Updated October 2026. This guide combines three posts I wrote for publishers in 2016 (on SEO training for editors, keyword research and on-page optimization) into one, and updates them for how search works now, including Google’s AI Overviews and AI tools like ChatGPT.
Search is still one of the largest traffic sources for most publishers, and your editorial team holds the keys to it. Editors decide what gets written, how it’s titled and how it’s structured. When they understand how people search (and how AI tools pick sources), every article has a better shot at earning traffic. This guide covers how I train editorial teams to build SEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) into their workflow.
My Experience with Publisher SEO
Before starting Kern Media, I was Director of SEO at F+W Media, a large publishing company, where I oversaw SEO for 200+ websites and a team of five SEO managers. Before that, I spent a few years as an online product manager, using SEO to hit online revenue goals. We battled a lot of Google algorithm updates (especially in 2012) and recovered many sites from Panda. That technical, “defensive” work mattered, but one of my team’s biggest wins was teaching editors to build SEO into their own work.
The graph below shows organic traffic for one of those sites, which had a team of editors. Traffic was flat from 2010 to 2012. Once we built SEO into the editors’ workflow in early 2012, it started climbing, and kept climbing long after I left.
Why SEO and GEO Matter More for Publishers
Publishers have been hit hard by AI Overviews and AI tools that answer simple questions right in the results. A quick “what is” or “how to” answer that used to earn a click may not anymore. That doesn’t make SEO less important for publishers. It changes where the effort should go:
- Original expertise wins. First-hand experience, original reporting, expert authors and unique data are hard for AI tools to replace, and they’re what AI tools cite.
- Topics with depth win. Thin articles on simple questions are the most exposed. In-depth, specific content on topics your audience cares about holds up much better.
- Your own products and audience matter more. Search traffic that turns into newsletter subscribers, members or book buyers is worth far more than one-time visits.
On a free 30-minute call, we’ll talk through your site and goals.
Types of Searches (and What Content Fits Each)
People search for three main reasons:
- Informational: to learn something or solve a problem (“how to blend acrylic paint”). Best served by articles, guides and videos.
- Navigational: to find a specific brand, title or author (“Writer’s Digest,” “Harry Potter”). Best served by your homepage, product pages and author pages.
- Transactional: to buy, subscribe or sign up (“buy watercolor books,” “art magazine subscription”). Best served by product pages, category pages and landing pages.
Informational content builds trust and awareness early. Transactional pages drive sales. Your editorial content should funnel readers toward the products, subscriptions and email lists that pay the bills.
Topic and Keyword Research for Editors
Publishers have used reader surveys for years. Keyword data does the same job faster, with real numbers behind it. I suggest thinking of individual keywords as “spokes” of a core topic, rather than chasing one keyword per article.
Where to Find Topics
- Google Search Console: shows the actual searches people used to find your existing articles. It’s the best free source of topic ideas, and it shows which pages are close to ranking well. (See my guide to re-optimizing pages with Search Console.)
- Google’s autocomplete and “People also ask”: real questions people ask about a topic, for free.
- Your own site search: what readers type into your search box tells you what they couldn’t find. Track it in Google Analytics 4.
- AI tools: ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity questions your readers would ask. Note which sources get cited. If competitors are cited and you’re not, that’s a gap.
- Paid tools: Ahrefs and Semrush show what competitors rank for and estimate search volume and difficulty. Treat their numbers as estimates.
- Google Trends: shows whether interest in a topic is growing or fading, and when it peaks during the year.
Be Realistic About Competition
High-volume topics look tempting, but you’re up against Amazon, big media brands and Wikipedia for many of them. Unless your brand is highly authoritative in that topic, focus on more specific, longer topics you can win (“acrylic pouring techniques for beginners” instead of “acrylic paint”). Look at who’s on page 1 of Google and use your own judgment.
Organize by Topic
Keep a simple spreadsheet: the topic, the main keyword, related keywords and questions, search intent and the page that will target it. Make sure each topic has one clear page, so you don’t end up with several articles competing for the same searches.
On-Page Optimization Tips for Editors
1. Write Titles That Earn the Click
The title tag (what shows in Google) and the H1 (the headline on the page) don’t have to match. Many publishers leave them the same, which leaves some opportunity on the table. Keep the H1 simple and focused, and use the title tag to add a related phrase or more detail.
For example, when I trained editors at Writer’s Digest, one of their grammar articles used a simple H1, “Which vs. That.” Its title tag added “Grammar Rules,” which helped the page rank for a wider range of related searches.
Numbers and specific promises also help titles stand out (“7 Watercolor Mistakes Beginners Make”), as long as the article delivers on them. Google may rewrite titles that don’t match the content, so keep them accurate.
2. Build Your Outline from Questions
This is my favorite tip, and it’s really a marketing tactic. Before writing, list the questions your reader has about the topic (who, what, where, when, why and how). Use those questions as your subheadings, and answer each one clearly near the top of its section. This makes the article more helpful for readers, and it’s the format AI tools find easiest to quote.
