{"id":15436,"date":"2019-06-12T09:58:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T20:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pureseo.co.nz\/?p=15436"},"modified":"2019-09-16T11:13:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T23:13:27","slug":"paywalls-and-seo-can-they-work-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pureseo.com\/au\/blog\/seo\/paywalls-and-seo-can-they-work-together","title":{"rendered":"Paywalls and SEO: Can They Work Together?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The perfect SEO strategy isn\u2019t easy to design. To begin with, every business is different, and every business\u2019 website is different. This means there simply isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that, SEO experts know that there are vital cornerstones. These are content<\/strong>, site architecture<\/strong>, and back-links,<\/strong> and these three foundations need to work together to form a sound strategy. These elements need to be prioritised for a very simple reason – Google likes them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google\u2019s core updates value these cornerstones, so every good SEO strategy has to take them into account if it wants to push a page to the top of the search results, thus making it more accessible. It\u2019s also widely accepted that everything Google values, it values in service of the user; that is, whoever is searching your keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happens if you put something in the way of the user?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Paywalls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, putting a paywall between the readers and the content seems like a bad idea. After all, Google wants it to be easy for users to find what they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the truth is, there are a few boons to putting a paywall in place:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. You can learn more about your audience<\/li>
  2. Content that users do<\/em> decide to pay for is likely to be considered of better value and more trustworthy.<\/li>
  3. Customers who access your content are more likely to become repeat customers and make conversions.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The last point may be a little confusing, so let\u2019s try putting it another way: a paywall effectively forces users to make a value judgement on your content<\/strong>. Those who decide to leave probably weren\u2019t going to convert into clients or customers for you anyway. Those who stay, on the other hand, are now more <\/em>likely to convert, since they\u2019ve already committed to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the other hand, let\u2019s take a look at the common drawbacks of a paywall:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Smaller overall userbase.<\/li>
    2. It can be harder to earn links, as other sites may not wish to be branded as direct marketers for your paywall. <\/li>
    3. Many users dismiss paywalls outright, finding them offensive.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      These concerns seem to swing the scales back in favour of ‘no paywalls’ pretty substantially, so where do we go from here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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      How Does Google Feel About Paywalls?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Google wants users to access information for free. This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean paywalls are out completely, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      At first, Google implemented a policy called FCF (First Click Free), which – as it sounds – stipulated that sites needed to make the first click into the content free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This policy was then replaced in 2017 by flexible sampling<\/a>. This policy allows sites to decide how much free content to give away before the paywall comes up, as long as it stays within Google\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      There are multiple common approaches to this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n