Display advertising is one of the most popular ways for online magazine publishers to generate revenue. However, despite its long history in the media industry, display advertising rates have been dropping for many years. Publishers that work in direct sales are having to work harder to sell traditional advertising packages, with many businesses growing skeptical of the effectiveness of display advertising.

Display advertising has become saturated with competition. Magazine publishers are not just competing amongst themselves, but also against hyperlocal news websites and blogs for advertising dollars. This makes it harder to turn a profit through display advertising alone, whether your publication is working with Google Ads or engaging in direct digital ad sales.

Ad blockers are another point of concern among publishers who rely on display advertising for revenue. An ad blocker is a filtering software that stops—or blocks—requests to download content onto a browser. Ad blockers are capable of limiting, altering, or altogether stopping online advertising content from displaying in a user’s browser. As many as 45% of consumers between the ages of 15 and 25, and 42% of consumers between the ages of 26 and 33, now use ad blockers, according to one recent study.

Fortunately, there is a way for digital publishers to get around ad blockers and sell advertising products that still generate exceptional results — newsletter sponsorships. Publishers that sell newsletter sponsorships are providing a service to advertisers. They’re also seeing incredible revenue gains by reaching readers at the most opportune time in the customer journey.

What Are Newsletter Sponsorships?

A newsletter sponsorship is a paid ad that is typically placed into a publisher’s email newsletter. With an average open rate of 30%—and top magazine publishers reporting open rates of up to 80%—it makes sense that advertisers would want to attach themselves to this type of engaging media product.

By sponsoring a successful email newsletter, advertisers have a unique opportunity to get in front of dedicated audiences that already trust the source of information. The advertiser is, in essence, piggybacking on the trust and brand loyalty that the publisher has cultivated. Businesses are sending their message directly to targeted readers with a demonstrated interest in specific topics.

Popular email automation platforms—like Mailchimp and Constant Contact—provide publishers with all the tools necessary to track open rates, click-through rates, and other engagement metrics. These metrics are highly valuable when it comes time to sell newsletter sponsorships, because they help demonstrate what kind of return on investment (ROI) an advertiser can expect to achieve.

Newsletter Sponsorships vs. Display Advertising

To sell newsletter sponsorships effectively, publishers rely on real results. Sponsored newsletters regularly generate higher click-through rates than display advertising or paid social media advertising.

Although social media has become an essential component in many businesses’ marketing strategies, and targeted advertising is increasingly popular as a way for smaller businesses to compete with larger companies, none of these channels can compete with newsletter sponsorships when it comes to long-term gains. Those are key differentiators that publishers should focus on when they sell newsletter sponsorships to businesses.

Ad blockers, ad blindness, and general distrust of traditional advertising are all at play in this comparison between newsletter sponsorships and display advertising. Newsletter sponsorships can’t be blocked by ad blockers. They are delivered directly to the inboxes of a targeted audience, and they have been shown to result in high interaction rates.

Preparing to Sell Newsletter Sponsorships

Once you’ve decided to start selling newsletter sponsorships, it’s time to find some sponsors and hone in on your specific value proposition. How much will you charge, and what can advertisers expect in return?

Follow these steps when preparing to sell newsletter sponsorships:

1. Decide what type of sponsorships you want to offer. The most common format is for a sponsor’s ad to run in a prominent position at the top of the email. A line that says, “​​This newsletter is sponsored by ” might also be included in the header and footer, or even in the subject line. Another type of sponsored email is the dedicated email, which is a promotional email that’s sent to the publisher’s mailing list.
2. Set your price. The cost of a newsletter sponsorship varies widely. Most publishers charge a flat fee, however sponsorship packages might also work well if your publication is willing to promote the advertiser across other channels, like your website, social media pages, or podcasts. The larger your audience, the higher the price tag. Publishers with niche audiences can also justify a higher price than publishers that focus on general interest topics.
3. Promote sponsorship information online. With set prices and ad formats, you can get to work building out a separate page on your website with pertinent information for advertisers. Examples of information to include on this page include your newsletter engagement metrics, number of newsletter subscribers, audience demographics, and examples of past sponsorships.

To learn more about the latest revenue strategies for digital publishers, contact Web Publisher PRO. 

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Google took a more aggressive approach with its search algorithm in 2021, launching three Core Updates, along with a number of other improvements. The result was a search product that seemed complicated to many digital publishers. A number of B2B magazines and other trade publications saw their search rankings drop in 2021, and it was sometimes difficult to understand why.

