Training large teams on news SEO — Jenn Rourke // ABC Owned Television Stations

Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead at ABC TV, unpacks SEO media and the required skill set for mastery. The digital content space is a very competitive one with many players. Further complicating this process is the pace at which news moves. The intention is always to get Google to notice you. So, today, Jenn sheds light on the process of training large teams on SEO news
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

  • 01:39
    Training teams to quickly create content and optimize for SEO
    Producers are continuously trained to put together copy, add videos, and execute optimization very quickly. Data is consistently sent out to team members regarding successful strategies.
  • 05:20
    Handling breaking news situations
    Facts from the assignment desk or directly from reporters are gathered and optimized for the web accordingly. SEO data should guide reporters when doing topic research.
  • 08:19
    Training an organization to think digital first and understand what is likely to rank
    Teach team members the value of SEO. Introduce them to tools like Google Trends. Then walk them through the process of loading content appropriately into the CMS.
  • 12:34
    Areas of focus for SEO teams
    The digital producers are the SEO team, responsible for the optimization of submitted stories. Gathering information from TV and expanding on it to get ahead of the game is the main focus.

Quotes

  • "We have to put up a page of content as quickly as we possibly can. That involves a producer or multiple producers putting together copy, adding videos, and optimizing that post." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Everybody needs to know to look up trending stories and what angles are already out there." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "One thing that we do consistently is send out lots of data on what's already worked. So teams get accustomed to what sort of framing works and we'll try that again next time. It's about repetition." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "We're always putting the pieces together for the journalists, in terms of the digital content." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Breaking news situations are like the World Series. We play a lot of baseball that isn't the world series, but then, you get to that dare to be great moment." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "When we're training the folks that may not even touch the digital platforms, we want them to think about search before they go out and do a whole story." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Looking at Google trends will give you a sense of what it is that your audience is interested in. That's how your articles and stories and videos are going to reach more people." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "We try to get reporters to think about what could become a snippet. If it's a consumer reporter, were thinking about the pieces of their article that are most interesting from a search perspective." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "The producers are our SEO team. Digital producers are always the last line of defense." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "Most TV reporter packages are under 2 minutes. We gather additional information from the reporter to build the most robust piece of content to meet that search intent as completely as we possibly can." -Jenn Rourke, SEO Lead, ABC TV

  • "We have had to train up our teams so that they understand that a TV script and one video is probably not going to be sufficient to win the SEO game." -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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