3. Use Keywords Naturally
The first rule of body content optimization is that nobody should notice it. If your outline covers the topic in depth, your keywords will show up naturally in subheadings, paragraphs, image alt text and captions. Never force them in.
4. Show Who Wrote It
Add an author byline with a short bio and a link to an author page that explains their expertise. Google’s quality guidelines put a lot of weight on experience and expertise, and AI tools are more likely to trust (and correctly describe) content from clearly credible authors.
5. Give Every Page a Clear Next Step
Every article needs a purpose. Common calls to action include buying a related book or course, downloading a free guide, subscribing to a newsletter or reading a related article. Not every page needs to make a sale, but every page should give the reader somewhere useful to go.
6. Link Between Your Own Articles
Internal linking is the easiest link building there is. When you publish something new, find 2-3 related articles on your site and link from them to the new piece, using descriptive anchor text. A quick Google search like site:yoursite.com “topic” will turn up good candidates. Done consistently, this builds a web of links that helps both rankings and engagement.
Product and Category Pages for Book Publishers
If you sell direct to consumers and also through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, there’s a common problem: you send retailers the same product descriptions you use on your own site. Those retailers have far more authority (and reviews), so they outrank you with your own content.
The fix is to give your own product pages the best, most unique content. If you export product data for ONIX feeds from your CMS, keep two descriptions for each title:
- A website description: longer and richer, with details about who the book is for, what’s inside, the author’s background and sample content.
- A feed description: shorter, sent to all retailers and shopping channels.
If you give Amazon 100 words, give your own product page 200-500. Give Google (and AI tools) a reason to choose your page.
Category pages need unique content too. Without it, they’re just lists of products, which isn’t much different from a search results page. Add a short intro above the product grid that explains what’s in the category and links to top titles and related categories. A curated section below the grid (“best books for beginners”) helps readers who scroll all the way down without finding what they want.
Using Search Data in Print Editorial
Search data isn’t only for the website. Print editors can use it before a book is even written:
- Titling: if a title includes words people actually search for, its product page comes out of the gate ready to rank.
- Product research: Google Trends shows whether interest in a topic is growing or fading, which helps editors judge whether a book idea has a future. Keyword tools show seasonality, like cookbook searches peaking from November to January.
Want help running this process with your team? Request a free consultation.
How to Train Your Editorial Team
Here’s the process I’ve used to build SEO into publishing workflows. It moves editors from learning to doing, until it’s part of their normal work.
Note: Put one person in charge of this and hold editors accountable through each step. Also give editors time to learn. Adding training on top of a full workload without taking anything away creates stress and a bad experience for the people working hard to market your books.
- Educate. Have each editor read Google’s SEO Starter Guide and its guidance on helpful content. Both are free and written for non-technical readers.
- Summarize. Have each editor write a few paragraphs on the practices most relevant to their job. This quickly shows any gaps or misconceptions.
- Quiz. Create a short quiz (Google Forms works fine) on keyword research and on-page optimization. Set a passing score (80% or higher) and walk through missed questions with anyone who doesn’t pass.
- Review their first articles. Have an experienced SEO review each editor’s next 2-3 articles: Were the target topics realistic? Is the outline built around reader questions? Are the title, headings and internal links done well? This feedback is where most of the learning happens.
- Research topics together. Once editors are comfortable, work with them to research topics tied to your products and audience, using the sources above.
- Build it into the editorial calendar. Add researched topics to your calendar so future content is backed by real search demand. Weigh both demand and competition when prioritizing.
- Measure and share results. Track the traffic and conversions each editor’s articles drive (a content group in GA4 or a simple spreadsheet works). Some editors will love seeing their numbers grow. Others will see it as a chore. Sharing results (and maybe a friendly monthly contest) keeps the momentum going.
When to Expect Results
Google can find new content within a day or two, but it usually takes a few months to rank competitively. In my experience, it takes 3-6 months after training to see initial results. Once things get cookin’, traffic keeps growing as editors keep publishing content their audience is searching for.
Watch Out for Duplicate Content
The graph below shows a site where SEO training drove strong growth in 2012 (purple arrow), then lost ground during a 2013 Panda update (downward red arrow). The cause: editors had copied content onto another website. Once that content was removed, the site recovered in a later update (upward red arrow). It’s a good reminder that editors hold the keys to your traffic in both directions.
A Note on AI Crawlers
Publishers have more reason than most businesses to think about which AI crawlers to allow. Some block AI training crawlers (like GPTBot and ClaudeBot) to protect content they license, while still allowing the search crawlers that can cite and link to them. My robots.txt guide explains the difference.
It’s a Wrap
If you’d like help training your team, see my SEO and GEO training for publishers and content teams or request a free consultation.