Webmasters have had their hands full trying to understand which updates are hurting digital publishers the most. Some of Google’s biggest updates in 2021 actually overlapped, making it even harder to identify the cause of decreased search traffic. If you saw your traffic decline this year, then this article is for you. We’re taking a look at the most common causes of lost SEO and explaining how to recover your search rankings in 2022.

Reasons Why SEO Traffic Declined in 2021

1. Page Experience Updates

Google’s Page Experience Update rolled out over a three month period during the summer of 2021. The update was designed to reward websites that load quickly on mobile devices. As a result of the update, however, a number of digital publishers in competitive verticals saw a decrease in mobile traffic.
If you were one of the many B2B magazines and trade publications that noticed a decrease in mobile search traffic starting around August or September, now would be a good time to review the changes made in Google’s Page Experience Update and ask your webmaster whether you should make improvements to your website’s Page Experience and Core Web Vitals metrics.

2. Lack of Quality Content

This can be a tough one to hear, but publishers with low-quality content (based on Google’s guidelines) noticed a steep drop in search rankings last year. This was largely the result of an update made to Google’s Search Quality Guidelines. Google is increasingly using content quality as a key indicator of how a website will perform in a Core Update. The update to Google’s Search Quality Guidelines primarily impacted businesses in the finance, healthcare, and e-commerce verticals, however digital publishers in other verticals noticed an impact, as well.

Unfortunately, Google’s algorithms can get confused and make mistakes when websites are not developed using the latest best practices in web design, and top-tier publishers can accidentally receive the “low quality” label.

If you were one of the many publishers that saw a drop in traffic in the months of June and July, then the changes made to Google’s Search Quality Guidelines are probably to blame. Your website was most likely flagged by Google’s algorithm as having a lack of content quality or a poor user experience.

What can you do to recover those search rankings in 2022? Begin by asking yourself whether the content on your website is written by experts (i.e. professional journalists). Having author profiles and bylines can help bolster your publication’s credibility. Another consideration is the potential for bias in the content you publish. Google is increasingly flagging editorial content that fails to show both sides of a story. If you want your content to appear higher in the search rankings, it’s time to take a more professional approach.

3. Excessive Advertising

Many B2B publishers need to run display advertising to pay the bills. We get it. Unfortunately, Google may flag websites for having excessive ad units, especially above the fold, and this practice may lead to a drop in search rankings.

As we head into 2022, take a look at the ads you’re running above the fold, along with pop-ups, overlays, and interstitials. Do the ads on your website complement your editorial content or do they distract from it? If the advertising on your website is making it difficult for readers to consume your editorial content, then it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate your approach to advertising.

The past year has been a challenging one for digital publishers. Experiencing a drop in search traffic can be frustrating, to say the least. Many B2B publishers took a financial hit when Google’s updates led to a drop in search traffic in 2021. Taking a granular approach and educating yourself on the latest best practices for web design and SEO—focusing on content, links, speed, and other user experience factors—can put your publication in a better position to recover search rankings in 2022 and in the years to come.

To learn more about improving your publication’s position in search rankings for high value keywords, check out the following articles:

• Will Keywords Matter for SEO in 2022?
• How Will Google’s Continuous Scrolling Update Impact Publishers?
• Calculate Bounce Rate For Better SEO Performance

The post How to Recover Your Search Rankings In 2022 appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

If you’ve wondered what YouTube Search Insights is, you’re not alone. YouTube Search Insights is an experimental tool that shows publishers, and other digital creators, the number of views a specific search term has driven to their channel in the previous 28 days. The tool was first publicly announced on November 25th, 2021, in a video on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel.

This is an experimental feature, which means it’s not available to everyone just yet. During the initial rollout phase, only select content creators are being given access to Search Insights. However, it’s expected that the feature will be available more broadly to digital publishers in the coming months. When it is widely available, Search Insights will be accessible under YouTube’s Analytics/Research tab.

How Does YouTube Search Insights Work?

Creators with early access to Search Insights report that the feature surfaces keyword search data, such as the queries that led viewers to a video channel. These keyword search features are laid out across two tabs: one tab shows “Your viewers’ searches” and another tab shows “Searches across YouTube.”

Under the “Your viewers’ searches” tab, publishers can see the top searches coming from their viewers, as well as from viewers on similar channels. YouTube-wide search volume for specific keywords is also available, although it’s described in basic terms as either low, medium, or high. Publishers can also see the number of views their channels have received for any query in the last 28 days.

