Anyone who has done SEO for a period of time has heard the myth of Google’s 200+ ranking factors.
To be fair, the number 200 may have been somewhat accurate, when former Googler Matt Cutts first mentioned it, more than a decade ago.
A lot has changed since then, and it’s unlikely anyone knows the actual number of ranking factors built into Google’s algorithm today.
That said, not all ranking factors are created equal.
If you simply focus on the top eight factors with the most influence, you will be successful. Those factors include:
Here’s the rub: That only works IF your content is visible to Google and available to readers.
What happens if you put a paywall in front of your content, creating an extra step? Let’s take a look at how to do SEO for membership sites in 2022.
Why Put Your Content Behind A Paywall?
The obvious question is: why put your content behind a paywall if it will affect SEO in the first place?
That said, it does have some benefits:
What Does Google Have To Say About Paywalled Content?
Regardless of whether your content is free or premium, you must follow Google’s guidelines.
The biggest problem for premium content owners is how to be visible in search if their content is not freely available to all users.
To mitigate this, Google initially introduced a First Click Free (FCF) policy.
What that meant was that in addition to their premium content, publishers had to provide free content that users could access through Google search.
Suffice it to say that the editors weren’t the biggest fans of this model and it was discontinued in 2017 and replaced with “Flexible Sampling”.
Basically, the newer model gives publishers more wiggle room in deciding how much content they want to offer users for free, and how they want to do it.
There are three options editors can choose from in Flexible Sampling.
Freemium
With the freemium model, some items or
The site can be accessed without a paywall, while some will have one.
In other words, this is a combination of closed and non-closed content.
There is no specific rule about what content will be free and what will be premium, but publishers generally use popular free content to take advantage of premium content and entice people to subscribe if they want to read, perhaps a more in-depth article.
Metered
With metered paywalls, the visitor can read a limited number of articles per month before being prompted to subscribe. This is usually three items, but it can be five or just one, for example.
This method is used by several prominent websites, including Medium, The New York Times, and others.
Once you reach the limit, you will see a message like the following to subscribe:
Author screenshot, February 2022
Hard Paywalls
Both of the above methods are known as “soft” paywalls, as they allow the visitor to view at least some articles or even just part of the content.
With “hard” paywalls, all content is blocked.
This means that Google or other search engines cannot crawl or index the content. This obviously makes it much harder to get new signups, but if the content is high value, the conversion rate can be much higher.
Although perhaps the least appreciated of all paywall methods, some top-tier websites in finance and other industries like the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and others still use hard paywalls.
Author screenshot, February 2022
So Which Of The Three Is The Best Option?
This largely depends on the purpose of your content.
News platforms like the New York Times have had a lot of success with metered content. This model allows visitors to get a good idea of the quality of your content by providing full samples as “teasers” to entice users to subscribe.
The NY Times, for example, introduced metered subscriptions in 2011, and today, a decade later, 7.6 million of the 8.4 million total subscribers are digital subscribers, while only about 795,000 are print subscribers.
Here’s a graph of how their digital-only subscriptions grew from 2011 to 2021:
Author screenshot, February 2022
The Freemium method makes sense for a website that already has a large and loyal reader base, different types of content, and exclusive content.
Balancing Free & Premium Content
Free content has a clear advantage over premium content when it comes to organic search, due to its sheer volume. This does not mean that premium content publishers lack organic search opportunities.
In fact, it could be argued that engaging in SEO is MOST important for subscription sites as they have an additional hurdle (paywall) to overcome.
Premium content publishers actually have two good options:
In other words, one cannot put just any kind of content behind a paywall.
Basic articles like “How to Optimize Your Website for SEO” number in the thousands (millions?) on the web and can be found with a quick Google search for free. Users have no reason or motivation to pay for that type of content.
On the other hand, if a publisher puts considerable effort into discovering a need and then creating a solution in the form of a white paper, e-book, or in-depth article, they may justify putting their specialized content behind a paywall.
If the content is written by a reputable expert, all the better.
When deciding whether or not to filter content, it may be a good idea to consider the following three questions.
1. What Is The “End Game”?
Are you looking to increase subscribers or generate leads? If so, then the content should probably be closed somehow.
However, if you are looking to generate more visitors and links, the access approach will backfire.
