Do you want to maximize the visibility of your Google News SEO efforts by using google news optimization methods? Use these best practices to avoid common mistakes in google news optimization.
For the past two decades, Google News has been around. And, now more than ever, many people’s major news source is the internet. The days of buying a newspaper from your local shop to acquire the day’s news are long gone. We now have access to a variety of news sources with multiple points of view on current events.
Many news organizations are aware of this and are optimizing their material for Google News. Your site may also be indexed and rated in Google News because any site is qualified to be there. However, before you get too excited about Google News’ potential, there are a few mistakes to avoid if you actually want to optimize your site for the aggregator. We’ll go over these blunders and offer advice on how to get the most out of Google News.
Basics of Google News Optimization
What Is Google News?
Google News is a news aggregator that Google created in 2002. It assists users in discovering the day’s news from a variety of local and national news sources. The aggregator gathers news from numerous online sources and makes it available in mobile and desktop searches.
Why Should Publishers Care About Google News optimization?
External sources for digital publications’ traffic include search engines, links from other websites, social networking, and social sharing. And, Google News is a large potential source of traffic for many publishers. Google News now accounts for around 4% of all traffic sources for publications. It enables publishers to reach new audiences and increase readership on their news sites. As a result, sources who wish to gain the most traffic get featured as snippets in Google News.
What is the Process of Google News?
Google News aggregates content from over 20,000 publishers across the world. The goal for users is to give as many varied and relevant news items as possible. What appears on the feed is determined by Google’s algorithm. The stories are exclusively chosen by Google News staff in a particular circumstance. It’s all about the traffic for the publishers.
Avoid These Google News Optimization Mistakes
1. Are you thinking about using AMP for Google News?
Google’s Accelerate Mobile Pages, is an open-source project announced in 2015. It was Google’s idea to improve publishers’ poor performance on mobile devices. This first seemed appealing to publishers because mobile traffic was on the rise and traditional news publishers were struggling to meet the mobile web’s re-development criteria. However, Google’s framework did not follow the diplomatic route.
To feature in Google’s Top Stories on mobile between 2015 and 2021, publishers are required to use AMP. And, Those who did were rewarded with traffic. Fortunately, the AMP requirement for mobile Top Stories was eliminated in July 2021 update and is no longer required to be displayed in Google News. With Google News now driving consumers directly to publishers’ websites, it’s time to discard the framework and concentrate on your SEO efforts in other areas.
2. Believing that Google News is only for news organizations
Before December 2019, a publisher had to adjust their website to meet specified specifications and complete the necessary online procedures before submitting it to Google for approval. The application would then be granted, and the site would appear in Google News and Top Stories. If all went well then Google thinks that they are a legitimate publisher. Things changed when the new Publisher Center arrived. Google has replaced the human review process with a new Google News inclusion process.
Google now chooses which websites appear in Google News on its own. It considers sites with high-quality content that adhere to Google News content criteria. Because of this approach, a website does not have to be a news publisher to be included in Google News. They can appear in Google News and Top Stories if they check all the relevant boxes. However, getting into Google News is much more difficult than the official rules suggest.
3. Assuming Google News and Top Stories are the same
When you use Google Search to seek up a current topic, the top news results will appear prominently in the “Top Stories” box in the organic search results. Many individuals mistakenly believe that this box is identical to Google News. Top Story, on the other hand, is a feature of Google Search, not Google News.
4. Failure to adhere to Google News’s content policies
Google News has policies that its publishing partners are expected to follow. For example, the content should not be harmful, harassing, terrorist, or sexually explicit. There are also policies in place against distorted media, violence, and gore, as well as foul language and profanity. Ads, sponsored content, and transparency regulations are also feature-specific. News sites should also give specific dates and contact information, and information about the authors, publication, and publisher in the spirit of transparency. These are only a few of the things Google News anticipates from you. While optimizing your page, make sure you’ve read and comprehended the aggregator’s policies. The algorithm will toss you out if you do not comply.
5. Ignoring the Publisher Center at Google
Google has replaced the manual inclusion process with an automated one. They also unveiled the new Publisher Center in the same update. You should not neglect Google News because you are not a Publisher Center-approved site. Many features and perks are available in the Publisher Center that is critical to your search engine results. The capacity to handle several news publications under one company is one such capability. Google Publisher Center is also essential for increasing the visibility of your material on Google News.
6. Changing Google News Publisher Center in Real-Time
Ad implementations, CSS customizations, manager-only areas, and unpublished publications can all disrupt the user experience. As a result, you shouldn’t make such modifications live without first testing them. To avoid this, test changes to your publication using Google’s Designer Mode. However, just because you did everything correctly does not guarantee that you will be chosen. This is why manually submitting to Google News is still useful; it boosts your chances of being published in Google News.
To start your business, follow these steps:
- Go to the Publisher Center’s homepage after logging into your Google account.
- Select + Add publication from the left-hand navigation menu.
- You’ll need to give some basic details about your newspaper, such as its name, internet property, and location.
- Once you’ve finished creating your publication, a new main screen will display.
- Click Publication Settings on the main interface and fill all relevant information under the General tab to check your content and URL.
- Then, under the Visual Styles tab, enter the logos for your publication. Keep your information safe.
- Click the Google News box to return to the main interface.
- You can design, brand, and personalize your Google News publication here.
- Then, under the General and Content settings sections, click edit and fill in the required information.
- Examine and publish the information.
- You can also add content labels to the main interface to help Google comprehend your material better. This is in the Content labels box.
- You’ll also need to use Google Search Console to confirm that the site is yours.
- If you’re using the same Google account for both, simply enter your website’s URL in Search Console and click Verify.
With Google News, handle sponsored content correctly.
Yes, Google News allows sponsored material. However, there are certain limits. According to Google, sponsored material is permissible as long as it does not replace your primary content and does not deceive editorial content. However, unlike in 2013, blocking sponsored content from Google News was encouraged. On sponsored content, you must nofollow external links. However, commercial content can still be indexed by Google News.
Best Practices for On-Page SEO
There are a few best practices to follow once you’ve joined Google News.
- Dates And Headlines
Crawlers from Google News examine pages to determine the best headlines for your stories. As a result, they require the appropriate signals in order to show accurate titles from your content. Google’s recommended practices and recommendations on supplying the right published date.
- Anchor Text
The anchor text connecting your article in the section pages should match the title of your article/page (in the HTML title> tag).
- Date of Publication
Google News wants you to be accurate and precise with the time and dates so they can get it properly. One date and time stamp should be visible. Between the headline and the article text is usually the greatest spot for this. Use structured data with the relevant time zone, such as the datePublished and dateModified schema.
- Content Duplication
Publishers should prevent scraped and rewritten content from Google News, according to Google. For syndicated content, the rel=” canonical” tag is also recommended. Most publishers allow their syndicated content to be indexed. Internal syndication across sites is where the problem really originates. The rel=”canonical” tag can be quite useful for this.
- Transparency
Following E-A-T best practices, being upfront about your publication, writers, and content, and encouraging journalists to have solid author profiles. You should also ensure that the website is HTTPS safe.
- Track “Google News” Traffic
It’s also critical to monitor your progress on Google News. Fortunately, thanks to the specialized performance report within Search Console for Google News publishers. It will also display how each article performs on Google News, as well as how user behavior differs by country.
Feel free to contact us at info@instiqa.com if you have any inquiries about Google News Optimization.