Under the “Searches across YouTube” tab, publishers can access data that goes beyond their own audiences. For the first time, YouTube is providing its creators with access to relevant search data. Publishers can see the most popular keywords people are using to find specific types of content on the platform. (For example, a publisher could type in “Hawaii” to find the most popular keywords YouTube users are using to find Hawaii-related videos.) Creators can access search volume based on data from the last 28 days.

How Should Publishers Use Search Insights?

Ideally, publishers will use this feature to hone in on their audiences’ interests and measure interest around specific topics across the broader YouTube audience. YouTube’s goal in developing Search Insights was to give top creators information about how important certain keywords are to their overall view counts.

Creators can also use a special feature to identify content gaps in their channels and find better content opportunities based on actionable data. Content gaps are discovered when viewers search for a keyword or phrase and can’t find the information they are looking for. Or, if the results that do appear are low quality or irrelevant to the specific query. Content gap labels appear alongside keywords, when applicable, and filters are available for creators to access. These content gap filters allow users to narrow keyword listings to show “content gaps only.”

YouTube is providing top creators with information about content gaps in the hope that they will use the data to create videos to fill those holes. If you are familiar with using Google’s Search Console or Google Trends, then YouTube’s new content gap feature works along the same lines. It’s meant to provide insight into how creators can optimize their efforts to align with current search trends.

As YouTube Search Insights becomes more widely available and publishers have more time to experiment, it’s likely that we’ll hear more about possible use cases. Already, brands marketers have reportedly started using search data to make videos that are more relevant for their audiences.

Have you gotten early access to the YouTube Search Insights feature? Let us know what you think!

The post How to Use YouTube Search Insights — A Guide for Digital Publishers appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

Bounce rate is one of those web marketing terms that means very little without context. It has nothing to do with inflatable balls or basketball games. When it comes to website analytics, bounce rate involves the percentage of visitors who leave a webpage without taking an action, like clicking on a link or filling out a form.

What’s considered a “good” bounce rate and what’s considered “bad”? The answer depends on who you ask, and what type of publication you run. One thing we can all agree on is that bounce rate isn’t a metric you should ignore.

We’ve put together a quick guide with information about how to calculate bounce rate, what constitutes a good bounce rate (and what doesn’t), and how having a good bounce rate leads to better SEO performance.

What Is a Bounce Rate?

A bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a page on a website and then leave without clicking on anything else, also known as completing an action. If a visitor comes to your website and then leaves without clicking on any links, we consider that a “bounce.”

In the physical world, that might look like a shopper who enters a store, stands near the front and takes a look around, then turns around and leaves without picking up any items or making any purchases. That customer has bounced.

Keep in mind, a website bounce rate is different from an exit rate. Bounce rates measure the visitors who arrive at your website and leave without navigating away from a single page. Exit rates include the percentage of visitors who leave your website from a certain page, even if that wasn’t the only page they visited. Exit rates don’t tell you as much about what’s going on with your visitors as bounce rates do. That’s why it’s so important that publishers learn how to calculate bounce rate for better SEO performance.

What Is Considered a Good Bounce Rate?

Different types of publications have different bounce rate averages. For example, the average bounce rate for a blog is 70% to 90%, according to Clicktale, whereas the average bounce rate for content sites is between 40% and 60%. Service websites have average bounce rates that are just 10% to 30%.

Because the average bounce rate can vary so wildly from industry to industry, comparison across publications or verticals is not recommended. Instead, publishers should focus on tracking their own bounce rates over time to look for signs of improvement.

How Does Bounce Rate Impact SEO?

The first thing to know about improving bounce rate for better SEO performance is that Google does not use bounce rates as a metric on search engine results pages (SERPs). That information is surprising to many publishers, given the usefulness and value that we put on bounce rates as a website metric.

According to Google, bounce rates are not currently used as a factor on SERPs for the following reasons:

1. Bounce rates can’t accurately measure user engagement because the rate itself doesn’t factor the time a user spends on page.
2. Bounce rate is a metric that’s typically found on Google Analytics, or similar analytics platforms, and not all publishers use these services. Therefore, Google is reluctant to use this metric as a ranking factor on SERPs.
3. Bounce rates can easily be manipulated, and Google Analytics isn’t currently powerful enough to automatically filter out these types of manipulative actions.

