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Advice for launching a local news & UGC website in 2026
Posted by on February 6, 2026 at 10:24 amI’ve been running a fairly popular Facebook public page for a while now, focused on news and user-generated content (UGC) from my capital city. Most of our followers are residents of the capital and nearby towns. Our UGC is often picked up by news portals, usually with a mention of our Facebook page.
We’re now ready to take the next step and build our own website from scratch.
I’d really appreciate any advice on how to do this the “right way” in 2026. Specifically:
- In 2026, is the number of publications still one of the most important factors in a niche like ours?
- Are keywords still relevant, or have the algorithms changed in a way that makes them less important?
- What type of content works best now, and what should I avoid?
Any insights, personal experiences, or resources you could share would be hugely appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
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1 Reply
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if you already have a real local audience, that’s the hard part done. in 2026 volume matters less than consistency and trust, especially for local news. keywords still matter, but more as intent and clarity than stuffing exact phrases. plain language headlines that match what locals would actually search tend to win. original ugc, explainers, and fast local updates usually outperform generic rewrites. i’d avoid chasing national seo trends and focus on being the place people check daily for “what’s happening here.” that habit is way more defensible than raw traffic.
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