Since the world’s largest search engine ‘Google’ continues to rule in terms of search engine market share, publishers, website owners, and brands are continuously looking for new ways to drive more traffic to their sites. Currently, Google News is one of the most effective and affordable ways to boost web traffic.
According to a report, Google News sends almost 6 billion users every month to publishers across the globe. And if you successfully get 0.0001% of this huge number to your online store, brand, or blog, that’s massive and can boost your SEO efforts as well.
What is Google News?
Google News is a Google-powered news aggregator and provides a huge flow of news, articles, blog posts, and articles collected from countless magazines, publishers, blogs, and websites. It is a cross-platform news aggregator that can equally be used on Android, iOS, and the web.
In the past, publishers had to manually submit their articles or stories for approval via Google Publisher Center and it was hard to get stories submitted successfully. Hence, recently Google has updated guidelines for Google News that which sites or magazines are eligible to appear in Google News with their stories or updates.
According to Google, publishers and website owners need to create high-quality, informative, and useful content that complies with Google News content guidelines. They should also not produce content that is hateful, violent, or dangerous. And they will successfully be able to secure a visible place in Google News.
How Does the Google News Index Work?
Google News is not a news publisher itself. However, it aggregates articles and news from different websites and magazines using an algorithm to present relevant news to users based on their location, interests, usability, freshness, and authoritativeness. Website loading speed, responsive design, and cross-browser compatibility are some of the other key requirements to appear in Google News with your website or magazine. Then all the results are categorized into topics and subtopics.
Benefits of getting into Google News Search Results
Google’s new SEO is not just about getting more traffic to your website or business, there are a lot of benefits you can get by appearing in Google News.
When your content is properly optimized according to Google News content guidelines, it is more likely to appear in search results within moments. This is highly useful when you are breaking current affairs and news.
Since Google News feeds come with customization features, when you consistently create and publish content on your magazine or website, you may also see the users coming back often and engaging more with your content. When users opt to see ‘more stories like this, they will be served with more useful content in the future from your side.
Google News SEO Tips to Get Your Site Crawled as a GN Publisher
Smart publishers, bloggers, and content marketers are already reaping the benefits of Google News by getting more clicks and better search engine visibility.
Below are some of the Google News SEO best practices you can take to get your website crawled as a Google News publisher.
Follow Google’s technical content guidelines to ensure bots can crawl your site
An algorithm is used to crawl and aggregate sources for Google News from thousands of websites and magazines around the globe. To get your content listed in Google News, you need to create unique and permanent URLs to help the system determine which pages of your magazine are articles and news. You also need to use HTML formats for your content and links as Google’s crawler scans sources for HTML. Avoid using too much multimedia, JavaScript, and PDFs that are hard to scan.
Optimize properly to improve your chances of inclusion
When writing news articles, use structure data markup for your content to make it easy for crawlers and bots to scan and crawl your stories. Also, try not to interrupt the flow of news articles and stories with other forms of content like videos and other visuals.
Make sure your site is an authoritative source
Google wants its users to trust the news sources included in Google News. That’s why publishers and website owners need to be transparent and accountable for what they are publishing. Sources must include easy-to-access information about the article or story and the faces behind the publication. For instance, authors of your website or magazine must display their contact details like social media profiles and email ID, etc. to increase credibility. All news stories and articles must also have a clear publishing date and bylines.
Publish genuine and useful content regularly
A new website or magazine should be updated with fresh and useful articles regularly to appear in Google News. If you often syndicate content from major news sites, the majority of your content should be fresh and unique.
Stick to a niche
Google always looks up news from unique sources and magazines. So, you should stick to a specific niche to set your website apart from others and increase the chances of appearing in Google News. Writing about a particular topic helps you appear in more Google News feeds customized for particular topics and brings repeat visits.
Create a sitemap
Once your magazine or website is approved by Google News, be quick to create a Google News sitemap for quick indexing. Sitemap helps Google News crawlers crawl your site more efficiently and quickly. It also provides better control over which stories you submit to Google.
Conclusion:
Google News is essential for publishers, bloggers, and brands looking to boost online visibility. Google News drives roughly 6 billion monthly consumers to publishers worldwide, offering huge traffic and SEO possibilities. Following Google’s new rules is crucial for producing high-quality, non-violent content. The complexity of Google News Index requires great website performance, including loading speed and cross-browser compatibility. Consistent content creation boosts customization and user engagement beyond traffic. Following technical guidelines, optimizing content structure, establishing authority, maintaining a niche, and creating a sitemap positions websites for Google News inclusion, increasing visibility and credibility.