Despite bounce rate not being used as an official ranking factor, it can indirectly impact SERPs. That’s because a high bounce rate may indicate that there’s a problem with things like slow page speed, low-quality website design, or poor mobile optimization — all of which are factors that Google does care a great deal about.

Bounce rate is most useful when it’s used to indicate a good, or bad, user experience. Having a low bounce rate indicates that users are enjoying the experience when visiting your website, likely for many of the same reasons that Google cares about when ranking websites for search.

Although bounce rate is a metric that does not directly impact search rankings, this is something that publishers should still be tracking, so they can understand whether their user experience is successful. Having a low bounce rate is a good indication that your website is engaging, valuable, and useful, and that it’s the type of website that Google should surface on the first page of search results.

To learn more about how to improve your website’s Google ranking for high-value keywords, reach out to our team of SEO specialists at Web Publisher PRO.

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While there is no denying that display advertising is an important revenue stream, it’s far from the only revenue stream that today’s digital publishers have at their disposal. According to eMarketer, digital ad spending in the U.S. is anticipated to increase 25.5% this year. During that same time, display advertising revenue is expected to fall. How can that be?

Advertisers are getting savvier. As they learn more about viewable impressions and active view reporting metrics, advertisers are less willing to pay a premium for things like programmatic advertising. Instead, many advertisers have begun to pivot and invest more heavily in opportunities like newsletter sponsorships and native advertising.

Categories of Monetization

The majority of strategies that make publishing pay for online magazines and news outlets fall into one of three categories: advertising, commerce, or data. Below, we’ll go further into detail about what each of these categories entails.

Advertising

The monetization category that comes up most frequently when we talk about making publishing pay is advertising. From display advertising to native content, and everything in between, publishers can make substantial revenue in this category. Although the average cost-per-click (CPC) on digital media sites is dropping, there will always be opportunities for online magazine publishers to generate revenue through advertising.

Commerce

The commerce category has been less explored by independent news websites, but the opportunities for revenue generation are no less robust. The most common examples of monetization through commerce involve using embedded affiliate links and selling branded merchandise through an online store.

Data

Large media organizations are seeing incredible earning potential by selling, or otherwise monetizing, their website data. Businesses in many different verticals are interested in purchasing data, not just about subscribers, but also about the publication itself. Using data to diversify revenue is an untapped and potentially lucrative approach to making publishing pay in 2022.

5 Ways to Make Publishing Pay

Now that we have covered the three primary categories of monetization, we can dig deeper into the specific opportunities that digital publishers have available to them within each of those categories.

1. Reader Subscriptions

Subscriptions are not a panacea for publishers, however the opportunity to generate revenue through subscription sales is still one of the most lucrative for most online magazines and digital news sites. Subscription sales should ideally be one part of a broad basket of revenue streams for media businesses.

2. Direct Digital Ad Sales

Direct digital ad sales involves selling online advertising directly to local businesses. With direct digital ad sales, publishers don’t need to share advertising revenue with a third-party network or a technology platform like Google. This approach also gives publishers complete freedom to sell the types of ad products they want to the businesses they want to work with. However, success in direct digital ad sales hinges on your ability to form relationships with local businesses and effectively communicate your publication’s value proposition.

3. Partnerships with Third-Party Sites

More publishers are partnering with competing publications to sell bundled memberships and subscription packages. In the television world, this is seen when a company like Hulu partners with a network like Showtime to sell a bundled streaming package. The idea is that consumers are getting a slight discount for signing up for a subscription bundle, and publishers are getting the opportunity to onboard new users who might not otherwise have purchased a subscription. Success with a bundled subscription program hinges on a publication’s ability to align itself with the right partners.

4. Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising grew at double-digital rates during the pandemic. The publishers who do best with programmatic advertising are those that have the highest traffic volumes. Programmatic advertising is a numbers game, and smaller niche magazines and local news sites usually aren’t going to generate as much revenue using this method. Regardless, programmatic advertising is usually easy for publishers to manage and it can become a beneficial stream of income.

5. Paid Newsletters

Some call it “generation Substack,” others just call it good business. Exponential growth in the newsletter space is leading more publishers to sell subscriptions to their email products. Newsletter subscriptions usually cost less than website subscriptions, but they also come with fewer benefits. A low price tag of just $3.99 to $5.99 per month is often enough to win over new readers, who could eventually become website subscribers, as well.

