Are you a news publisher who wants your content to be more discoverable? This guide will cover the basics of Google News SEO.
In this article, you can explore:
What Is Google News?
Google News is a vertical search engine that aggregates news from publishers and allows their content to be discovered, including in the Google Search results.
Google News originally launched in beta back in 2002 and became official by 2006. It’s available in 125 countries and 40 languages. In 2018, Google announced a “reimagined,” AI-powered Google News:
“The reimagined Google News uses a new set of AI techniques to take a constant flow of information as it hits the web, analyze it in real time and organize it into storylines. This approach means Google News understands the people, places and things involved in a story as it evolves, and connects how they relate to one another. At its core, this technology lets us synthesize information and put it together in a way that helps you make sense of what’s happening, and what the impact or reaction has been.”
Getting into Google News used to be much more involved. In 2019, however, Google said publishers would automatically be considered for Google News if they met certain requirements (I’ll touch more on those requirements later).
Europe and Australia, though, negotiated to have Google pay news publishers for their content. Google, in fact, inked a deal in France and Australia in 2021 to do just that. It begs the question: Why doesn’t Google pay us as well?
The Benefits of Google News
Quick Distribution
After publishing a story, your content can be included in Google News within minutes. This is a fast way to get the word out, especially when you have breaking news.
Authority
Several requirements must be met for Google News to be considered, so inclusion in Google News can signal that your website is considered an authority.
Trust
Per an older survey, in 2016, more than 60% of people said they trusted Google News over the same news directly from the publisher. Of course, much has changed in recent years and some people are more distrusting of tech and news in general.
Increased Traffic
Getting exposure in Google News can increase your website’s traffic. Although some argue that traffic from Google News is negligible; if your Google News content makes it into the “top stories” section in the search results, you can experience an influx of traffic.
Examples of Google News with Pictures
As mentioned earlier, Google News is a vertical search engine. However, you can access it in several ways.
You can go to news.google.com to view news stories based on various factors, including user interests, freshness, the publisher’s authority, search activity and more. The site will default to the “top stories” view.
You can also view Google News from the search engine results. If you have done a search for something, you can click on the “news” tab to see news stories related to the search:
Or, you might see the “top stories” carousel for a search on page one of the Google search results:
You can also get Google News on Google Discover, YouTube and Google Assistant. Of course, Google News has an app for both Android and iOS, too.
It’s important to note that ranking in Google News does not mean you will automatically rank in Google’s “top stories” carousel in Google’s search results. This is similar to how other Google search verticals work, like Google Images.
The “top stories” carousel can include a mix of Google News and non-Google News sources. However, it is often the case that the “top stories” carousel includes Google News sources.
“Google’s technology analyzes news across the web to determine the top stories that will show up for everyone with the same language settings in a given country, based primarily on what publishers are writing about. Once these stories are identified, algorithms then select which specific content to surface and link to for each story, based on factors such as the prominence and freshness of the piece of content, and authoritativeness of the source.“
How Google Ranks News
Google primarily uses ranking algorithms to surface publishers’ content in Google News and in its search results.
“Technology enables us to organize millions of news stories in dozens of languages and make them discoverable to anyone, any minute of the day. Google’s automated systems, called algorithms, analyze hundreds of different factors to identify and organize the stories being covered around the world.
In some cases, we may highlight designated topical experiences, but our primary approach is to use technology to reflect the news landscape, and leave editorial decisions to publishers.”
Google outlines its News ranking factors here, and I’ll include them next …
Relevance
Relevance is always a dominant ranking factor in many scenarios. For News, Google has this to say:
“Relevance to your search terms is a key factor in determining what you see for query-based experiences like “Top stories” in Google Search. A piece of content is relevant if it has the information you’re looking for. The most basic signal that information is relevant is when an article contains the same keywords as your search, but our algorithms also have more advanced ways to determine relevance.”
Location
Location is a driving factor in which type of news someone may see. Google says:
“Where you’re searching from influences which results you see. We use where you are to help you find content relevant to your area, such as the Local section in Google News. If you’re in the United States and you search for “football,” Google will most likely show you results about the American sport, as opposed to other versions of the sport.”
