Many publishers recognize this and are optimizing their news content for Google News.<\/p>\n
And, since any site is eligible to appear in Google News, yours may even be indexed and ranking in Google News.<\/p>\n
But before you get too carried away about the traffic honeypot potential of Google News, there are several pitfalls to avoid if you truly want to optimize your site for the aggregator.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll explore these mistakes and provide tips on how to get the most out of Google News.<\/p>\n
But first, let\u2019s get the basics out of the way.<\/p>\n
Google News Optimization Basics<\/h2>\nWhat Is Google News?<\/h3>\n
Google News is a news aggregator developed by Google.<\/p>\n
It was launched in 2002<\/a> to help users discover the day\u2019s news from multiple news outlets in their region and beyond.<\/p>\n The aggregator compiles news from various sources on the internet and issues them in both mobile and desktop searches.<\/p>\n Much of the incoming traffic of digital publishers comes from external sources.<\/p>\n These include search platforms, links from other sites, social media, social shares, etc.<\/p>\n And since Google News is one of the biggest news aggregators, it\u2019s a huge potential source of traffic for many publishers.<\/p>\n Today, Google News accounts for about 4%<\/a> of publishers\u2019 traffic sources.<\/p>\n Think of it as this massive referrer with incredible reach.<\/p>\n It helps publishers reach new audiences and attract more readers to their news sites.<\/p>\n Thus, sources trying to get as much traffic as possible want to be listed as snippets in Google News.<\/p>\n Google News collects articles from more than 20,000 publishers worldwide.<\/p>\n On the user\u2019s side, the goal is to provide as much diverse, relevant news content as possible.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s algorithm determines what shows up in whose feed.<\/p>\n And then personalizes it based on the user\u2019s Google News settings and past Google activity.<\/p>\n It\u2019s only in a few specialized cases where Google News teams choose the stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for the publishers, it\u2019s all about the traffic.<\/p>\n The aggregator has various features that let users learn about and engage with a news site.<\/p>\n For example, a publisher can submit a URL or feed through Google\u2019s publisher center.<\/p>\n However, doing that doesn\u2019t guarantee the news site surfacing or ranking in Google News.<\/p>\n The aggregator will also feature publishers it finds through Google\u2019s standard web crawl.<\/p>\n This is why optimizing news platforms for Google News is crucial for many people.<\/p>\n Accelerate Mobile Pages, better known as AMP<\/a>, is an open-source project launched by Google in 2015.<\/p>\n It was Google\u2019s brainchild to boost the slow performance of publishers on mobile devices.<\/p>\n At the time, this initially sounded enticing for publishers since mobile traffic was well on its rise, and traditional news publishers were struggling with the re-development requirements of the mobile web.<\/p>\n But Google didn\u2019t exactly take the diplomatic path with the framework.<\/p>\n Between 2015 and 2021, publishers had to adopt AMP to appear in Google\u2019s Top Stories on mobile.<\/p>\n Those who didn\u2019t comply simply lost out.<\/p>\n Those who did got the traffic.<\/p>\n However, they also had to deal with the restrictions of adopting valid AMP<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fortunately, a July 2021 update removed the AMP requirement for mobile Top Stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, as proven<\/a>, you don\u2019t need AMP to get featured in Google News.<\/p>\n And with Google News sending users directly to publishers\u2019 websites,<\/a> it\u2019s time to ditch the framework and focus the time and resources on other aspects of your SEO.<\/p>\n Before December 2019, a publisher needed to tweak their website to match specific requirements and fill the relevant online forms before letting Google review it.<\/p>\n Then, if all went well and Google believed them to be an actual publisher, their application would be approved, and the site would appear in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n When the new Publisher Center rolled in, things changed.<\/p>\n Google removed<\/a> the manual approval forms and introduced a new Google News inclusion process.<\/p>\n Now, Google decides automatically which websites show up in Google News.<\/p>\n The \u201cofficial\u201d word is that Google considers sites with high-quality content that comply with Google News content policies.<\/p>\n This inclusion process means a website doesn\u2019t necessarily need to be a news publisher to get into Google News.