Diversifying SEO training for skillsets and experience levels — Jenn Rourke // ABC Owned Television Stations

SEO Lead at ABC TV, Jenn Rourke, wraps up the discussion on SEO media and the required skill set for mastery. Making the transition from eCommerce writing to web content journalism requires that you place EAT at the forefront of your work. It’s about how well you gather information and use your resources. Today, Jenn talks about how you can diversify your skill set in SEO.
About the speaker

Jenn Rourke

ABC Owned Television Stations

is a little camera shy

Jenn is an experienced digital content strategist with a focus on SEO and data-driven decisions. She has a media and statistics background with modern leadership skills. Her subject matter expertise includes organic and on-page SEO, technical SEO, SEM, content management, analytics, and audience development. Jenn has spent the last 15 years in digital media roles for television stations.

Show Notes

  • 02:00
    Diversifying skillset related to SEO at different levels of experience
    Producers who do content generation require technical SEO training. Those who are interested in page optimizations only need basic SEO training.
  • 04:27
    Getting journalists interested in SEO
    Its about appealing to their competitive nature. When they are being outranked by competitors online, they are driven towards SEO as a means of getting ahead.
  • 06:21
    Diversifying the SEO skill set for the news business
    Ensure content is framed in alignment to the overall editorial game plan. Fact check everything and cite every source while optimizing, which can be challenging in rapidly changing times.
  • 09:01
    Advice for those aspiring to work in the new industry
    Focus on developing a solid information gathering workflow that can be used to write value-filled and factual articles. Integrate EAT into the research and content creation process.

Quotes

  • "When you get using certain HTML codes in different places, or not breaking an AMP page with a certain HTML code. That's some of the stuff we have to teach the people consistently generating content." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Some producers really just want to optimize the page, check off the list, the links, the headings and move on." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "We do a lot of communication on Slack. We try to share things that we've learned and share successes on search in our Slack channels." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "When journalists see a competitor station ranking higher on Google, 9 times out of 10, they end up asking me about SEO." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Sometimes what you want to do from a search intent perspective doesn't match the editorial game plan. We're very specific about how we say and frame things." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "The company name that everybody is searching for may not be the companys name anymore. So we can't use that Facebook. We have to walk that line editorially when we're doing our optimization." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Focus on your research skills and resources. Make sure youve gathered what you need to write an informational and trustworthy article. Once you develop those processes, you'll be able to repeat." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Long standing journalism outfits have been practicing EAT forever. Now it's a codified thing." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "We turn out so many articles a day because there is so much news. But, we also have information gathering processes embedded in our daily workflows." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

About the speaker

Jenn Rourke

ABC Owned Television Stations

is a little camera shy

Jenn is an experienced digital content strategist with a focus on SEO and data-driven decisions. She has a media and statistics background with modern leadership skills. Her subject matter expertise includes organic and on-page SEO, technical SEO, SEM, content management, analytics, and audience development. Jenn has spent the last 15 years in digital media roles for television stations.

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