About The Company
We are strengthening TheNews21's digital backbone.
We're looking for a serious Newsroom SEO professional who understands Google News, Discover, and investigative journalism - not generic SEO or marketing.
Please read carefully before applying.
About The Role
TheNews21 is an independent investigative and analytical newsroom based in Maharashtra, focusing on governance, politics, infrastructure, and public-interest journalism. As part of our ongoing expansion, we are committed to enhancing our search visibility and discovery capabilities through a dedicated SEO transformation roadmap tailored specifically for newsroom content. This role is ideal for a specialized SEO professional with a deep understanding of newsroom dynamics, Google News policies, and investigative journalism practices. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in optimizing our digital content to reach wider audiences, ensuring our investigative stories and analytical reports are easily discoverable and rank prominently across search platforms. You will work closely with our editorial team to implement SEO best practices that align with journalistic integrity and audience engagement goals, contributing significantly to our mission of holding power to account through impactful journalism.
Qualifications
- Proven experience with news or publishing websites, demonstrating a strong understanding of newsroom SEO strategies.
- In-depth technical SEO expertise, including indexing, schema markup, sitemaps, and crawl management.
- Hands-on experience with WordPress, particularly with themes and plugins like TagDiv, SmartMag, or JNews.
- Knowledge of E-E-A-T principles, Google News, and Discover algorithms, with the ability to adapt strategies accordingly.
- Proficiency with SEO tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Screaming Frog.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and generate actionable insights.
- Excellent communication skills to guide and collaborate with editorial teams on SEO best practices.
- A commitment to ethical SEO practices, avoiding black-hat techniques such as PBNs or paid link farms.
Responsibilities
- Conduct comprehensive technical SEO audits focused on news website requirements, including indexing, crawl errors, and Core Web Vitals improvements.
- Optimize website architecture, URL structures, robots.txt files, canonical tags, and redirects to enhance discoverability.
- Implement and manage structured data schemas such as NewsArticle, Author, Breadcrumb, and Organization to improve rich snippets and visibility.
- Enhance mobile performance and overall page speed to meet search engine standards and improve user experience.
- Develop and maintain a clean, logical category architecture and create pillar pages for investigative series to facilitate content clustering.
- Guide the editorial team on SEO-friendly editorial workflows, including headline optimization, meta descriptions, tagging, and internal linking strategies.
- Optimize images through alt-text, compression, and WebP formats to improve load times and accessibility.
- Increase visibility in Google Discover by crafting long-form content and optimizing for audience engagement.
- Prepare and manage Google News Publisher Center profiles, ensuring compliance with policies and fixing feed or policy issues.
- Ensure structured data compliance for news content to enhance presence in Top Stories and News surfaces.
- Develop an ethical backlink and citation strategy, emphasizing quality over quantity, and avoid manipulative link-building practices.
- Optimize investigative PDFs and other downloadable content for search engines.
- Support digital PR initiatives to build authority and attribution-based links, strengthening our journalistic credibility.
- Monitor, analyze, and report on SEO performance weekly and monthly, providing measurable insights and progress updates.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement SEO best practices and continuously improve content discoverability.
Benefits
- Competitive salary range of 25,000 to 40,000 per month, commensurate with experience.
- Opportunities for professional growth within a dynamic, mission-driven newsroom environment.
- Engagement with impactful investigative journalism that influences public discourse.
- Flexible work arrangements and a collaborative work culture.
- Access to ongoing training and development resources to stay updated on the latest SEO and journalism trends.
- The chance to be part of a dedicated team committed to transparency, accountability, and societal betterment.
Equal Opportunity
TheNews21 is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic. We believe that a diverse team fosters innovation and excellence, and we welcome applications from all qualified candidates who share our commitment to impactful journalism and ethical SEO practices.
