What was the challenge?
A publisher lost about a fifth of its search traffic in a core update. It had 90,000 articles, many thin rewrites of press releases, inconsistent author pages, and heavy reliance on Google Discover, which made revenue unpredictable. Sponsored posts were not consistently labelled.
What was the strategy?
- 01
Prune or merge thin articles at scale
- 02
Strengthen author identity and editorial signals
- 03
Build evergreen hubs that hold traffic between news cycles
What exactly was done?
3 moves, each with what was done and why it mattered.
- 01Editorial
Reviewed 90,000 articles
Classified articles by traffic, links and editorial value, then updated, merged or removed about 26,000, and labelled sponsored content with rel="sponsored".
Why it mattered: Thin archives can hold back a whole domain. Clear labelling also lowered risk under Google's spam policies.
- 02Authority
Rebuilt author and editorial pages
Gave reporters proper profiles with expertise and past work, and published editorial and corrections policies, with NewsArticle schema across templates.
Why it mattered: Readers, Google and AI assistants all look for who wrote something and why they should trust it.
- 03Evergreen
Built topic hubs
Created maintained hubs for Dubai visas, schools, property and cost of living, linking news stories into a guide that editors update.
Why it mattered: News fades in days. Hubs kept earning traffic and smoothed the Discover spikes that made revenue so hard to forecast.
What do I stand for?
Editors decide, data informs
Data ranks what to review, and editors make the final call.
Label sponsored content
Trust, once lost at domain level, is slow to return.
About this case study
- This is an illustrative case study: a representative engagement showing how I approach SEO for this industry and the kind of results the approach is built to deliver.
- The business, figures and charts are illustrative, not a single client's verified data. For verified results, see my SEO case studies.
Industry guides
Media & Publisher SEO Consultant in Dubai
Pruned thin content, gave reporters clear bylines, and balanced Google Discover spikes with evergreen topic hubs.