To learn more about how top magazine publishers are generating revenue and growing their businesses, contact Web Publisher PRO.

The post How to Make Publishing Pay in 2022 (and Beyond) appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

Many top online magazine publishers have already figured out how to use newsletters to promote reader loyalty and sell more digital subscriptions. Placing ads in email newsletters is yet another way for publishers to generate revenue through a media channel they already use. According to a recent study by ​Reuters Institute, there has been a sharp increase in the production of newsletters in recent years, both by print and digital media publishers.

Newsletters are a nimble channel, which means that publishers have quite a bit of flexibility in the types of newsletter advertising campaigns they run. In addition to embedded display advertising, magazine publishers can also sell native advertising and sponsorships. In selling newsletter ad placements directly to businesses, publishers are out-maneuvering the Google algorithms and keeping a larger portion of their advertising revenue in-house.

This article addresses five myths about advertising in email newsletters, accompanied by five insights that debunk those myths.

Myth #1: Email Ads Aren’t Profitable

How much revenue you generate by placing ads in email newsletters will depend primarily on the size of your online audience. The more subscribers you have, the more revenue you can expect to generate. However, there are ways to make money by placing ads in email newsletters, even if your audience is small.
Understanding your audience is the key to generating revenue through newsletter advertising, especially when you have under 10,000 subscribers. What are the demographics of those subscribers, and what characteristics do they share? Savvy online publishers will use this information to pitch potential advertisers, knowing that businesses will pay a premium to reach high-value audiences.

A publisher’s ability to generate a profit by placing ads in email newsletters is directly tied to their ability to create a product that advertisers want to be associated with. Although there will always be some advertisers that are interested in promoting their products or services to a general audience, the vast majority of businesses today are more interested in connecting with targeted, niche audiences. Email newsletters can serve this type of audience up on a platter, making newsletter advertising extremely profitable for most digital publishers.

Myth #2: Finding Advertisers Is Hard

Selling advertising for a high-quality product should be easy. Some people believe that it’s tougher to sell ads in a newsletter than a website, mainly because advertisers aren’t as familiar with newsletter advertising in general. Overcoming that obstacle is up to the publisher. With the right information and materials, publishers can easily demonstrate what newsletter advertising looks like and the benefits that email has over other channels. Once you start running native advertising and sponsored campaigns in your newsletters, you might even find that potential advertisers are coming to you and asking to get involved.

Myth #3: Readers Don’t Like Advertisements

One of the more pervasive myths is that readers don’t like seeing ads in email newsletters, and that seeing ads will cause them to unsubscribe. With any email that goes out, there are a certain number of readers who are likely to click “unsubscribe.” However, this number is not nearly as high as most publishers fear. The number of unsubscribe requests you receive can be minimized by ensuring that advertisements are aligned with the content in your newsletters. For example, you will have more success publishing ads for sporting goods in a newsletter that goes out to sports fans than you would embedding ads for cosmetics or pet products.

Myth #4: Advertising Undermines a Publisher’s Credibility

Aside from non-profit news outlets, few online media organizations are exclusively ad-free. Consumers these days realize that advertising is the trade-off for receiving professional journalism for free. As long as your advertising content is not impacting your editorial content, you should be able to go about placing ads in email newsletters without seeing negative backlash from readers.

If you do choose to run editorial content that involves a business that advertises in your newsletters, clearly disclose the relationship in a conspicuous location. Paid content, such as native advertising or sponsored articles, should be clearly labeled, as well.

Myth #5: Advertisers Are Challenging to Work With

Some advertisers are challenging to work with, of course. That’s true regardless of the channel. Publishers who run display advertising or sponsored content in email newsletters usually don’t have any more difficulty working with clients than publishers who run advertising on their websites.

The easiest advertisers to deal with are usually the most satisfied. Finding business owners who are a good fit for the publication, and charging those advertisers a fair price based on the value that your newsletters provide, will help you develop a positive working relationship.

Have you started selling ad space in your email newsletters? If the answer is no, then now is the time to start. Get in contact with Web Publisher PRO to learn how we can diversify your revenue streams and take your publication to the next level.

The post Debunking 5 Myths About Placing Ads in Email Newsletters appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

Title tags are an HTML element that marks the title of a particular webpage. You can find a page’s title tag within thesection of the HTML markup. Title tags offer search engines, like Google, context into the content that’s on a particular webpage. They are an important factor in helping search engines figure out what a page is all about. As Google’s bots crawl each page on a website, they’re taking notes of the meta title tags and they’re using the keywords from each tag to understand the content on that page and how that content might be relevant to various online searches.

