SEMrush is "an online visibility management and content marketing SaaS ['software as a service'] platform" (SEMrush About, n.d.). The program not only lets you see how your company is performing across search engines and social media platforms, but also gives you insights into your competition and tips for improving your company's location within search engine results and overall engagement. More than 6 million marketers around the world use the service to "do their job more effectively and deliver superior results" (SEMrush About, n.d.).
For my project, I decided to analyze the news organization I work with so I could not only learn about what SEMrush has to offer, but also take away some insights into new tactics we can use when publishing content. I started the project and already learned a lot about where we need to focus our time.
Of the 50 pages that were dissected in the site audit, 41 had some kind of issue – most of which were missing meta tags. This was really surprising to me because as a news outlet, we publish content every day, and it's important to ensure people actually see that content. Doing something as simple as adding meta tags or incorporating keywords in the headline and subheads can ensure that when people are searching a topic or directly searching for our work, we'll show up closer to the first page. We also had a ton of toxic domain backlinks, which I plan to go through.
I knew before beginning this project that our website could use some work. We're a pretty small team with no full-time employees, so things like SEO often get pushed to the end of our to-do lists. Hopefully, by experimenting with SEMrush, and diving deeper into our Google Analytics (I'm working on getting access), I can create a plan for us to improve our overall website engagement. From what I've heard, most of our clicks come from social media and newsletter promotion of our content. If we could also drive traffic from people searching for content through search engines, it would be a huge deal (making us more marketable for grants, increasing revenue and subscriptions, etc.).
The number one thing I want to get settled during this project is identifying the keywords we should be using. We are a collaborative newsroom that reports on a variety of topics as they relate to the Appalachian region, so we cover a lot of ground. When people search for "Appalachia," actual reports and information about the region – from sites like Wikipedia, Appalachian Resource Center and National Geographic – are the first things to come up. I think we'll have a hard time competing with those resources. However, once the keywords are figured out, I'll be able to take care of a lot of our site issues identified in the site audit. I'll also be able to make sure the keywords specific to the content we're publishing are included in the headlines and subheads of every article. These keywords will vary depending on the article but I think this tactic will go a long way.
That being said, the thing I'm most excited about is identifying tactics our competitors are using online. As mentioned before, we're a collaborative newsroom, so we actually work closely with a lot of our website "competitors" and our audiences often cross paths. However, those collaborators see much higher engagement, which makes sense because we're still a pretty young newsroom so our partners are much more established in their communities than we are. It'll be great to see what techniques and keywords they use to engage audiences and attract new ones through SEO.
I know who our competitors are, but during this project, I want to look closely at the insights SEMrush will offer about their platforms to inform an actionable plan we can use.
From what I've seen in our lessons and additional reading, the day-to-day of using programs like Google Analytics and SEMrush will be a little different for a newsroom than for marketing companies with a narrow focus. However, I think if I can create a plan for us that can be replicated no matter the content we're publishing, we'll see far greater success than we are now. As I stated before, we've never really thought about this. Any success we've seen is organic, so to take some time and equip these tactics into our daily routine, I think we'll see a lot of growth.
Overall, I'm a little overwhelmed by the vast amount of information SEMrush offers but am still very excited to dive in, learn how to improve our site and put it to work.
Note: I think it's great what SEMrush offers but from what I saw, it seems to be very expensive to use long-term. Do any of you know of another platform out there that seems to be more feasible for small organizations without a huge budget? LMK in the comments!
References
SEMrush About. (n.d.). Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.semrush.com/company/
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