As we enter the holiday shopping season, news publishers with affiliate content are prepping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Publishers can maximize their Google visibility during major sale events by focusing on content quality and authority, optimizing structural elements for optimal user experience, and maintaining live updates throughout the sales event.

We took the Trisolute News Dashboard analysis posts we’ve produced this year for sales events and had NotebookLM analyze them to surface key insights for publishers in order to maximize their search visibility across the Google landscape.

Best practices

Headlines

The most successful headline structures for earning Google visibility during major sale events emphasize measurable value, editorial authority, a first-person perspective, and urgency or timeliness.

Main takeaways:

• Successful headlines frequently included specific numbers to provide a clear and compelling value proposition.
• High-performing headlines utilized phrases that conveyed editorial rigor, trustworthiness, and expert curation.
• A shift toward conversational and first-person language helps build personal trust and emotional connection with the reader, aligning with what Google seeks.
• Headlines that reflect the urgency of a live sale or the timeliness of content updates are highly effective, especially in fast-moving events.
• Headlines that clearly link the event to highly sought-after brands or products ensure they align with specific user search intent.

Here are the headline structures and key elements identified from the analysis of events like Black Friday, Prime Day, and the Amazon Big Spring Sale:

• Use specific numbers for discounts and deals. Examples include: “Our editors found the 123 best Amazon Prime Day deals to shop before the sale ends” and “233+ Deals We Found for Prime Big Deal Days That Are Actually Worth It.”
• Using quantifiable metrics like discount percentages was also effective. Examples include: Articles with titles that included “up to 65% off” performed well in the mobile News Boxes.
• Lean on first-person expertise (“I’ve been covering Black Friday deals for 10 years”) to build trust and authority.
• Using phrases like “Our editors found” or “Our experts found” convey editorial authority and indicates the content has been carefully curated. Example: “The best Amazon Prime Day Deals of 2025: Our editors’ top picks have savings up to 70% off.”
• Phrases that assure quality and value, such as “best deals” or “worth shopping,” perform well. Example: “The 157+ Best Prime Day Deals Actually Worth Your Money.”
• Headlines that feature first-person pronouns (like “I,” “Our editors,” or “We”) signal a unique personal perspective that offers a more blog-like tone that can resonate better with readers during commercial events where authority and relatability are valued. Examples include: “I’ve been covering Amazon sales for 18 years — here’s the 63+ best spring deals this weekend,” “I’m a Flight Attendant and I’m Calling It: These Are the 15 Best Deals From Amazon’s Big Spring Sale,” and “Our editors found the 123 best Amazon Prime Day deals.”
• Using words like “live” and “updated live” signal that the article is a dynamic resource. Example: “135+ biggest Amazon Spring Sale deals that rival Prime Day, updated live.”
• On the final day of a sale, successful headlines emphasized the closing window. Examples: “The last day of Amazon Prime Day is here” and an article targeting the search term “prime final day.”
• Post-sales event, a strategy of tracking and highlighting active deals that are still live proved highly successful.
• Top-performing articles frequently centered on major brands, particularly Apple products. Examples: “Amazon Prime Day Apple deals: AirPods, iPads, MacBooks and more are up to $200 off” and “10 Worth-It Prime Day Apple Deals.”

More content quality tips

• Article structure: Keep the format simple and easy to scan. Consider a table of contents format at the top of the article to break down deals by category to make it quick and easy for shoppers to find relevant deals.
• Internal linking: Cross-link all of your deals content to elevate visibility and demonstrate topic authority.
• Ensure your Black Friday and Cyber Monday content’s format is optimized for both mobile and desktop performance.

Editorial authority

• Showcase your publication’s in-depth coverage of sales and deals content, by leveraging your archive, ensuring that expertise is communicated in every headline, and clearly documenting the product review process. Consider producing related content, such as how to properly clean or provide maintenance for an appliance, so that content offerings go beyond just a deals roundup or product review.
• Google’s site reputation abuse policy updates in 2024 prompted many publishers to move affiliate content production in-house. Author bios are not required but are recommended to send trust and authority signals to your audience and Google.
• Own your niche: Technology news publishers should focus on the tech products that their audiences have shown keen interest in this year. Food news sites should focus on the specialty foods, cookbooks, and kitchenware that their audience cares about the most. 