Prominence
This is a factor that looks at whether you are covering news that is trending. Here, Google says:
“Prominence is a way to identify noteworthy news events. For example, our news algorithms take into account if news sources are heavily covering a particular news story and are featuring that coverage prominently on their sites, if a story has been highly cited by other sources, and if something contains significant original reporting.”
Authoritativeness
Google looks at the authority of a site as part of its ranking. On this, Google says:
“Signals help prioritize high-quality information from the most reliable sources available. To do this, our systems are designed to identify signals that can help determine which pages demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a given topic. Those signals can include whether other people value the source for similar queries or whether other prominent websites on the subject link to the content.”
Freshness
Newer news content will be more useful than older. Google says:
“Freshness refers to how recently the content was published and how important this is in the context of the subject. When news is happening, our algorithms may determine that a story with up-to-**** information is likely more useful than an older one.”
Usability
If your site is easier to use than others, that may factor into your rankings:
“Usability assesses how easy it is to view content on a site, such as whether the site appears correctly in different browsers; whether it is designed for all device types and sizes, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones; and whether the page loading times work well for users with slow Internet connections. Paywalls have no impact on usability in news on Google.”
Interests
Interests are another way Google likes to make its results more relevant to a user. Google says here that:
“Your interests may help determine results in personalized content experiences such as Discover and the For You tab in Google News. You may see articles that match interests you’ve specified or that we inferred from your past activity on Google products, depending on your activity settings. Our systems do not attempt to rank content based on any political or ideological point of view, nor do they attempt to infer the points of view of our users or of the content we rank.”
Google says Ranking in the “for you” section, specifically inside Google News, is based on interests, usability and user preferences for topics or publishers.
How Google Doesn’t Rank News
Google explains that it does not take into account the following in its news ranking:
- Ideological or political leanings. Google says that while some personalized news services match you with stories of potential interest, their systems do not attempt to evaluate the ideological or political biases of either publishers or users.
- Ad sales or commercial relationships. Google states that commercial relationships at Google, like advertisers and partners, do not influence the design of their news algorithms and they do not get preferential treatment.
- Personal information. Google says it avoids using personal information such as gender, religious beliefs, age, health information, race or other characteristics in its news algorithms.
How to Get Into Google News
News publishers don’t need to submit their site to be eligible to show up in Google News. Google states:
“Publishers don’t need to submit their site to be eligible to show content on Google News surfaces. Google algorithmically discovers news content through Search technologies. However, publishers need to be compliant with our content policies to appear on Google News surfaces.”
Google News Requirements
Be a Dedicated News Publisher
In order to be in Google News, you must have a website dedicated to news. It is not enough to only have a news section on your website.
Comply with Content Policies
There are some content policies to be aware of to participate in Google News:
“Our content and behavior policies help ensure a positive experience for our users and publishers. To be eligible to appear in Google News or news surfaces, content should follow best practices for article pages and must not violate Google Search’s overall policies, Google Search’s spam policies, or these policies for Search features:
- Dangerous content
- Deceptive practices
- Harassing content
- Hateful content
- Manipulated media
- Medical content
- Sexually explicit content
- ******* extremist content
- ******* & gory content
- Vulgar language & profanity”
You’ll also want to avoid ads, misleading content or sponsored content that exceeds the content on your webpages.
Also, make sure you have transparency signals such as clear dates and bylines, information about authors, information about the company behind the content and a way to contact the organization.
Comply with Technical Guidelines
Technical guidelines for getting into Google News include the following…
Requirements for Site Structure
Google News advises publishers to use permanent URLs for main news sections to facilitate proper crawling by Googlebot-News. Use HTML links instead of image or JavaScript links, and ensure anchor text matches article titles.
Avoid blocking access with robots.txt files or metatags. If these requirements pose issues, consider using a sitemaps-only crawl and contact Google News support for assistance.
Make sure content directories are accessible to Google’s crawler to ensure inclusion in Google News.
