Hoping to get your website content listed in Google News? Read all about it.
When it comes to newsworthy content, Google is a go-to. The search engine dominates the market, giving its top stories great visibility. For website owners, getting listed on Google News is a brilliant way of bringing new traffic. But just how doable is it? Take a look as we explore the best practices.
What are the guidelines for ranking on Google News?
1. Develop a niche
More in-depth reporting on specific topics means you are more likely to be indexed for niche industries. It is also worth considering creating a news source with unique points of view.
2. Structure your content
Well-structured content not only improves readability but discoverability too. Capitalise proper nouns and the first word of the headline, and include an H1 tag, quality anchor text (with at least three words) and meta tags.
3. Get search engine optimised
Follow the usual practises for SEO copywriting and keyword-stuffing. This means avoiding repeat phrases and considering all factors of the webmasters’ tool guidelines.
- Perfect your tone of voice
Take authority over the subject matter. Using active voice rather than passive voice, particularly in headlines, improves potential re-ranking and higher click-through. Where possible, use present tense too.
- Consider a publishing schedule
There are some interesting insights on publishing frequency. Daily is arguably best for real authority, but you can also run weekly articles for more niche topics, subjects and industries, providing there is consistency within publishing.
- React and respond
A content calendar is essential, however responding to breaking news will not only make your content more relevant, but mean you are more likely to rank highly.
- Co-author content
As well as social media traffic, influencer outreach is equally important for web traffic. Co-authored content improves credibility, gives a greater sense of authority and creates powerful backlinks – a considerable ranking factor for Google News.
- Adopt a mobile-first mindset
Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) – a project launched by Google – helps businesses create streamlined, clean, and relevant versions of their webpages. For a faster mobile experience, and improved likelihood of listing, optimise your page for mobile devices. Avoid Javascript as much as possible.
- Specify your sitemap
Google News has a specific bot for calculating worthy news articles. You can favour this in your sitemap by adding content type, publication name, language, access (subscription or registration for example), title, date and keywords.
- GIve variety to content
Posting strictly informational content such as stock data won’t be considered as news and should be excluded from a news sitemap. This is the same for aggregated content. It is best to use a unique subfolder for news articles, as well as Google guideline source labels to classify various content.
So you need to consider the correct meta-tag either syndication-source or original-source meta tags. Google standout tags are a way of you highlighting a specific relevant news story. This can be used seven times per calendar week
- Be picky with promos
Keep paid promotional content to a minimum, in particular display ads, and disable any auto-load functions on videos.
- Inform your audience
Make important information clear. This includes privacy policies, terms of use, about us, contact us and physical addresses. As well as this, every news article should have a dateline, byline and author bio.
- Check before you publish
Once an article is published, it is crawled once. So make sure the version you publish is proofed and correct, with no spelling or grammatical errors, and a unique URL.
How to submit an article to Google News
When it comes to getting listed on Google News, submission is no longer required. However signing up and submitting your site via Google’s Publisher Center does provide some additional benefits, as described by Google:
- Content and branding control: Design, brand and customise your publication in Google News.
- Monetisation opportunity: Publishers can use paywalls in Google News through Subscribe with Google.
- Placement eligibility: Publications with business terms are eligible to be in the Newsstand section of the app in applicable countries and regions.
Importantly, this does not guarantee placement. Publications are independently selected by Google based on promotional timing, quality of user experience and relevance to promotional themes.
Applications for Google News approval are manually reviewed by a representative, and the review process includes a verification of your whole website. So it’s important to prioritise readability of every post.
Google News was once renowned for being difficult to rank for, and extremely selective in the sources it chose. But over the years, the search engine’s news tab has become less exclusive, with more niche and alternative content considered for listing. This is great news for the small business. We hope these tips help you to get listed!
