A Paywall Could Cause Google to Lower a Site's SERP

Countless individuals like to analyze and project search engine results. This includes search engine optimization professionals and amateurs alike. From time to time, people often wonder how websites with paywalls rank highly in search results. It often confuses onlookers that sites with limited viewable pages rank so well sometimes. The New York Times is often cited as a prime example for this phenomenon.

NYT: A Paywall But Other Factors Help Its Search Engine Rankings

However, a number of factors explain why the website often hits the number one spot for searches. The New York Times does protect most of its content behind a paywall. Doing so allows the company to make money from subscriptions. Nonetheless, a fair amount of content is provided free of charge without the paywall. This allows search engines like Google to crawl an adequate amount of content from the website.

The Reality Of Domain Authority

Domain authority perhaps explains the website's search engine rankings more than anything else. Although some people argue domain authority doesn't exist, the concept is difficult to argue against. How many websites have more authority than The New York Times? It's often considered one of the most reputable news sources on the planet. Millions of people flock to the NYT website for their dose of newsworthy content.

A Smart Approach To Content Delivery For The New York Times

For The New York Times, specifically, a combination of factors explain its ranking. All of the non-paywall content receives millions of collective views. Google considers content from the NYT both authoritative and in high demand. Therefore, the existence of a paywall doesn't hurt The New York Times in a noticeable manner. Its content continues to reach high search engine rankings, and AMP content doesn't hurt Google results, either.

Google sometimes does lower a websites search engine rankings due to paywalls. In the end, things like domain authority and quality content offset the paywall. The New York Times takes a smart approach to the situation with free, ungated content. A number of other websites tend to rank highly in Google results despite a paywall of some sort. Millions of people continue to rely on The New York Times for news. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/jtvuyf/explainhowthenewyorktimesranksongoogle/.