Tips on avoiding Google site reputation abuse penalties 

• Ensure Black Friday and Cyber Monday content is produced in-house; Google may view affiliate sections with third-party content as standalone sites that will not benefit from the host site’s ranking signals.
• Conduct a comprehensive audit to ensure every page of affiliate content is abiding by Google’s guidelines. Even a single non-compliant page can result in a manual penalty by Google.
• When updating existing content, clearly document the changes made in an informational box or widget.

Google Discover Black Friday tips

Optimizing Black Friday content for Google Discover requires a slightly different approach than traditional search, as Discover prioritizes visual appeal, topic authority, and user interest signals.

Here are the best practices for optimizing Black Friday content (deals, reviews, and affiliate articles) for news publishers on Google Discover, broken down by key elements.

Headlines

For Discover, headlines need to be compelling, actionable, and specific.

Best practices:

• Ensure you front-load the value by immediately telling the user what they will gain. Use strong, action-oriented verbs. Example: “Snag the Best 4K TV Deals Before They Sell Out.”
• As with the general tips above, Discover often favors highly quantified content so use specific numbers and percentages. Example: “50% Off! Top-Rated Headphones You Need to Buy Today.”
• For time-sensitive sales events, use terms that incorporate urgency and exclusivity. Example: “Act Now: The Absolute Lowest Price Ever on Apple Watches.”
• Connect the product or deal to a trending topic or seasonal need to demonstrate why a shopper needs the product now. Example: “Upgrade Your Kitchen: The Must-Have Air Fryer Deal of Black Friday.”

What to avoid:

• Overly long or keyword-dense headlines can hurt engagement on Discover.
• Avoid vague titles like “Great Black Friday Deals Happening.” Be specific about the product or category.
• Do not use hyperbolic language that over-promises a deal (“Free!” when it’s not) and don’t let live headlines go stale with outdated information.

Images

Images are arguably the single most important factor for success on Google Discover, because other than the headline, they are the element that can make a user stop their scroll and click.

Best practices:

• Images must be sharp, well-lit, and directly represent the product or deal.
• Opt for images with strong, clear foregrounds that contrast against the background to pop on the feed.
• When possible, use original photography or unique illustrations. Generic stock photos are less likely to be prioritized by the algorithm.
• Google strongly recommends high-quality, large images that are at least 1200 pixels wide and follow a 16:9 aspect ratio (or 4:3) for maximum reach.
• When appropriate, use an action shot of the product, which can boost CTR.

What to avoid:

• Do not embed headlines, logos, or excessive watermarks directly onto the main Discover image. This practice is discouraged by Google and can lead to lower visibility ranking.
• Avoid busy backgrounds, as images where the product blends into a complex background are easily scrolled past.

By focusing on these best practices—especially the quality and composition of your images and the authoritative depth of your content—you can significantly increase the chances of your Black Friday coverage appearing prominently in Google Discover feeds.

Affiliate content and E-E-A-T

Affiliate and deals content from news publishers must maintain the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) standards expected by Google.

What to include:

• Ensure the content is written by a person with demonstrable expertise in the products For a TV review, the author should be a tech reviewer, not just a staff writer.
• Clearly and prominently disclose any affiliate relationships at the beginning of the article.
• Every deal or product review should clearly explain why it’s a good deal. Include price history, comparisons to competitors, and highlight the percentage off.
• Ensure your entire page loads quickly on mobile devices.

What to avoid:

• Articles should not simply be a list of product links. They need genuine editorial value, like analysis, context, or detailed pros and cons.
• Disruptive interstitials or heavy ad layouts can severely degrade the user experience, leading to lower engagement signals.
• Immediately update the article once a deal is over or an item sells out to limit bounce rate and sending poor quality signals to Google.