If Google’s bots determine that a title tag is missing information, the algorithm is set up to occasionally rewrite tags or amend title tags to more accurately answer common search queries. Relying on Google to amend your title tags is a dangerous game, though, and not one that most of today’s digital publishers are willing to play.

Rather than waiting for an algorithm to decide what the title tag on a particular page should be, top publishers take it upon themselves to handle optimizing title tags based on the latest SEO best practices.

Note: Some people also refer to title tags as meta titles or meta title tags. For the purposes of this article, we are going to consider these all to be the same thing.

Why Do Title Tags Matter?

Having optimized title tags is one of the most important on-page SEO strategies for digital publishers. The title tag is displayed as part of the search snippet on Google search results pages, so it needs to be both accurate and concise.

Because they appear as the page title list in Google search results, title tags are important for both SEO and marketing purposes. These tags are often the first thing a user will see from your site, so choosing the right keywords for your tags is important.

Where Do Title Tags Appear?

Title tags appear in places outside of search results. They also appear in a user’s web browser tag, as well as on social media platforms when people share a link to a webpage. Browsers and social media sites, like Facebook, will pull the title tag to give users a clearer idea of what a particular page is about.

Best Practices for Optimizing Title Tags

The best title tags offer brief and accurate descriptions of what’s on a specific webpage. Although Google has not officially recommended an optimal length for title tags, we know that most desktop and mobile browsers can only display 50 to 60 characters. This means it’s advantageous for digital publishers to keep their title tags under 60 characters, to ensure titles display correctly on search engine results pages.

Another consideration is the number of keywords to use in a tag. Keyword stuffing is frowned upon, and it won’t help your page rank any higher in search. Avoid listing keywords or phrases just to game the search results. This can turn off users, and it can cause your search ranking to plummet.

Instead, keep your titles natural and put the most important keywords up front. Keywords closer to the front of a title tag could have a larger impact on search rankings, although this is still a debated topic within the SEO community.

Every page on your website should have a unique title. Having default titles, like Home or New Page, can hurt your search ranking. The same is true for duplicate titles. Having multiple pages with the same title tags may result in a reduced click-through rate.

How to Change Title Tags

Writing good title tags is a low effort, high yield task. Most content management systems, including WordPress, allow users to edit title tags directly within the code or through a title tag field in the page’s metadata settings. Sometimes this is called the SEO Title Source, but the exact terminology will depend on which CMS you use.

If you’re overhauling your website, consider bringing in outside help or using a code-based template to create data-driven titles for each page. Coming up with unique title tags isn’t usually a challenge for digital publishers, but it becomes more of a hassle when publishers have extensive archives or thousands of pages on a directory or an e-commerce site to deal with. In these cases, it makes sense to use a template that will generate title tags automatically, while also avoiding duplicate titles.

Key Takeaways

• Title tags give search engines context into the content on a webpage.
• Optimizing title tags will help your SEO.
• Duplicate title tags may cause a page to drop in the search rankings.
• The best tags offer short, accurate descriptions of a page’s content.
• If a title tag is missing information, Google may rewrite the tag automatically.

To learn about all aspects of SEO for digital publishers, reach out to the digital publishing specialists at Web Publisher PRO.

The post Optimizing Title Tags: Best Practices for Digital Publishers appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

With so many questions, rumors, and concerns swirling among the digital publishing community, we thought we would take a closer look at what the launch of Twitter’s premium subscription service means for digital news and magazine publishers. Here’s what we found.

What Is Twitter Blue?

Twitter Blue is a new subscription service that debuted in the United States in November 2021. Among the many features that Twitter users can access when they sign up for Twitter Blue are “Top Articles,” a feature that shows the most shared articles within a user’s network over the past 24 hours. When subscribers click on a link in the “Top Articles” section, they are sent directly to the publisher’s website where they can view an ad-free version of the article. Once the reader is on the publisher’s website, the publisher retains total control over the online experience.

Twitter users who sign up for the Twitter Blue subscription will get access to a “Custom Navigation” feature, where they can pick and choose the destinations they visit most often and display them on a navigation bar. Users will also get access to “Bookmark Folders,” where they can organize tweets they have saved, and a “Reader Mode” that removes the noise from long theads and makes for an easier reading experience.

