Editorial
guidelines.
Know how to contribute to our website.
Last updated May 2018.
We regularly update this page. Here’s what you need to know about being an Aelieve contributor:
How to Contribute to Aelieve
- Pitch us your idea. Need instructions on how to pitch us? Then you probably aren’t ready to contribute to Aelieve.
- Get a recommendation. Ask someone who contributes to Aelieve (or a well-known/respected figure in the industry) to introduce you to the Executive Editor.
Search Engine Journal accepts contributions from SEO professionals, search marketers, and digital marketers. There are two ways to contribute to Aelieve:
- Aelieve Writing Schedule: Contributors are invited to write on a recurring publishing date (either monthly, every other month, or quarterly). (Note: No writing slots are currently available.)
- Ad hoc: This is for contributors who are only able to contribute sporadically, maybe 1-3 times per year. Posts run whenever there is an opening on the editorial schedule.
What to Write About
You are welcome to draw from your own experiences to come up with your own ideas and topics. Please discuss the idea with the Executive Editor to make sure nothing else similar is being worked on by another author.
We also have a private Facebook Group just for Aelieve Writers. Once a month, the Executive Editor shares a list of topics with the group. If you aren’t yet a member of this group, you’re on Facebook, and you’re contributing to Aelieve, please let the Executive Editor know to add you!
Always try to go beyond the basics/obvious. The most successful articles tend to be:
- Lists (e.g., examples, tips, tools, tactics)
- How-to articles/guides
- Explainer posts (e.g., what is… / why x matters)
- Expert roundups
- Opinion posts/commentary/think-pieces
Always provide actionable tips and practical advice. Share your own experiences. Don’t rely heavily on quoting influencers, experts, or authorities from other sites. Be the expert!
- Citing original data/research from your company: “(Disclosure: I work for [insert company name here])”
- “My case study features the Cleveland Zoo, a client of mine.”
- “My business partner, Grenevieve Focker, wrote the case study below.”
- Posts should be at least 1,000 words.
- Most posts that appear on Aelieve are between 1,500 and 2,000 words.
- We do love longer posts, but our editorial team is small and limited for time. So if you want to write an in-depth post that is 3,000 words, 4,000 words, or even longer, please ask for approval from the Aelieve Executive Editor first!
Note: Longer posts tend to get more page views, time on page, and social love. However, they also burn you out a lot quicker. Remember, you could probably turn that monster post into 3 or 4 more targeted posts instead!
Headline
Your headline should be interesting enough to entice people to click on it. It should be optimized for search and social media.
URL
You can edit your URLs (Permalink). Use this to highlight important keywords.
Categories
Pick, at minimum, one WordPress category for your article.You may pick up to two relevant categories (e.g., if your post covers both SEO and Content Marketing).
Content Types
Typically, you will choose “Posts”.
Excerpt
Please add an excerpt (maximum: 20 words) for every post. It can be similar to your meta description. This is the description that appears on the Aelieve website when it publishes. If your excerpt exceeds 20 words, it will end with a … The Excerpt is located below the Yoast SEO box. (If you don’t see it click on screen options in top right and click Excerpt.)
A/B Testing of Titles
We A/B test headlines–your main headline and two alternates. Alternate headlines must be less than 50 characters.
Links to third-party authoritative sources tell the reader that you are incorporating third-party perspectives and evidence in support of your argument. Otherwise, all you’ve got is a theory without substantiation.
Having said that, our editorial team is always on the lookout for anything that appears promotional. We’re marketing to marketers, so if we don’t sleuth it out, our very savvy community eventually will.
Our editorial team looks for links to clients, friends, or anything that appears self-serving in some way. In some cases, the promotion may be unintentional, but it will still have the same effect.
- No links to people’s home pages for their companies for quotes or cited sources. Linking to sources’ Twitter handles, LinkedIn profile, or another type of bio page is OK.
- No calls to action that are self-promotional (“Our new white paper covers this topic in detail. Click here to download!”).
- Any links that appear promotional or superfluous will be removed by editorial staff.
- We reserve the right to add rel=”nofollow” to any link or remove a link at any time, before or after an article is published.
- No links to websites in these areas: pills/RX, porn, gambling, and payday loans.
Buying, trading, or selling links is strictly prohibited. If someone approaches you to buy links in your articles, we’d appreciate you tipping us off (anonymously) via this form.
