How to block AI bots, how Google News works, and ad density insight - all in this week's Content Aware.
Block of wisdom
Unless you believe OpenAI and Google et al have your best interests at heart, publishers need to know what steps to take to block AI training crawlers from harvesting content. We've got a concise guide on what is required.
https://www.gpp.io/news/how-to-block-genai-crawlers-such-as-googles-bard-or-openais-chatgpt-from-your-website-aD5S85s7E2CA
Correct first, publish later
Wondering why search engines keep your spolling mistaks in public view for so long after you or your editors corrected them? Google News Whisperer Barry Adams talks you through news search protocols and practices, and why your first cut of an article can last as long as it does.
https://www.seoforgooglenews.com/p/optimise-for-first-crawl
How many ads is best?
User behaviour isn't as predictable as you might expect when it comes to their response to advertising density and placement. One site experimented with their own pages and ad slots and revealed the counter-intuitive findings.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ads-user-behavior-experiment/494596/
Corbidge comments on... does the platform cloud have a silver lining for publishers?
Platforms are restrictive and increasingly possessive of content. The most recent path to success for new content outfits has been direct to consumer - something publishers know well.
https://www.gpp.io/comment/who-would-launch-a-site-right-now-aqIcD1Q6kxOy
Search us for evidence
Google's ongoing antitrust trial has brought interesting claims in court and elsewhere about the possible abuse of search in order to meet advertising targets. Interestingly, Google has officially disputed this claim
on X, even as the court is still hearing the case.
https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/
Imagine a post-Google world
What would the world look like for publishers without the Big G? The mere fact of the antitrust trial taking place somehow makes such a once-fanciful thought at least a ponderable idea now.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/10/if-google-suddenly-had-real-competition-in-search-how-would-news-publishers-world-change/
Less of a dip than a nosedive
Site analysts Similarweb have shared data on traffic referrals from major platforms to news sites, and to little surprise you don't need the James Webb telescope to see what's happening.
https://www.gpp.io/news/no-more-eyeballs-social-media-isnt-sharing-amWsA7U5py77
Content silo vs content cluster - perils and pearls
Content has to be well ordered to increase accessibility, yet the process of doing so too thoroughly can cause its own set of problems.
https://www.semrush.com/blog/silo-seo/
Check your head
Mining or monitoring social media is today part of the journalist's standard toolkit. Too much professional exposure to it brings, perhaps not surprisingly, potential mental health issues.
https://thefix.media/2023/9/28/are-social-media-mining-journalists-mental-health
Reaching for new Channels
WhatsApp's new Channels
feature is hoped to allow publishers to get closer to their readers. How does it work and what are the results so far? UK publishing giant Reach has been using it in pre-release and is able to give insight.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/social_media/whatsapp-publishers-channels-communities/