Perhaps the most anticipated feature will be the “Undo Tweet” button, which subscribers can use to preview and edit tweets before they are sent. The Undo Tweet feature is setup with a custom timer that gives users up to 30 seconds to make changes to a tweet before it goes live.

Where Is Twitter Blue Available

Twitter Blue is now available to Twitter users in the United States and New Zealand. It is available via iOS, Android, and the web.

How Much Does It Cost?

Subscribers in the United States can expect to pay $3 per month for the subscription.

Does This Mean Twitter Costs Money Now?

Not exactly. Twitter is still free for most people to use. In a call with reporters, the company’s executives emphasized that Twitter is — and will always be — free to use. This new subscription tier is a “premium layer” for those heavily Twitter users who want access to a certain set of high-value features.

Which Publishers Are Participating in Twitter Blue?

More than 300 U.S. publishers have signed on to participate, including The Atlantic, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, The Hollywood Reporters, Insider, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone, Slate, and USA Today. The group includes legacy news outlets, as well as digital outlets and magazines. Publishers that are interested in joining the program should contact Twitter to learn more about how to participate.

Are Publishers Getting Paid?

Twitter has said that an “undisclosed portion of revenue” from its new subscription service will go to its publishing partners. Twitter believes that its new service will help support local, national, and ad-free journalism in a “direct way,” with the ultimate goal being that each partner would “earn 50% more per reader than they would have by serving ads to that reader.”

Who Is Most Likely to Use This Service?

Twitter’s own internal data shows that its subscription tier is most appealing to “super tweeters” and users who are verified or have larger follower counts. The average Twitter user is unlikely to pay for access to these features.

Wasn’t This Available Previously?

Sort of. Twitter did have an ad-free article feature, and it was known as Scroll. That service has been rolled into Twitter Blue.

What questions do you still have about Twitter Blue? Drop us a note and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.

The post Everything Publishers Should Know About Twitter Blue Subscription Service appeared first on Web Publisher PRO.

Keyword rankings have become an obsession for some digital publishers. Within the B2B, lifestyle, regional, and parenting magazine niches, ranking on the first page of Google results for high-value keywords is an important metric of success. Keyword rankings are how many of today’s biggest digital publishers prove the value of their SEO strategies.

While there’s no doubt that search rankings are important, the bigger question is why. What is the value of a keyword, and why should keywords still matter for SEO in 2022?

Keywords, or key phrases, are the terms most likely to be used by people to find what they are looking for on search engines. Most key phrases are made up of one or two keywords that describe what the person is looking for. Among the different types of keywords, you’ll find branded (the name of a magazine), non-branded (the topic of the magazine or the article), location, or brand + location.

Keyword rankings only matter when they lead to actual results. Increased website traffic, higher conversions, greater numbers of newsletter sign ups. You get the drill. When it comes to SEO in 2022, what you’re likely to see is that keywords only matter in the context of the results they generate. When keywords drive value, they’re important to the publisher. Keywords that don’t drive value don’t matter from an SEO perspective, even if they help land the publication on the first page of certain Google results.

Google’s algorithms are smarter today than they were last year or the year before. Search algorithms now understand context and user intent. Because of that, we’re seeing fewer instances where publications rank on the first page of Google results for irrelevant keywords. Keywords still matter in the context of Google’s indexing system, however more intelligent algorithms mean publishers can focus less on SEO-driven strategies and more on producing high-quality content to get on the first page of Google results.

How Keyword Research Will Help Publishers in 2022

Don’t let Google’s latest algorithm updates fool you. SEO strategy still has a big role to play in ranking for high-value keywords, even when algorithms are smart enough to discern intent. The keywords a user searches for should clue Google’s algorithm into the user’s intent, just as the keywords embedded in a publisher’s content are a clue to the relevance of an article.

When it comes to SEO in 2022, publishers will want to pay close attention to the vocabulary they use. What that means is that there are multiple ways a person can ask a question or enter a search into Google. Publishers should be prepared for those variables. A solid strategy for SEO in 2022 is one that considers all the different ways a person can ask a single question.

Timestamps that are appended to keywords in the index also offer a clue as to the recency or freshness of an article. Google is more apt to return a recent article when a user searches a relevant keyphrase than an older piece of content. This was true previously, and it will continue to be true in 2022.

