Republish Breaking News?

[mattdinbrooklyn]

Hi,

So I was wondering if you would recommend republishing breaking news articles or creating another longer, in depth article. I'm in New York so let me use the Derrick Rose Trade as an example. Rose gets traded, a news organization gets out a small article (around 150-200 words) that explains the trade as fast as possible to break the news and get into Google News (which focuses on speed). Then the news organization wants to go into detail about the trade (explaining the ramifications and so on). Should the news organization write another article that would be in depth (around 600 words) to rank in organic search or should they expand the 150-200 word article to 600 words and republish the article?

[JordanLowry]

I would suggest writing another "unique" article that brings some insight and perspective into the news piece. As long as its unique and provides value I would believe it would gain some traction.

[EGOL]

The answer to this question depends upon your sources of traffic and the services that you offer to your visitors.

Let's say most of your traffic comes from websearch.  If you publish a second article on a separate page then getting it to rank well while the story is still breaking and lots similar stories are appearing on lots of other websites, is going to be difficult.  Then it might be better to update your first story because it will probably have better rankings.   If you decide to go this route then giving visitors a button that they can use to "subscribe to updates" will feed them improvements that you make the the original article.

But, if most of your traffic is direct or from breaking news sources, then publishing a brand new article on a brand new page might give you a "second shot" at attracting pageview for this subject.

There are other traffic acquisition methods.  Design your publishing/updating methods to fit well with them.

[mattdinbrooklyn]

What if you don't get good ranking from your first post and there's lots of breaking news. Would you recommend the second article that is longer to provide a second chance?

[EGOL]

For important breaking news, every hour that passes means more webpages to compete with.  You should get your best shot out immediately.  If that doesn't perform well then additional pages are unlikely to do well - especially if you do not have a heavyweight site.

[mattdinbrooklyn]

So I do have a heavyweight site. So the site is redacted and we get a lot of competition from other sports sources as well as local newspapers (some as big as the NY Times). Typically the idea is to get out a small article to rank for Google News and if we are too late and don't rank to create a longer article to do well on organic search. The longer articles, of course, take longer but at least we have a shot at organic.

[EGOL]

OK... I know your site.   In that wasted white space at the top you should be offering everyone an opportunity to subscribe to breaking news and get links to breaking stories by email as soon as they are posted.  Allow them to subscribe by team, or league, or trades, or salary, or coaches or goalies, or Stanley Cup.

Back to your original question...  Start experimenting and keeping records.  You have the advantage of a strong site and a relevant site and a site that is quick with the news.  It could behave differently in different situations.