What is republishing and how does it work?

Definition

What exactly is republishing?

Republishing is part of news optimisation. Republishing means the systematic re-publication or targeted updating of existing content through adjustments in the content management system (CMS).

Republishing often goes hand in hand with adjusting the publication date in Publisher SEO.

Distinction

How does republishing differ from evergreens, live blogs and refreshing?

Republishing has to be distinguished from evergreen and live-blog optimisation.

What are evergreens?

Evergreens are timeless articles that retain relevance in the long term and continuously attract visitors via Google Search or get named by LLMs.

What are live blogs?

Live blogs deliver continuous updates on current events, such as the war in Israel or political elections.

What is refreshing?

Refreshing always happens without changing the URL.

Benefits

What are the benefits and goals of republishing?

Republishing has a number of benefits in editorial SEO.

• Increase traffic and reach.
• Strengthen brand awareness.
• Address new audiences.
• Turn users into subscribers in the long term and increase ad revenue.
• Extend the lifespan
• Create added value

Risks

What are the dangers of republishing?

Applied wrongly, dangers in Publisher SEO include alienating readers, penalties from Google and the loss of credibility.

Google Discover

Why is republishing relevant for Google Discover?

Google Discover is a special case compared with Google News, where content usually brings traffic only briefly.

In Google Discover's personalised feed, articles can receive clicks continuously over a longer period, sometimes days or even weeks.

Discover practice

What should you watch out for when republishing for Google Discover?

This is where republishing comes into play: content can be kept in the feed for a very long time through re-publications and updates. This creates enormous reach for publishers.

What publishers should keep in mind: if users repeatedly see an article in their Discover feed over a longer period and find on clicking that the content is unchanged, this can lead to frustration.

Updating

Why should content be updated when republishing for Google Discover?

It creates the impression that the newsroom is trying to keep old content artificially alive without offering new value.

This can lead users to downgrade the publication or stop following it.

That is why it is important for newsrooms to decide carefully when and how they republish successful articles in Google Discover, ideally always with relevant updates.

Suitability

Which content is suitable for republishing?

Content that achieved a high number of visitors immediately after its original publication is particularly suitable for successful re-publication.

The exact definition of "a lot of traffic" depends on the individual goals of the respective publisher.

Pieces with a stable base demand that still show potential for growth are also well suited.

In these cases it is often because the titles, descriptions or images were not yet appealing enough to generate more clicks.

Evergreen timing

When can you republish evergreens?

Republishing can also make sense for newly published evergreen texts and guide articles.

It is advisable to republish content that recently (for example yesterday or the day before) got good clicks in tools such as Google Search Console.

Caution: If the articles are already several weeks old, republishing risks ranking losses. In these cases it is a matter of evergreen optimisation.

Exclusion

Which content is not suitable for republishing?

Certain content should never be republished without prior revision.

Outdated or refuted information

Such content undermines readers' trust and damages the publication's reputation. An update is mandatory here.

Completed events or topics

Reports on accidents or concluded incidents are unsuitable for re-publication.

Temporary warnings

These include, for example, notices about severe weather or flight cancellations. Republishing would offer no added value and could wrongly give the impression that the event is still current.

Forms

Which forms of republishing are there?

There are several forms of republishing.

Updating

Revise, update and republish content.

Format change

A blog post can also be reused as an e-book, infographic or as part of a webinar.

Cross-platform publication

Republish content on your own website, social media and newsletter.

Monitoring

How do you monitor the success of republishing?

Various tools and metrics are suitable for monitoring the success of republishing.

Live traffic tools: Publishers can use tools such as Marfeel, Taboola, Kilkaya or Linkpulse to observe the current flow of visitors.

Analytics tools: Google Search Console or analytics tools help identify articles that recently got good clicks.

KPIs

What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring success?

The following KPIs are essential for measuring success.

• Unique visits or pageviews: Capture the total number of visitors or page views.
• Click-through rate (CTR): Shows how well the combination of title, photo and teaser works.
• Dwell time: Shows how long users stay on the page, an indicator of content quality.
• Bounce rate: Measures the share of users who leave a page without clicking on further articles.
• Scroll depth: Tracks how far the user has read the text.
• Conversions: Capture how many users become subscribers, click on ads or buy products.

Date debate

Why is adjusting the date controversial?

The question of whether only the update date or also the original publication date should be adjusted when republishing is a recurring topic of discussion in SEO for editors and SEO for journalism.

Arguments against

What are the arguments against adjusting the publication date?

Some experts recommend changing only the update date, even if content adjustments have been made.

This method complies with Google's guidelines. Advocates argue that it preserves readers' trust.

It minimises the risk that Google perceives the change as a manipulative attempt to artificially improve visibility.

