{"id":11401,"date":"2022-02-09T15:10:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/homepage-design-linking-strategy-for-publishers-seo-case-study\/"},"modified":"2022-02-09T15:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:10:06","slug":"homepage-design-linking-strategy-for-publishers-seo-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/homepage-design-linking-strategy-for-publishers-seo-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Homepage Design & Linking Strategy For Publishers [SEO Case Study]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A publisher\u2019s homepage is one of its most important pages for News SEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what happens when the number of internal links to articles from a publisher\u2019s homepage is dramatically reduced?<\/p>\n

We learned just that at a national news publisher in Ireland that I work on, Independent.ie.<\/p>\n

In this column, I\u2019ll share our experience redesigning the homepage and how the resulting change in internal linking architecture affected search rankings.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll learn the various ways the homepage supports a publisher\u2019s SEO goals, find internal linking tips and advice from top News SEO professionals, and discover what not to do to avoid similar issues when implementing a paywall.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dive in.\n<\/p>\n

Homepage Redesign SEO Case Study<\/h2>\n

Implementing a paywall<\/a> was a major strategic initiative for Independent.ie.<\/p>\n

Their business and editorial leaders wanted to promote as much premium, paywalled content on the homepage as possible.<\/p>\n

The idea was to showcase Independent\u2019s best journalism to its most loyal direct readers.<\/p>\n

This initiative was supported by data that showed that \u201cfly-by\u201d or non-loyal readers would still be able to access the rest of the free content from search and social, as well as other external article referral sources.<\/p>\n

However, that data didn\u2019t reveal how important the homepage was for SEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In January of 2020, the site\u2019s homepage was redesigned to only show the best \u201cpremium\u201d paywalled content of the day.<\/p>\n

From a structural and technical SEO perspective, this meant that the total number of articles being linked to from the homepage went from 174 to 48 \u2013 a 72% reduction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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