daily email from codeproject.com (techy/nerdy site). Every day they have links to tech news from various web sites in the industry. Here's a snip from today's mail:
    I have a Feedburner subscription system but not a real newsletter. I definitively need to check this in details.

    Once my social media pages are ready, I will try to find someone for promoting my social media pages (mostly for Twitter if it's news friendly). Because in order to get noticed (when I have a buzz), I need to be found easily by bigger websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author James 0
    When it comes to news website; it needs both new visitors
    and rotating visitors. However, getting the visitors to rotate is much tougher
    that bringing them once on the site.

    SMO keeps the visitors updated and make them to visit the site occasionally. SMO will bring
    you constant traffic daily which will automatically improve the reputation of
    your website in the eyes of Google which will ultimately help you in ranking
    the website easily in future. Also, some news stories can go viral with the help of SMO.

    However; I would recommend both; but if you want to select
    one of them. SMO will be the first choice for news channel.
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  • Profile picture of the author hardworker2013
    Social Media is the quickest way to blow up your traffic. Why not set up a fanpage on facebook?
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