Arguments for

What are the arguments for adjusting the publication date?

Others argue for adjusting the publication date with every re-publication.

They argue that an older publication date can cause the article to generate fewer clicks.

URL strategy

What about URL changes?

Another very powerful tool in republishing is to change and adapt the URL of the content piece. Writing a new keyword into the URL is already enough.

In some CMS systems this happens automatically when the meta title is adjusted.

This leads Google to classify the content as new and can also be rated as an attempt at manipulation, especially if overdone.

Above all small publishers should be careful, because the original content is effectively overwritten by the new URL, which can damage topical authority.

Responsibility

Who should republish?

Responsibility for republishing can be assigned either to the SEO team or to the newsroom.

Ideally the people who take on this task should have a strong feel for language, enjoy writing catchy headlines and take pleasure in increasing visitor numbers.

It is crucial that republishing is not perceived as a tedious chore.

Newsroom

What speaks for the newsroom?

Editors have a fine feel for language, know the content and its history best and can make relevant adjustments.

But who in the newsroom comes into question?

Duty editor

The duty editor keeps an overview of current topics and can quickly decide which articles are suitable for republishing.

Managing editor

The managing editor steers the editorial goals and planning and coordinates the strategic re-publication of content.

Freelancers and student assistants

Freelancers and student assistants can relieve the core team and bring fresh perspectives.

SEO team

What speaks for the SEO team?

The SEO team is familiar with the latest developments in search engine optimisation and knows how to increase traffic effectively through republishing.

They monitor content performance and make data-based decisions.

Comparison

Newsroom or SEO team?

What are the newsroom's weaknesses?

Editors have subject expertise but are often under time pressure and are rarely SEO experts.

What are the SEO team's weaknesses?

SEOs often lack the journalistic background, and their orientation is more technical than linguistic. Mistakes can quickly damage the newsroom's trust in SEO.

What happens if only SEOs republish?

A disadvantage if only SEOs take over republishing is that editors do not develop these important skills.

How do newsrooms close the gap?

Ultimately the decision should be made individually for each newsroom. SEO seminars for editors and journalists can help pass knowledge on to each other.

Workflow

How do you republish?

It is advisable to plan different angles for the title when an article is first created, so that fresh perspectives can be offered later if needed.

That can significantly increase the click-through rate (CTR). Republishing is particularly effective when the following elements of the article are adjusted:

• Meta title, meta description and article photo should be changed.
• If the title is adjusted, it is advisable to also change the main headline (H1) and the teaser in the content management system.
• Especially if the click-through rate is below seven percent, a title change is strongly recommended.

Best practices

What are the best practices for republishing?

There are proven approaches for effective republishing:

Meta title

• Length: A maximum of 70 characters is ideal, as Google truncates beyond that. For Google Discover, however, up to 120 characters can be used.
• Core message: The most important message should be at the beginning of the title.
• Keyword placement: The relevant keyword should be as close to the beginning of the title as possible.
• Sayings: Idioms and sayings can increase attention.
• Style: Always use active phrasing and avoid passive constructions.
• Clickbait: Do not write misleading or exaggerated clickbait titles.

Meta description

Call to action: Include a clear call to action, for example "Find out how the dispute continues".

Content promise: Make sure the text actually delivers on the promise made in the description.

Placement and distribution

Republished articles should be placed in a prominent position on the website.

With real added value the article should also be shared again on social networks.

Mark the update to build trust with readers.

Discover practice

Which best practices are there for republishing for Google Discover?

Below is a look at best practices for Google Discover.

Topic selection

Topics must be current, relevant and have an emotional trigger, for example human interest and entertainment (celebrity news) or pensions.

Article structure

Subheadings (H2), listicles and images make for a pleasant text structure.

Headlines

Headlines should be keyword-optimised, that is meaningful, and encourage users to click on the content.

The outstanding importance of the image for Google Discover

Together with the headline, the image has the greatest importance when republishing for Google Discover. A click-attractive image clearly increases the chance of ranking in the feed.

Images have to meet the following requirements.

• Minimum size 1,200 pixels wide.
• The page should carry the meta tag max-image-preview:large.
• File size as small as possible with high quality at the same time, to reduce loading times.
• Use alt texts, image captions and descriptive image file names.

Lessons learned

Analyse the most successful articles that achieved at least 10,000 impressions and a double-digit CTR (click-through rate).

Bad practices

Which bad practices are there for republishing for Google Discover?

Avoid clickbait.

Do not withhold information from users artificially.

Never lure users by exploiting morbid curiosity, titillation or outrage.

Transparency

Sources used

• Own experience from eight years of publisher SEO at publishers such as Axel Springer, Funke, Ippen and t-online.
• Google Search Central: "Google Search Essentials".