<\/p>\n As long as they tick all the right boxes, they can appear in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n But getting into Google News is a lot harder<\/a> than the explanation in the official guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you look up a current topic on Google Search, the top news results will be listed prominently as part of the \u201cTop Stories\u201d box in the organic search results.<\/p>\n Many people think that this box is the same as Google News.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Rather, Top Stories is a feature of Google Search, the engine, not Google News, the aggregator.<\/p>\n Google News has policies<\/a> that it expects its publishing partners to adhere to. For instance, the content shouldn\u2019t violate Google\u2019s guidelines of dangerous, deceptive, hateful, harassing, medical, terrorist, and sexually explicit content.<\/p>\n There are also policies on manipulated media, violence and gore, and vulgar language and profanity.<\/p>\n There are also feature-specific policies on ads and sponsored content and transparency.<\/p>\n For example, advertising and paid promotional material on publishers\u2019 pagers shouldn\u2019t exceed their content.<\/p>\n And in the spirit of transparency, news sites should provide precise dates and bylines, contact information, and information about the authors, publication, and publisher.<\/p>\n These are just a fraction of what Google News expects from you.<\/p>\n As you optimize your page, ensure that you\u2019ve read and understood the aggregator\u2019s policies. If you fail to do so, the algorithm will kick you out.<\/p>\n Google did away with the manual inclusion process in favor of an automatic one.<\/p>\n In the same update, they launched the new Publisher Center.<\/p>\n And although you can appear on Google News without being a Publisher Center-approved site, you shouldn\u2019t ignore it.<\/p>\n The Publisher Center offers many features and benefits crucial to your search engine rankings.<\/p>\n One such feature is the ability to manage multiple news publications under one organization.<\/p>\n Google Publisher Center is also the key to making your content more visible on Google News.<\/p>\n Significant changes to your publication, like ad implementations, CSS overrides, manager-only sections, and unpublished publications can interfere with the user experience.<\/p>\n Therefore, you don\u2019t want to be making such changes live without first testing them.<\/p>\n To avoid this, use Google\u2019s Designer Mode<\/a> to test changes to your publication.<\/p>\n Google can automatically add publishers who meet their content criteria to Google News.<\/p>\n But just because you\u2019ve done everything right doesn\u2019t mean you will be selected.<\/p>\n This is why manually submitting to Google News still has some utility; it increases your chances of appearing in Google News.<\/p>\n To set up your organization:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to provide some basic information on your publication, including the name, website property, and location.<\/p>\n A new main screen will appear once you\u2019ve created your publication.<\/p>\n To verify your content and URL, click on Publication Settings on the main interface and fill in all the available options under the General tab.<\/p>\n Then, click on the Visual Styles tab to add your publication\u2019s logos. Save your information.<\/p>\n Return to the main interface and click on the Google News box.<\/p>\n Here, you can design, brand, and customize your publication for Google News.<\/p>\n Next, click on edit and fill in relevant information under the General and Content settings tabs.<\/p>\n Review and publish the details.<\/p>\n Back on the main interface, you can also add content labels to help Google understand your content better. This is in the Content labels box.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t overlook this part.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also need to verify that the site is yours via Google Search Console.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using the same Google account on both, just add your website\u2019s URL and click verify in Search Console.<\/p>\n Yes, sponsored content is allowed on Google News.<\/p>\n But there are limitations.<\/p>\n For instance, Google says that having sponsored content is acceptable as long as:<\/p>\n But unlike in 2013<\/a>, when it was recommended to block sponsored content from Google News, there is no reference that you still need to do that in their policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n You do, however, need to nofollow external links on sponsored content.<\/p>\n But you can still let Google News index commercial content.<\/p>\n This was confirmed by Google in this tweet,<\/a> as well as on Twitter<\/a> with Danny Sullivan, Google\u2019s public Search Liaison.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re on Google News, there are several best practices<\/a> you need to succeed.<\/p>\n Headlines And Dates<\/strong><\/p>\n Google News uses crawlers to scan pages and determine the correct headlines for your articles.