A desperate publisher that goes down in a sea of code and a monstrous algorithmic tentacle that moves websites into the traffic arm - picture: xpert.digital
50 % and loss of visibility: How the largest publishers can recover
Market analysis from 2024 for 2025+: The future of SEO for news portals
The digital landscape for publisher has changed profoundly in the current year 2024. While search engines like Google continue to remain the primary traffic source for news portals and media houses, the competition for visibility is becoming increasingly challenging. Some of the largest publishers, including Web.de, Focus and Stern, recorded massive burglaries in their organic visibility in 2024 - partly by over 50 %. At the same time, the demand for professional SEO advice is increasing, since the complexity of search engine optimization overwhelms traditional editorial structures. This report analyzes the driving factors behind these developments and outlines sustainable solutions for publishers who want to assert themselves in the digital news market in the long term.
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The structural challenges for publishers in the SEO competition
Technical hurdles and algorithmic shifts
The technical infrastructure of a website forms the basis for a successful SEO strategy. However, many publishers underestimate essential factors such as crawling efficiency, indexability, XML sitemaps and mobile-first optimization. A serious example is the dwindling importance of accelerated mobile pages (AMP). Formerly celebrated as indispensable for mobile users, AMP is now less preferred by Google. At Stern.de, the too strong dependence on AMP led to a drastic traffic decline of 30 %.
At the same time, the display of search results changes drastically. Google-owned features such as knowledge panels, news boxes and featured snippets are taking more and more space on the search results. When searching for current news, celebrities or sports events, these elements often fill up to 80 % of the visible area of the search results page. As a result, the click rates for classic news articles decrease considerably.
Algorithmic updates such as the Helpul Content Update from 2023 and the fight against "Site Reputation Abuse" in 2024 make the situation further difficult. These updates aim to devalue generic content and instead to reward websites with high thematic authority. Publisher who cover a wide range of topics are increasingly under pressure.
Content relevance and the generalists' crisis
The traditional model of the generalists among the news portals loses importance. Google is increasingly prioritizing specialized domains with high professional competence. For example, specialized football platforms such as the transfer market and kicker displaced general news sites for Bundesliga-relevant search terms from the top 10 rankings. A similar trend is evident in the financial sector: While Focus and Stern in 2023 were still leading in "stock tips", specialized stock market portals such as finanzen.net today dominate the rankings.
This change is based on Google's increased consideration of the EEAT criteria (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trusting). A regional newspaper like the Rheinpfalz can provide credible reports about the regional economy, but compared to leading media such as Spiegel or Handelsblatt, it lacks the necessary authority for national political analyzes. The visibility data impressively demonstrated this development: 45 of the 100 largest SEO losers 2024 were broad publisher.
Monetarization dilemma and Paywall strategies
The balance between range and monetization is one of the greatest challenges for publisher. While Google Discover can provide high number of visitors at short notice, these users are difficult to convert to paying subscribers. At the same time, too aggressive use of Paywalls leads to the fact that content from search engines can no longer be indexed, which lowers organic visibility.
Some publishers experiment with hybrid models. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, for example, relies on a "metered paywall", in which a limited number of items per month remains free of charge. In addition, certain content is specifically released for SEO purposes. Nevertheless, the balancing act remains difficult: a Paywall model that is too restrictive reduces the chances of being presented in Google News or Discover, since Google prefers freelance accessibility.
The growing importance of professional SEO advice
From the technology check to the strategic partnership
Modern SEO advice goes far beyond classic keyword optimization. Renowned agencies such as Visibleerwerden.de or Eminded offer holistic strategies that include technical optimization, content strategy and editorial workflows. Include typical services:
- Technical audits: identification of crawling problems, indexing errors and mobile usability issues.
- Content gap analyzes: AI-based detection of thematic gaps compared to competitors.
- Entity-based SEO: structure of authority through semantic networking of related content.
- Performance tracking: Use of tools such as Sistrix or Semrush to monitor visibility indices and click rates.
Case studies show that publishers, which invest in a targeted manner in SEO, can increase their organic visibility by up to 120 % within 6 to 12 months.
Specialized services for publishers
Some agencies focus exclusively on SEO for news portals. Moritz Serif Consulting, for example, develops measures for newsrooms, including:
- Breaking News optimization: Automated templates for meta-tags and structured data.
- Republishing strategies: Update and new publication of evergreen content.
- Google Discover optimization: emotionalized headlines and entity-based theme clusters for higher click rates.
At the same time, AI-based SEO tools become more important. Platforms such as Market Muse or Clearscope help editors to make content optimized for searching, without sacrificing journalistic quality.
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Strategic adjustments for sustainable publishers
Building thematic authority clusters
Successful publishers are increasingly focusing on core competencies and developing thematic authority clusters. One example is the Rheinpfalz, which has established itself as a leading source of news about the Chemical Group BASF. Success factors are:
- Monthly investigative research on corporate developments
- Expert interviews with board members
- Data -driven visualizations of emission values
Diversification of traffic sources
In view of the growing dependence on Google, publisher alternative channels rediscover:
- Social SEO: Optimization of content for internal search functions on YouTube and Tiktok.
- Podcast transcriptions: SEO-friendly copies to improve the findability.
- Newsletter archiving: conversion of old newsletters into indexable evergreen articles.
The future belongs to publishers who combine journalistic excellence with data-driven SEO expertise. This is the only way to assert yourself as relevant actors in the age of AI-based search.
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Konrad Wolfenstein
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