Anyone who wants an overview of current news from different sources is in the right place on the Google News platform. Algorithms and automation processes are used to compile news articles.
In order for a website to be registered by Google News and its articles to land on the portal, it must be registered with Google News. Due to the competitive situation, news pages and their articles must comply with certain guidelines, which are communicated by Google.
Including one’s site on Google News can be useful in itself: news.google.com is ranked worldwide at place112. According to a survey conducted by the Search Engine Journal in2016, about 60% of users trust the news they read on Google News rather than the original sources. However, what is even more important is the integration of the news portal into Google’s Internet search engine, by far the most visited website on the Web. If you can successfully place your news page in Google News, you will also improve your presence in the Internet search engine. And this is exactly what leads to success on the Internet.
It is very important to take care of Google News in detail. If your messages appear in the portal, you can expect considerably more traffic. However, there is a lot of competition for user clicks.
Read this guide on how the portal works and how to submit your site to Google News. In addition, we offer a host of tips on how to optimize your offer on Google News to increase your chances of a successful SEO.
HOW GOOGLE NEWS WORKS
Google News automatically collects all current articles from registered news sites and ranks them according to relevance. In addition, Google’s algorithm groups articles on the same topic into one. The result is a list of the most relevant headlines of the day, each with an associated main article and related articles.
The keywords that Google currently considers relevant appear on the right. Clicking on a keyword takes you to a specific page where news articles on that keyword are listed. Below is a news feed containing the latest articles from major publications. This is followed by weather forecast areas, editorial recommendations (usually for more timeless articles), and an overview of current events.
The core of Google News is the main feed in the middle. It starts with the most relevant general headlines and then lists the most important news for specific sections such as technology and sports. Links will take you to the pages in the special section where articles that have been deemed less relevant will also appear. So if you find your article on the main Google News page, you’ve made it. Linking your website to Google News is very lucrative.
Another important factor is the integration of Google News in the Internet search engine. Here too, the Google News algorithm plays a role. The more relevant your own source of information is deemed to be, the more it will appear in the search results under the “News” tab. If users are looking for current information, they usually click on “News”. The goal should be to display your offer as high as possible in the results. This will ensure an increase in traffic. Under certain circumstances, your news article may even push itself into the normal search results if the keyword you are looking for is up to date.
SUBMIT YOUR SITE ON GOOGLE NEWS: REGISTRATION PROCESS
Google News checks each individual website that is referenced. Depending on the guidelines, the site will then be added or rejected within 60 days. To have your site validated by Google, you must first register it in the Publisher Center. You can then “promote” your site for inclusion in Google News. Then wait until the Google News team has decided to list your site.
Guidelines for Google News pages
Guidelines and laws are among the basic concepts of successful SEO. It’s no different with Google News. For your content to have a chance to appear in it, a little pre-work is necessary. You need to optimize your website and articles so that Google News considers them relevant and responsive. The following points should be taken into account:
- To successfully subscribe to Google News, the general guidelines for webmasters must be followed. This means that Google can find your site and recognize its content and themes and that visitors can easily use your site. What is good web usability?. These include basic quality standards such as “Create a useful and informative website and write pages that describe the content clearly and unambiguously” and general advice on the use of important keywords, but also technical tips that should be followed. This includes refraining from practices such as spam and user deception. Carefully review the Google News rules and implement reasonable optimizations wherever possible.
- Critically verify the neutrality of your content and content flow. Google News is a news aggregator, not a marketing platform. In order for your page to be recognized as a suitable news portal, you should ideally already have a corresponding archive as “proof” for the most neutral and relevant reporting possible. This is one of the biggest obstacles, especially for young websites, but it is the only way for Google News to ensure that your site meets the quality requirements and has the clear characteristics of a news portal (and not an advertising-oriented offering). It is therefore advisable to wait a few months before signing up for Google News until the site has a continuously growing archive of good content.