2. Is The Content Worth Paying For?
Put yourself in the user’s shoes and answer this question: “Is this content valuable enough to pay for or fill out a form?”
Be careful when answering this question. As a content creator or curator, pride in authorship can make it difficult to be truly impartial.
3. Is The Data Collected Worthwhile?
Another consideration when it comes to content access is how it impacts the user experience. The increase in the use of popups and overlays is directly responsible for the rise of ad blocking software.
By forcing users to hand over personal information to access private content, a (sometimes large) percentage of the data collected consists of fake names and disposable email accounts.
The “Fred” Update & The Difference Between Premium & Gated Content
In March 2017, Google introduced an algorithm update called Fred.
The basic idea was to reward websites that provided a positive user experience and demote websites with little quality content and lots of ads.
Fred also had the unintended consequence of downgrading some legitimate paywall websites.
Technical SEO Considerations For Paywalled Content
An initial problem with Fred was that he had difficulty differentiating between paid content and hidden (disguised) content. Since then, Google has found a solution: structured data.
For paid content to be eligible to appear in Google search results, it must follow the technical and structured guidelines.
Here’s an example of flagging paid content to comply with Google’s guidelines:
Author screenshot, February 2022
The question is, “how can Googlebot read the content behind the paywall?” For example, if you view this article with “view source”, the following is visible through the browser:
Author screenshot, February 2022
While the rest is behind a paywall…
That is, the site itself needs to use cloaking.
Send the full content when Googlebot requests the page, using the User-Agent HTTP header, for example:
Author screenshot, February 2022
One final but important point: Savvy searchers have learned that paywalls can be bypassed by going into Google’s cache and reading content for free.
To avoid this, you need to use the noarchive robots meta tag, which will prevent Google from displaying the cached link to that page.
Conclusion
Paywalls are becoming more and more common on the web. They allow publishers to generate revenue by charging readers to access articles or other content.
While they can be useful for providing premium content, they also limit free access to information. And they can limit search bots’ access to what they need to know to properly catalog your website.
We hope these tips help you decide whether to use a paywall or how to best optimize your paywall for search and profitable success.
Featured Image: Marija_Crow/Shutterstock
Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free platform for anyone with a website to monitor how Google sees their site and optimize their organic presence. That includes seeing your referring domains, mobile site performance, rich search results, and top traffic queries and pages.
What does the Performance tab show you in Search Console?
The performance report shows important metrics about how your site is performing in Google search results: how often it appears; average position in search results; click for ratings; and any special features (such as rich results) associated with your results.
How do I analyze the Google console? How to use the Google search console
- Identify your highest traffic pages.
- Identify your highest CTR queries.
- Look at the average CTR.
- Monitor your CTR over time.
- Monitor your impressions over time.
- Monitor your average position over time.
- Identify your highest ranking pages.
- Identify your lowest ranking pages.
What is the Discover tab in Google Search Console?
Discover is a feature within Google Search that helps users stay up to date on all their favorite topics, without a query. Users access their Discover experience in the Google app, on the Google.com mobile home page, and by swiping right from the home screen on Pixel phones.
What is my Discover feed?
The Google app is a default feature on all Android smartphones, and those who use Google on Apple products can also find it readily available. … The Google Discover feed consists of a search bar at the top and small boxes with the latest information in the form of an article that might interest you.
How does discover work on Google?
Instead of displaying results in response to a query, Discover displays content primarily based on what Google’s automated systems believe matches a user’s interests. As a highly personalized source, Discover actively tunes in to a user’s interests and displays content that aligns with those interests.
What is performance on Discover in Search Console?
The Discover Performance Report shows you important metrics about how your site is performing on Discover. This report is only visible if your property has reached a minimum Discover impression threshold.
What is a good average position in Search Console?
Ideally anywhere between 1 and 7 is a good spot as it will probably be on the front page of Google and as the difference even position 1 to 3 on Google is huge for clicks on a website, the front page it is a goal. You must set in your goals.
How does Google measure discover?
A webmaster asked how to measure Google Discover so they can track their performance metrics. John explained that the only way to measure it is in Search Console. In Google Analytics, traffic is almost always included in Google Search.
What are product results in Search Console?
If your website is eligible to appear in product search results, you’ll find a new search appearance type called “product results” with which you can segment your traffic to analyze your search performance.
