However, as with any quick fix, there's a catch. While SEO tactics may deliver a temporary surge in traffic, they are not a sustainable long-term solution for revenue generation. Depending solely on clickbait headlines and superficial content to generate ad revenue might bolster the bottom line, but it does little to foster a loyal readership while also overlooking the other sustainable revenue streams that are necessary for the growth of any new publication.

To truly thrive in the digital age, publishers must strike a delicate balance between revenue optimization and user experience. The new frontier lies in the convergence of ad and user revenue, where content creators prioritize the needs of their audience above all else.

The Interplay of Paywalls and SEO

Impact on user experience and page views on a piece of content taken behind paywall is inevitable. While a paywall can help publishers connect with a loyal audience and increase ARPU. The idea is to implement paywalls carefully to optimize them for maximum SEO results. Also, by following the best practices and recommendations from Google and SEO experts, you can overcome commonly faced challenges such as content’s ability to reach and engage news audiences, limited keyword targeting, and reduced crawlability.

To ensure that your paywall strategy optimizes user experience and search engine visibility, you need to plan and consider all aspects that may affect your website's traffic channels and revenue streams. Successful paywalled websites can still rank for competitive keywords that drive substantial traffic once they optimize their paywall strategy's crawling and indexing elements.

Using structured data to overcoming Technical Challenges with SEO and Paywall

It is essential to incorporate an SEO-friendly paywall for search engines to understand the content on a web page and rank it accordingly. You can consider following these practices to overcome technical challenges with SEO and paywall implementation:

• Determine which content should be behind the paywall and how to balance free and blocked content on the site.

• Avoid blocking resources, use progressive enhancement, and avoid redirects to ensure effective crawlability.

• Implement an SEO-friendly paywall that allows search engines to crawl and index content effectively. One effective method is using paywall Schema JSON-LD, a structured data format that enables search engines to crawl through the paywalled content.

Adding the JSON-LD structured data to a paywalled content page can bring several benefits, including.

• Improved Search Engine Visibility: It helps search engines understand that the content is behind a paywall and should not be indexed for free. This will enhance the visibility of your paywalled content in search engine results.

• Increased Click-Through Rates: Display an explicit label in the search results indicating that the content is behind a paywall.

• Better User Experience: Provide users with clear and concise information about the paywall before they click on a search result.

• Compliance with Search Engine Guidelines: Ensure compliance with search engine guidelines on paywalled content.

It's Time for Publishers to Set Their Goals Straight

In today's digital era, counting pageviews and calling it a day just won't cut it anymore. To truly thrive in this landscape, it’s important to approach the situation from the perspective of business goals and determine how to effectively implement SEO and paywall strategies to maximize outcomes.

Adapting strategies based on desired outcomes:

What is it that you hope to achieve with a particular piece of content - is it to drive registrations, encourage newsletter sign-ups, or ultimately secure subscriptions? Based on this outcome-based approach, you can keep your content behind a soft paywall, offer it for free with a simple registration wall, or introduce metering at a later stage.

Propensity also plays a crucial role:

Just like users, every piece of content has its own ranking metrics that determine its likelihood to drive an action. Metrics such as RFV score, EPV, and average engagement time spent by user segments can help publishers determine which content is likely to drive the desired actions and adjust their strategy accordingly. Other supporting important metrics like CPT and RPT are also indicators of a content’s propensity to drive revenue, making them valuable tools for publishers to make a decision.

Type of content also drives decision making:

In-depth, analytical, investigate articles specially curated for a platform's audience requires a different approach than hot, current content that shines a light on the latest news updates. By understanding the nuances of each content type, publishers can tailor their strategies to ensure maximum impact and engagement.

💡Example: Step-by-step mind map for determining whether a content should be paywalled.

Let advanced analytics guide you in balancing SEO and paywalls

The process of determining the real value of an article for ad revenue or subscription revenue can, however, be complex due to the wide variety of factors involved. A matter of great contest in newsrooms, can be easily put to rest with the use of advanced analytics tools, such as Consecnt In-Depth.

Taking assumptions out of the equation, these advanced analytics tools can help you make a significant impact on the revenue. You could make guided decisions based on multiple health metrics that indicate the potential for higher user revenue than earnings revenue for a given page or article. Insights like these are not mere guesses but are based on actual data.

Going a step ahead, with real-time propensity analysis, you can even predict a piece of content's probability to earn ad revenue or user revenue before it even goes live.