<\/p>\n So, they need the right signals to display accurate titles from your content.<\/p>\n Check out Google\u2019s<\/a> best practices and their guide<\/a> on providing the correct published date.<\/p>\n Tip: Don\u2019t forget to constantly remind your writer\/colleague\/journalist friends to include the keyword<\/a> in the headline!<\/p>\n Match the anchor text<\/a> pointing to your article in the section pages to your article\/page\u2019s title.<\/p>\n Match your article page\u2019s title (in the HTML <title> tag) to your article\u2019s title.<\/p>\n As for the times and dates, Google News wants you to be accurate and precise so they can get it right.<\/p>\n You should show one clear date and time stamp. The best place for this is usually between the headline and the article text.<\/p>\n Use structured data, i.e., datePublished and dateModified schema with the correct time zone.<\/p>\n Tip<\/strong>: Google<\/a> will tell you not to artificially freshen stories. Artificial freshening refers to giving an article a fresh date and time without adding significant information.<\/p>\n However, savvy News SEO experts such as Christine Liang from the New York Times will teach you the benefits of keeping the timestamp fresh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Take advantage of the Google News \u201cfreshness\u201d ranking factor.<\/p>\n Google<\/a> recommends that publishers block scraped and rewritten content from Google News.<\/p>\n And also recommends<\/a> using the rel=\u201dcanonical\u201d tag for syndicated content.<\/p>\n However, as you will learn when working in News SEO, syndicated content from news wires rank just fine, and most publishers allow their syndicated content to be indexed.<\/p>\n The issue only really arises when you have internal syndication across sister sites. For that, the rel=\u201dcanonical\u201d tag can be very effective.<\/p>\n Shelby Blackley of Mashable explains this in her guide on how to handle wire stories for SEO.<\/p>\n Google News also rewards transparency.<\/p>\n Being transparent about your publication, authors, and content, following E-A-T best practices<\/a>, and encouraging journalists to have good author bios<\/a> can go a long way.<\/p>\n You should also make sure that the website is secure with HTTPS<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google discourages publishers from participating in link schemes. Instead, read Google\u2019s guide<\/a> on how to qualify outbound links.<\/p>\n But for the most part, when working with a news publisher, it\u2019s not the editorial team you need to worry about. Make sure the commercial team is adhering to these guidelines.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also crucial to track your performance on Google News.<\/p>\n Fortunately, that is relatively easy, thanks to the dedicated performance report within Search Console for Google News publishers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The performance report will show your total impressions and total clicks.<\/p>\n It will also show how each article performs on Google News and how user behavior varies by country.<\/p>\n More resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n Featured Image: Twin Design\/Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\nWhy Is Google News Important For Publishers?<\/h3>\n
How Does Google News Work?<\/h3>\n
Do Not Make These Google News Optimization Mistakes<\/h2>\n
1. Thinking You Need AMP For Google News<\/h3>\n
2. Thinking That Google News Is Just For News Publishers<\/h3>\n
3. Thinking Google News Is The Same As Top Stories<\/h3>\n
4. Not Following Google News Content Policies<\/h3>\n
5. Ignoring Google\u2019s Publisher Center<\/h3>\n
6. Making Live Changes On Google News Publisher Center<\/h3>\n
Optimization Tips To Get The Most Out of Google News<\/h2>\n
Submit Your Site To Google News Using Google\u2019s Publisher Center<\/h3>\n
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![\"add](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/avoid-these-6-common-google-news-optimization-mistakes-via-sejournal-dansmull.png\")
Image from publishercenter.google.com, May 2022<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n\n
![\"publisher](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/avoid-these-6-common-google-news-optimization-mistakes-via-sejournal-dansmull-1.png\")
Image from publishercenter.google.com, May 2022<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\nHandle Sponsored Content Correctly With Google News<\/h3>\n
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![\"google](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/avoid-these-6-common-google-news-optimization-mistakes-via-sejournal-dansmull-2.png\")
Screenshot from Twitter, May 2022<\/em><\/span><\/div>\nFollow On Page SEO Best Practices<\/h3>\n
Anchor Text<\/h4>\n
Publishing Date<\/h4>\n
Duplicate Content<\/h4>\n
Transparency<\/h4>\n
Track \u201cGoogle News\u201d Traffic<\/h3>\n
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