Requirements for Languages and Encoding
Google News requires articles to be in a single language to avoid analysis issues. For sites with different language sections, create separate publications for each language to ensure correct content display.
Also, encode your site in UTF-8 for optimal results. For more details, visit W3C.
Requirements for Individual Article Pages
Article URLs
- Each article must have a unique, permanent URL that does not change, even if the article is republished. Avoid using URLs that display different content over time.
- If re-publishing, retain the original URL. For domain or CMS changes, provide Google with pattern transformation rules.
Page Layout Guidelines
- Ensure article headlines and publication times are clear.
- Use HTML for article pages; avoid embedding text in JavaScript.
How to Optimize for Google News
Aside from basic SEO best practices that apply to every website (like those in our SEO checklist), there are many ways to optimize your news content for Google News.
Here are seven ideas…
1. Publish Frequently / Freshness
News sites typically publish several articles daily. As a news site, you will want to keep pace with the norm, and Google will recognize that. Also, make sure you include publication dates.
2. Originality
In 2019, Google announced ranking changes to support original reporting. The change rewards news outlets that break a story. In addition, there’s another aspect of originality to consider: you want to have mostly original news content on your site, with a lower percentage of syndicated content in order to compete well. Use noindex on syndicated content or canonicals pointing back to the original source.
3. Author Information
You will need to have author information tied to each article. An author bio with a name, short description, image and contact information (like website and social) helps demonstrate the expertise and authority of the author.
4. Keyword Research
Spend a little extra time doing keyword research and make sure you optimize your article with them. Google Trends has a “news search” feature that can help with articles that you are planning ahead of time. Otherwise, use the autocomplete feature in Google News for articles written the same day.
5. Headlines
Just as you would with any article, ensure your headlines include clear descriptions of the articles and use your keyword(s). Ensure your headlines are strong throughout, including the page title, headline (H1), subheadline (H2), etc. Sometimes the subheadline can be more relevant to Google than the headlines.
6. Structured Data
Using structured data is another way to tell Google what your content is about. Consider the Article schema or NewsArticle schema.
7. News Sitemap
Having a news sitemap can increase the visibility of your news content for articles published within the past two days. For more, read: What Is an XML Sitemap and How Do I Make One?
Final Thoughts
Optimizing for Google News helps news publishers enhance their content’s visibility and reach. Staying updated with Google’s ranking factors, such as relevance, authoritativeness and usability, will help you achieve better rankings and increased traffic.
Need professional assistance optimizing your news website for maximum online visibility? Our SEO experts are happy to help!
FAQ: How does Google News SEO enhance the visibility of news content?
Any publisher looking to boost their news content’s reach should get into Google News SEO. Through purposeful Google News optimization, news publishers can ensure their articles do well on search platforms and grow larger audiences in the process.
Google News SEO fundamentals focus mainly on crafting high-grade, relevant and well-timed stories that adhere to search engine standards. The Google News platform functions via a complex algorithm favoring the freshest, most credible content. So, all content should be regularly updated to maintain relevance.
Headline optimization is a critical piece of Google News SEO. As such, it’s wise to verify that your headlines are well-defined, brief and keyword-rich. Crafting your headlines according to these guidelines increases your chances of hooking readers and appeasing search engines.
In addition to headline optimization, utilizing structured data helps Google better understand the context of your articles. This allows the platform to present your stories more effectively to searchers.
In addition to that, enriching your articles with imagery and video content heightens user engagement, resulting in even better Google News rankings.
Editorial standards and fidelity are king when it comes to Google News SEO. Creators must maintain a transparent and ethical editorial process. To build credibility, ensure all references are cited from reputable sources.
Google makes it a point to evaluate these parameters to gauge your content’s authoritativeness, and this directly influences your visibility.
Taking your site’s mobile-friendliness seriously is equally critical, considering the monumental number of searchers who access news from mobile devices.
The most telling user engagement metrics, like the click-through rate (CTR), time spent on page and bounce rate are all integral to your success on Google News. And building a well-structured site with smooth navigation can improve each of these metrics and boost your SEO standing.