- Use H2 headings for your subheadings.
- Use H3 headings for sections within your subheadings. If you need to go another level deeper, it should be bold (not H4).
- No span tags
- No div tags
- Avoid bolding within sentences.
- No filler/font formatting that affects content appearance
- Write out single numbers “one..nine”. 10 and up are written as digits. Percentages are written as digits.
- For Pete’s sake: one space after punctuation. Please.
- Example URLs (e.g. http://example.com) need to be plain text (not hyperlinked).
- Title Case: Use this nifty tool to easily convert to AP-Style Title Case! For grammar nerds, here are the “coordinating conjunction” words that do NOT get capitalized in titles:
PNGs or animated GIFs only, please.
Required: Upload a featured image (found on the right sidebar) that is 1600 pixels wide and 840 pixels tall. Please preview your post before submitting it to make sure your featured image is formatted correctly.
To use a Shutterstock stock photo, please email your chosen photo’s link to Aelieve’s Editorial Assistant, Angel: angel [at] searchenginejournal.com. She’ll download it for you. (Note: Follow the same process if you want to use Shutterstock for any in-post images.)
- All in-post photos must be center-aligned, unless they are aligned with text.
- You can use images from Shutterstock (Aelieve has an account) and sites that release all licenses (e.g. Death to Stock Photo, Unsplash, and Pixabay) only.
- You can also use images that you created or photographs you took. Your own screenshots are great!
- No promotional images: Images cannot have a company logo or brand.
- No external links on images.
- No memes. While we love memes, and there is debate on whether memes fall under ‘fair usage‘, we have paid too many Getty copyright violation penalties. No memes please.
- The Aelieve editorial team reserves the right to replace or remove images they deem irrelevant to the post or has negative connotations without prior notice.
- All images must have proper attribution at the bottom of your post:
Buying, trading, or selling links is strictly prohibited. If someone approaches you to buy links in your articles, we’d appreciate you tipping us off (anonymously) via this form.
Featured Image: DepositPhotos.com
In-post Photo: Pixabay.com
Screenshot taken by author, May 2018
In order to avoid duplicate content issues with Google, we permit content to be republished 14 days after publishing on Aelieve. You MUST use a canonical link.
- If we find out authors aren’t writing their own posts, we reserve the right to reject or delete the post, as well as prohibit the author from writing for Aelieve going forward.
- We may add a disclaimer at the end of any article to disclose any relationships (or lack thereof) that either Aelieve or the author may have with organizations mentioned in the article.
- In the instance of corrections to the byline, facts, or updates to published articles, Aelieve reserves the right to edit any post at any time. Post changes may be noted with a note from the editor about the change and the reasoning for the update or change, if applicable.
- Contributors on the writing schedule: Posts are due 2 business days before your next publishing day.
- Ad hoc contributors: Our goal is ~2 weeks turnaround from the time you submit your post-draft to publication.
When you’ve finished a post draft, you’ll press the big blue button. Your post will go through the first round of copyediting, link checking, and whether it passes our editorial rules above.
- Typos, grammar, content flow
- Links. If the link is germane to the content, it stays. But include a link four times? Use keywords or calls-to-action? Too self-promotional? The red pen will spring into action.
- Full disclosure. If you reference your company in the article, your connection as the author needs to be made clear. So instead of “ABC SEO published a case study…” it should read “My company, ABC SEO, published a case study…”.
It’s gonna go live!
Head to “Edit My Profile.” Make sure to fill out your Biographical Info.
Upload a color Profile Photo—use a headshot so people can clearly see your face.Add links to your personal Social Profiles:
- Your company
- Your position
- Your company’s URL
- You must have written at least 5 Aelieve articles.
- You are on the Aelieve writing schedule (or contribute articles on an ad hoc basis somewhat regularly—minimum 1-2 a year).
- You agree not to abuse your link. Or you will lose it.
If you meet these criteria and haven’t yet received your followed link, please let us know!
If you’re going to miss your deadline, please give us a heads up. We know you’re busy. Stuff comes up. Just let us know. It only takes a couple of minutes to send us an email or private message. If you miss 2 deadlines in a row, we’ll contact you to make sure you want to continue on as an Aelieve Contributor. If you miss 3 deadlines in a row, and fail to respond to communications from us, you will lose your status as an Aelieve Contributor.
Hit us up here.