- It is imperative that you pay attention to journalistic standards. This means that the unique content represents your website and must not be plagiarized in any way. Personalized work will always appear more serious. Pay attention to the quality and individuality of your content. Use as many resources as possible to ensure quality. While a certain amount of content is important, without corresponding quality, your website will be worthless not only to Google News but also to readers who are looking for reliable sources.
- Therefore, before getting any article published, it is essential to check for plagiarism with a reliable plagiarism detector to ensure originality in your content. By doing this, you can easily find the original source and properly cite it in your article to prevent duplication.
- Add author names to your articles. Anonymous content tends to be more often sanctioned by Google by disregarding its content. Introduce your editorial team and give each one a face. A way to interact, such as a comment space or contact form, also adds value for readers.
- Remove technical barriers. In order for the Google News search engine to consider your site relevant, certain technical requirements must be met. This applies in particular to the URL structure of your offer. For example, it is important that your articles have permanent URLs, preferably in the form of an HTML link. Similarly, your website should offer articles in the same language everywhere, not use other domains and have a clear layout. Carefully consider the technical requirements of Google News and put them into practice.
Once you’ve reviewed the above points and implemented them where appropriate, you can submit your site to Google News. If Google News refuses, you can try to re-register after 60 days.
SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO GOOGLE NEWS
If you think your site is ready to be listed on Google News, you should register the copyright of your site as a property in the Google search console, if you haven’t already done so. The website will then appear in the Publisher Center under “my websites”. From here, you can access, complete, and submit the Google News subscription form.
The registration form is very simple. In addition to the necessary metadata, Google News asks for a description of your website “in a few words”. Your description should be brief and concise. It is less about advertising your site than about communicating the content and topic selection of your site in a compact and understandable way. After all, you want to make it as easy as possible for the Google News team to reference your website as a valuable source of information. Avoid overly detailed or promotional texts.
In the registration form, you will be asked to write a short text on your website and include the metadata. Google will then ask you for categorizations and the exact news areas of your site.
Once you have submitted your form, you will receive an email from Google asking for a response. You will be invited to comment on the Google News policy. This will show Google that you have dealt with them, taken them into account, and made the necessary optimizations. Please pay attention to the following points:
- Briefly review the Google News guidelines and make sure you follow them.
- Link to a page that introduces your editorial team.
- Briefly describe the architecture of your website. Demonstrate to Google News that you have a clean URL /news with sequential IDs and no barriers for the web search engine.
- Ensure that journalistic standards are met.
- Also, specify that your offer provides valuable content instead of short news items such as weather reports or football match results.
Once you submit your response, you’ll receive an active Google News ticket. You’ll then have to wait for an average of one to two months. During this time, it is important that your website continues to do what you have promised to the letter: the regular publication of good content. Only then will you have a chance of being listed in Google News. Google will contact you with a “yes” or “no”. If you get a “no”, you can start a new registration process after 60 days.
Google does not have to justify a cancellation and is not available to you individually as a medium. Some of the help forums for publishers on the Internet may help. Google’s own forum platform brings together experts who sometimes voluntarily check websites for Google News guidelines and identify possible reasons for rejection.
It is quite common to be rejected by Google News. This is simply due to the enormous competitive pressure and the already saturated offer of good news sites. As a result, the requirements and guidelines for the service have become stricter over the years. So be aware that a successful inclusion in Google News is always associated with a lot of effort and possibly several attempts. Finally, if you manage to submit your site to Google News, you benefit from a much wider reach.
Overview of the steps for subscribing to Google News
- Maintain a functional, fluid and user-friendly, up-to-date and well-trafficked news site for at least 3 months, respect the Google News rules and make the necessary optimizations.
- Register the website, including copyright, with Google.
- Fill out and send the registration form to the publishing center
- Write and send responses to Google emails, making sure to include guidelines, web architecture, journalistic standards, story value, and link to your and the team’s footprint.
