Editorial workflows

1. Establish a draft review routine

Start with the story’s purpose, sourcing, accuracy, headline, and audience. Then review metadata, heading structure, relevant images, and useful internal links. A focus keyphrase should describe the actual reporting, not force an unnatural repetition pattern.

PublishRank’s Article Intelligence is described as a local recommendation layer covering headline, keyphrase, metadata, structure, readability, image, and link signals. Confirm which checks are available in your installed release.

2. Treat scores as prompts, not targets

A score is a way to surface potential improvements. It cannot determine factual accuracy, fairness, source reliability, or whether a story serves the public interest. Do not change a necessary quotation, technical term, or clear headline merely to maximize a score.

Agree on which checks matter to your desk and which need an editor’s override. Document recurring exceptions so a newsroom does not repeatedly debate the same recommendation.

3. Connect useful reporting

Use content relationships to identify relevant background, explainers, earlier reporting, and topic pages. Link when it helps a reader understand the story. Prefer descriptive anchor text over generic instructions, and check that the destination is public and current.

An orphan-content alert is a reason to investigate, not permission to insert links everywhere. Some pages are intentionally isolated. Similarity and cannibalization signals need a human review of search intent and story scope before any consolidation.

4. Build a publication checklist

1. Verify facts, sourcing, and the visible byline.
2. Confirm headline, description, canonical URL, and indexing intent.
3. Review meaningful image alt text and permitted image usage.
4. Check structured data against the visible article.
5. Confirm that an eligible fresh news story enters the appropriate sitemap.
6. Assign an owner for updates, corrections, and relevant follow-up links.

Apply checks proportionately. Breaking-news workflows can be fast while still preserving accurate identity, dates, and editorial oversight.

5. Maintain the story after publication

Make substantive updates visible to readers and keep modification signals accurate. Preserve the original publication date. Corrections should follow your publication’s editorial policy rather than being hidden behind a metadata change.

Review older reporting for useful contextual links and broken destinations. Treat automated suggestions as review queues, not bulk-edit instructions. Future story-lifecycle intelligence remains subject to the roadmap.

Reference: Google people-first content guidance