Data Insights

We also took a look at 2024 Black Friday-Cyber Monday Google mobile SERP visibility data to see which publishers earned the greatest share of voice so that we could compare with 2025 data. For now, we looked at November 2025 data through November 15, so this won’t be a direct comparison, but can give us an idea of emerging trends.

2024 Publisher Share of Voice

Black Friday 2024: News publisher share of voice on the mobile SERP.

2025 Publisher Share of Voice (through 11.15.25)

Black Friday share of voice for news publishers on the mobile SERP through 11.15.25.

YOY takeaways

• Fewer traditional news publishers are appearing in the top 10 for share of voice.
• Social media platforms have gained in share of voice.
• Technology news sites have mostly maintained their share of voice in the top 10 (3 of  the top 10 in 2025 vs 4 of the top 10 in 2024).
• Some traditional news publishers have fallen out of the top 10 in share of voice.

Here are the types of content performing well so far in November ahead of Black Friday/Cyber Monday:

• Gift guides on YouTube: “Holiday gift guide” and “Christmas gift guide” are popular, making up half of the top 10 in visibility for youtube.com.
• Yahoo’s top articles are focused on early Black Friday deals from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
• Nintendo deals dominated Reddit discussions and performed well for Engadget as well.
• Tom’s Guide is seeing strong visibility for 2 articles with first-person headlines that focused on hand-picked deals from Amazon and Best Buy.
• On Instagram, influencer-created gift guides are driving the most mobile SERP visibility.

AI Impact

It’s difficult to predict how much Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode will impact the SERP visibility of news publishers who produce Black Friday and Cyber Monday content. Here is what we do know:

• Google has been adding more AI-powered shopping features to the SERP. 
• Users are becoming more comfortable using AI-powered search features and LLMs to assist with their shopping journeys.
• Use appropriate schema markup (like Product Schema or Review Schema) to explicitly communicate the type of content to Google’s crawlers, which aids in processing for the AI Overview.
• As of mid-November, according to the Trisolute News Dashboard SERP AI Overviews report, keywords related to Black Friday and Cyber Monday are triggering AIOs on less than 15 percent of SERPs.
• Google has been adding AI-generated summaries to some articles in the feed. It remains to be seen if it will do the same for deals content, but it’s something to keep in mind when crafting your Discover optimization strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Key Takeaways for Publishers 

• Craft headlines that demonstrate authority, capture specific discount details, and generate a sense of actionable urgency. Keep headlines fresh with the latest, most accurate information throughout the sales event.
• Images, especially on Discover, need to visually pop to stand out against the competition. Use original photos whenever possible; action shots of the product can be effective. 
• Format articles with mobile scanability in mind. Include clearly defined sections and navigation so that users can skip to the deals they care about.Make sure the update timestamp is clearly visible so that users know how recent a deal was posted. Cross-link your related content to demonstrate topic depth and authority.
• In the days after Cyber Monday, the SERP can still be active with sales that are still active, so make sure to take advantage of this time period.

For more, check out these Trisolute News Dashboard sales event analysis posts:

• Prime Deal Days 2025: What Google’s Rankings Reveal About the State of News and Commerce
• Prime Time for Visibility: An SEO Deep Dive into Amazon Prime Day 2025 for U.S. Publishers
• From Deals to Visibility: How Publishers Ranked During Amazon’s Big Spring Sale 2025
• Deal or no deal? Assessing affiliate content visibility after Google’s Site Reputation Abuse policy update
• Black Friday 2024: Affiliate marketing SEO insights for news publishers

Resources

• New Google AI shopping features
• McKinsey study on AI search/LLM usage for purchasing queries
• Google’s Holiday 100: The gifts everyone’s searching for
• The Brands & Campaigns That Won Black Friday 2024
• WTF is SEO: 9 tips for Black Friday success
• EU investigating Google over site reputation abuse policy

Not yet part of the Trisolute News Dashboard family? Request a FREE DEMO today and find out how your articles rank on Google Discover, Google News, and the SERPs!