Competitive analysis is expected to get even more important for those publishers that want to look at keyword visibility in 2022. Competitive analysis can uncover a content gap at a publication, and that’s something publishers will want to keep an eye on. If another publisher isn’t serving content about a relevant topic, or the content they are publishing isn’t optimized, then that presents an opportunity for publishers who are ready to pounce.

After looking at competitor visibility, you may discover that competing publications don’t have the appropriate keywords placed in page titles, headings, or body content. Those mistakes, while relatively minor, can lead to pages not ranking for the relevant terms. Once again, this presents an opportunity for publishers who want to move in on those high-value keywords.

To learn more about how to ensure your website is optimized for SEO, contact the digital publishing specialists at Web Publisher PRO.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement that Facebook would be changing its name to Meta and entering the next phase of the internet, dubbed the metaverse, was not a surprise to those in the tech community. The metaverse is seen as the next step in the rapidly expanding online world.

The term “metaverse” was coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crash. In the book, the metaverse is a shared imaginary place that’s available to the public over the “worldwide fiber-optics network” and projected onto virtual reality goggles.

In Facebook’s metaverse, people will interact via digital avatars in an online world that combines social media, online gaming, augmented reality, virtual reality, and even digital publishing. People, and their digital avatars, will work, play, shop, attend classes, and more in an entirely virtual setting. The metaverse is the sum of all virtual worlds, which means consumers will be sharing spaces and siloed apps will be a thing of the past.

In the metaverse, everyone will have an avatar. Meta has plans to develop services, experiences, and hardware especially for this new world. Video game companies are already building their own metaverse platforms. Magazine publishers will have a place in the metaverse, as well, even if their specific role hasn’t been defined quite yet.

Publishers React to the Metaverse

Reaction to Facebook’s announcement has been mixed within the online publishing community. Some industry analysts see the metaverse announcement as an important step toward mainstream players fully embracing virtual reality and augmented reality concepts. Many others see this as a distraction from Facebook’s ongoing public relations issues.

Regardless of which side you come down on, it’s clear that the metaverse presents some impressive opportunities for online magazine publishers.

As always, early adopters stand to reap the greatest rewards. Online magazine publishers that embrace the metaverse will see massive opportunities for engagement and advertising revenue.

Opportunities for Publishers in the Metaverse

Facebook, Snapchat, Microsoft, Epic Games, Roblox, and Nike are just a few of the big name brands that have already taken steps into the metaverse. Gucci and Nike are creating virtual communities with fashion and other assets for sale. In the coming weeks, it’s likely we will hear about some digital-first media organizations getting involved in developing new content, communities, and experiences, as well. Gaming is likely to play a big role, and there is a good chance we will see magazine publishers partnering with gaming platforms on branding and other elements that will put their publications inside virtual games.

In the future, publishers will sell subscriptions to consumers who’ve already connected to Meta’s seamless payments system. Converting readers into subscribers will become much easier.

Magazines themselves will fundamentally change, as publishers take better advantage of virtual reality hardware. Interactive experiences will become more important, and publishers who make the transition stand to see big rewards.

Imagine a home design magazine that takes readers inside luxury homes via virtual reality tours. Or, imagine a sports magazine that can put readers courtside at virtual games and matches. In this new universe, a digital avatar could show up at their virtual workspace and pull out the latest edition of a city magazine to read while they wait for their coworkers to arrive.

It’s taken decades for the internet to get to where it is today, and Mark Zuckerberg’s vision won’t appear overnight. However, with experts already predicting that nearly 59 million people in the United States will use virtual reality at least once a month this year (17% of the total U.S. population), change is clearly coming. Magazine publishers should be looking ahead at how they can get involved.

As artificial intelligence, 5G, and edge cloud processing make it easier for publishers to deliver VR experiences across connected devices, the cost/benefit ratio will change. Joining the metaverse will eventually become a necessity for top magazine publishers.

The Big Questions

How will people discover content in the metaverse? What role will search algorithms play?

Already, it’s becoming clear that having the keyword “metaverse” in a headline or product title is helpful for getting found on search and social channels. Publishers that want to stake their claim will likely start developing products tied to the metaverse tag, as well.

metaHowever, big questions still remain over how content strategies will evolve and what impact the metaverse will have on local SEO. How will independent publishers fare in the metaverse? What role will visual search play in rankings? What about social media?

Now is the time for magazine publishers to audit their content strategies and look for opportunities for integrating virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D experiences for online audiences.

To learn more about preparing your website for the metaverse, contact Web Publisher PRO today.

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