These factors relate to the use of words on various parts of an article page on a publisher’s website:
Article Page Keyword Factors
1=strongest factor; 19=weakest
OpEd Commentary:
“Keywords in headlines are critical. I remember when Eliot Spitzer got caught with the hooker and I think the Post ran the headline “Ho No!” Awesome headline. Amazing linkbait. If you can write a headline like that then go for it, but everyone else should stick to “Spitzer Caught With Hooker” – Andrew Shotland
“Keywords in the title tag. Basic SEO. Amazing how many media sites miss this.” – Eleanor Hong
“Keywords in the headline are still the king. Even subtle variations and word re-orderings can make substantial difference in News ranking placement and longevity.” – Matthew Brown
“Exact match title queries are a beautiful thing.” – AJ Kohn
“Keywords in the H1 can make up for low keyword density elsewhere, and using the keyword effectively on page can make up for not having it in the H1″ – Chris Mull
“H1 has been a a strong factor for Google News display” – Eleanor Hong
“Need to strike a balance here, but we’ve found repeating a term in the title, h1, and in the body to be quite effective.” – Adam Audette
“Keywords in h2 tags can help the page rank for secondary phrases in Google News, aside from the main keyword phrase targeted in the headline.” – Matthew Brown
“I’m convinced word order only helps ensure that Google doesn’t get confused what the topic is about – if your whole title is very focused, then kw placement doesn’t matter as much.” – Chris Mull
“SEOs often need to convince the writer/editor to move keywords towards the beginning of headlines. Helps with social media sharing.” – Eleanor Hong
“I like using synonyms and related words in page titles quite a bit.” – Adam Audette
“Hard to separate whether a page ranks because of a keyword in the meta description or because it’s in the lede (which news sites typically use as a description.) I suspect the latter.” – Chris Mull
“Don’t bury your lede… don’t bury your top keyword” – Eleanor Hong
“Really, any kind of emphasis that gives prominence to a term on the page visually can be useful for targeting that term.” – Adam Audette
“Keywords in alt-text is the #1 factor in getting the image result next to a Google News snippet, followed by caption and filename.” – Matthew Brown
“Text surrounding images is important and often missed by publishers.” – Eleanor Hong