You can also elevate your rankings on Google News by lowering your pages’ load times and improving user experience with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Add regular success tracking and site performance monitoring to the equation with Google Analytics to scope out successes and areas of improvement.
Site issues could surface whenever a website’s content is not determined to be credible or if it violates Google’s guidelines. To resolve or prevent this, you’ll need to fine-tune your editorial standards and make sure your pieces are unique, well-researched and error-free.
Continually putting out high-quality content can help you sustain and improve your visibility on Google News. And so can collaborating with respectable news agencies and platforms.
Take an experiential approach where you consider audience insights throughout the content creation process. Get to know your target audience and current readers by reading comments and participating on social media. Doing so will help you better recognize their tastes and needs and create your content accordingly.
Highly personalized news-focused content resonates with your audience to a much higher degree than cookie-cutter pieces, sparking more engagement and visibility.
And finally, remaining updated on current trends and changes to Google’s algorithm is a necessity if you want to preserve your competitive edge in the news domain.
Step-by-Step Procedure
- Produce Top-Quality News Content: Make sure that it’s well-researched, grammatically sound and poised to deliver valuable insights to your readers.
- Optimize Your Headlines: Come up with short, punchy, relevant headlines that include your primary target keywords. Doing so will get your readers’ attention and appeal to Google’s algorithms.
- Utilize Structured Data: Use structured data markup (schema.org) to ensure that Google understands your news articles’ context.
- Add Media: Enhance your stories with relevant images and videos. Media like this heightens reader engagement and can lead to higher rankings in the SERPs.
- Work on Building Credibility: Preserve your credibility by referencing trustworthy sources and following transparent editorial guidelines.
- Be Mobile-Friendly with Your Website: Adapt your site so that mobile visitors experience an effortless browsing experience on all mobile platforms.
- Build User Engagement: By optimizing the navigation and structure of your site, you can improve user engagement metrics like CTR, time on page and bounce rate — increasing customer acquisition costs as a result of high user turnover rates and bounce rates.
- Put AMP Into Practice: AMP technologies help to lower your page load times for a better overall user experience.
- Monitor Site Performance Regularly: Review Google Analytics metrics to keep track of your site’s performance and illuminate potential improvement opportunities.
- Handle Credibility Problems: Tackle any credibility issues by reviewing and updating your editorial standards and delivering quality news content.
- Always Remain Consistent: Keep to a set content publication schedule to instill trust and encourage visibility.
- Interact with Readers: Seek to understand your target audience’s preferences and needs by browsing their comments and exploring the niche on social media. Then, use your findings to better your content.
- Stay Updated: Try to stay at the cutting edge of Google News trends and algorithm changes. Doing so will help you stay competitive.
- Get Familiar with Reputable Platforms: Get in touch with upstanding news agencies to grow your own authority and online presence.
- Use HTTPS: To ensure top notch site security and trustworthiness, make sure your site uses HTTPS.
- Tweak your URL Structures: They should be clean and relevant for max indexability potential.
- Apply Canonical Tags: Canonical tags help to prevent duplicate content issues so that Google will index the correct versions of your pages.
- Do Regular Content Updates: Freshen up your content often to maintain its significance.
- Revamp Your Meta Descriptions: Write captivating meta descriptions to encourage higher click-through rates in the search results.
- Submit a Sitemap: Send a completed sitemap to Google for more efficient indexing.
- Leverage Google’s Publisher Center: In Google’s Publisher Center, you can manage your news stories and ensure visibility.
- Engage with Google News Outreach: Get active in Google News initiatives to improve your chances of becoming more visible.
- Take advantage of Social Media: Blast your news content on social media platforms to encourage an increase in site traffic.
- Track Google’s Performance Reports: Regularly check Google’s performance reports and use them to refine your strategy.
In sticking to these tactics and pushing out excellent, reliable content, you can increase the chances of your news articles performing better on Google News and drawing in a wider audience.
Leveraging Google News SEO for the betterment of your online presence is far from impossible. But, it does require a complex approach centered on the production of stellar content, credibility and user engagement.
