One of the great things about doing SEO at an agency is that you're constantly working on different projects you might not have had the opportunity to explore before. Being an SEO agency-side allows you to see such a large variety of sites that it gives you a more holistic perspective on the algorithm, and to work with all kinds of unique problems and implementations.
This year, one of the most interesting projects that we worked on at Go Fish Digital[1] revolved around helping a large media company break into Google’s Top Stories for major single-day events.
When doing competitor research for the project, we discovered that one way many sites appear to be doing this is through use of a schema type called LiveBlogPosting. This sent us down a pathway of fairly deep research into what this structured data type is, how sites are using it, and what impact it might have on Top Stories visibility.
Today, I’d like to share all of the findings we’ve made around this schema type, and draw conclusions about what this means for search moving forward.
Who does this apply to?
With regards to LiveBlogPosting schema, the most relevant types of sites will be sites where getting into Google’s Top Stories is a priority. These sites will generally be publishers that regularly post news coverage. Ideally AMP will already be implemented, as the vast majority of Top Stories URLs are AMP compatible (this is not required, however).
Why non-publisher sites should still care
Even if your site isn’t a publisher eligible for Top Stories results, the content of this article may still provide you with interesting takeaways. While you might not be able to directly implement the structured data at this point, I believe