- Wait for a response from Google (on average 30 to 60 days), in case of rejection: optimize your site further and try to reconnect after 60 days
OPTIMIZATION: TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SEO ON GOOGLE NEWS
There are many ways to increase your chances of being added to Google News. The quality of the articles, the quality of the site, and the activity rate are determining factors. The careful structuring of the content is equally important for the success of Google News SEO.
Optimization of individual articles
Optimize individual article titles (H1). If possible, place the main keyword at the beginning and keep the title short, concise, and limited to the essentials. Updating is also key to the success of a title.
The best way to find your way around is to read the headlines that appear on the Google News homepage. They are all characterized by search engine optimization. Learn from the professionals without going through the profit and loss box!
The teaser should also be concise and contain keywords but also arouse the reader’s curiosity. It appears in the Google search in the “News” section under the title and can decide the user’s click in the second case. Since Google News also uses this data to determine the relevance of your article, a good teaser contributes to your success on the news portal.
The image of the article should concisely reflect the subject and include appropriate alternative text containing the main keyword of the message. Host this image on the same server as your website, use the JPEG file format, and keep the file size as small as possible. Also, use a caption. This image will appear in a preview on Google News and is especially important for attracting the reader’s attention and motivating them to click. However, don’t use obvious click baits, for example in the form of unnecessarily sexualized content or large red arrows, otherwise, Google will punish you quickly and inconsiderately!
The Meta-Description is like a hidden teaser for the Web crawler. Write the description of each article in a concise and keyword-centric way. Focus on your teaser without taking it literally.
Google News’ own keyword meta tag (news_keywords) should contain 5 to 10 keywords that are relevant to your article. Even if this meta tag has lost its importance for SEO, it is still a factor to consider.
The length of the article must be at least 80 words to be recognized as relevant content by Google News. The latest news can be as short as 80 words, but a minimum of 125 words is recommended for regular headlines. More detailed news starts between 200 and 250 words.
Google News sitemap optimization
Google News needs its own news site map, which contains the latest articles and also collects detailed information about the content types of your offer. This allows the web search engine to easily retrieve and integrate the latest content while allowing you to control which articles Google News processes. Be sure to follow Google’sown sitemap guidelines. If you have set up a sitemap, you should also save it in the Google search console, but only after your site has been listed on Google News!
It is important that you keep your sitemap as up-to-date as possible. Ideally, it will only contain articles from the last 48 hours. You should also remove old articles from the sitemap, especially if your sitemap exceeds the limit of 1000 articles. Also make sure that the name of the publication(<news: publication>) is identical to the name you specified in the Publisher Center. This prevents Google News from naming the publication incorrectly.
Other general optimization tips
- Make sure your website runs quickly and smoothly so that crawlers and readers can access your page without long loading times. It is best to aim for a maximum loading time of 200ms. Keep the resource requirements of your page as low as possible. This is especially true for embedded advertising.
- Advertising topic: Don’t overdo it when embedding ads. This is especially true for complex ads such as embedded videos and animated banners. Make sure your content is clearly the main part of your site. It’s best to follow Google’s AdWords guidelines.
- Stick to your topic: if you maintain a specialized web offer, you avoid topic skips. If, for example, you run a football news portal, you should refrain from reporting on winter sports. Only then will Google News recognize you as a relevant news page for a specific area. Otherwise, your page will be recognized as a general news page. In this case, you are competing with the heavyweights in the industry, which you may want to avoid.
- Work neatly in HTML. It is best to follow the traditional order of title, image, date, body text. This will make it easier for the robot to recognize and register your offer.
- Publish as up-to-date as possible. Google News rewards speed by paying more attention to current issues, especially the latest news. But make sure you pay attention to the quality of your news. It’s important to find the right balance.
- A comment function under your articles can cause problems for the web crawler. It can read the comments and identify them as part of the article, which can lead to annoying crawling errors. Avoid using a comment function or externalizing comments, for example with a link to a forum.
- Google’s web search engine is smart, but by no means perfect. Familiarize yourself with the common problems search errors in Google News that can prevent the search engine from reading your site correctly.