What is search appearance in Search Console?
The Search Appearance filter, which is also available in the Search Console Search Analysis report above, allows you to compare or filter AMP Rich Results, Non-Rich Results, AMP Articles, Job Listings, and Job Details.
What are rich results in Google Search Console?
Rich results are experiences across Google surfaces, like Search, that go beyond the standard blue link. Rich results can include carousels, images, or other non-text elements. What is this test? Test your publicly accessible page to see what rich results the structured data it contains can generate.
How often does Google crawl your site?
It is one of the most common questions in the SEO community. Although it varies, average tracking time can range from 3 days to 4 weeks, depending on a host of factors. Google’s algorithm is a program that uses over 200 factors to decide where websites rank among others in Search.
How can I tell if Google has crawled my site? You can use the Determine the last time Google visited your site link to check how to find the last time Google crawled your site. You can also try googling “cache:http://insertURLhere.com” and it directly gives you the time it had saved.
How long until Google crawls my site?
Tracking can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Please be patient and monitor the progress using the index status report or the URL inspection tool. All the methods described here have approximately the same response time. There is a fee to submit individual URLs.
How long does it take Google to crawl a new site?
It takes between 4 days and 4 weeks for Google to crawl and index your new website.
How do I remove a property from Google Search Console?
To remove a property in Google Search Console, log in to the dashboard and select the Manage Property button to the right of the property you’d like to remove, then select Remove Property from the dropdown menu.
How do I remove content from Google Search? How can I remove a page from Google? Google does not control the content of the web. That means that before we remove a page from our search results, the site owner must change or remove it. If that’s you, just make the changes you want.
What is Google console?
Google Play Developer Console is the platform provided by Google for Google Play and Android developers to publish and monitor the performance of their apps on the Google Play store.
What is the Google console for? Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google search results. You don’t need to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google search results, but Search Console helps you understand and improve the way Google sees your site.
What is Google Analytics and Google console?
Google Analytics is user-oriented, providing data related to those who visit and interact with your website. Google Search Console, on the other hand, focuses on the search engine and provides tools and information that can help site owners improve visibility and presence in the SERPs.
What is the difference between Ga and GSC?
Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC) are completely different. They serve different data based on different purposes. GA was built with user behavior tracking in mind, while GSC was built specifically to help site and app owners up their SEO game.
What is the difference between Google webmaster and Google Analytics?
One of the best ways to explain the difference between Google Webmaster and Google Analytics Tools is this: Google Analytics reports how website users interact with your site, while Google Webmaster Tools reports how search engines interact with your site. .
How Google Webmaster affect your SEO?
Most search experts rely on Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) to analyze the technical aspects of a website. These experts focus on data like crawl statistics, page errors, and rich snippets. … These experts focus on data like crawl statistics, page errors, and rich snippets.
How is Google Webmaster useful in marketing? Google Webmaster Tools alerts you to how Google sees your website and alerts you to problems it finds.
What is Google Webmaster Tools used for?
Google Webmaster Tools (also known as Google Search Console) is a powerful platform that website owners can use to monitor how their site is interacting with Google.
Is Google Webmaster Tools the same as Google Search Console?
Google aims to learn more about Google Webmaster Tools users by renaming Google Search Console. Google announced that it has changed the name of Google Webmaster Tools to Google Search Console. The ten year old name for the suite of tools designed for webmasters, publishers, and business owners is changing to Google Search Console.
What is the difference between Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools?
One of the best ways to explain the difference between Google Webmaster and Google Analytics Tools is this: Google Analytics reports how website users interact with your site, while Google Webmaster Tools reports how search engines interact with your site. .
Does Google Search Console help SEO?
SEO Specialists or Marketers: As someone focused on online marketing, Search Console will help you monitor your website traffic, optimize your ranking, and make informed decisions about the appearance of your site’s search results.
Is Google Search Console good for SEO?
Google Search Console is one of the most powerful free SEO tools out there. But most people never use it for anything other than checking vanity metrics like clicks and impressions. … Translation: looking at them isn’t going to improve SEO anytime soon.
Can I use Google Search Console for keyword research?
Using Google Search Console is one of the most effective ways to do keyword research, find out what your website ranks for, and increase traffic. In 2018, Google redesigned Search Console, along with the new look came new features and the ability to go back further and see even more data.