SEO in Google News: How to appear in Google News

Discover how to appear in Google News thanks to SEO in Google News and increase the visits to your website

by Luigi Nori Date: 26-06-2023 google news seo serp sitemap

Google News is a tool, from Google, that spreads current, reliable and truthful content from different websites or portals dedicated exclusively to news. The sites that appear in Google News have a great opportunity to increase traffic to your website and consequently the opportunity to increase your sales through it.

If you have a company, or an online business, you know how important it is to attract quality traffic to your website, that is, people who are really interested in the services or products you offer, which makes you increase your conversion rate.

With a good SEO in Google News you will attract tons of traffic to your website, as long as you offer your audience the information they really want to know.  Appearing in the main headlines of this news platform will give more visibility to your business, that's why many websites compete to be there and what do you expect?

If you are wondering "how to appear in Google News", in this article We will detail you everything you need to know to achieve it. Take a look.

What is Google News

Google News, or Google News, is a platform of Google whose purpose is to track the main updated and relevant news for the audience, based on multiple factors of their profile, and facilitate them from the Google web search engine.

Google News is a powerful tool to increase organic visits to your website.

Unlike traditional search engines, Google News presents headlines from different portals and also organic search results. In addition, it filters through an algorithm the "qualified" pages according to the search made by the reader. This information is shown according to the preferences and interests of the user, or through a search filter.

What is the main advantage of Google News?

Due to its effectiveness, Google News has become an alternative channel for generating traffic, that is, directing people to your website and this is its main advantage. But it will also give much more visibility to your content, both in the list of results and in the specific category where your article appears. We should also not forget other important advantages that lead to branding and increased authority of your content, website or blog.

But, if Google News is a news portal, why would you want to have a presence in this medium?

Why do websites do SEO and want to appear in Google News?

As I told you before, traffic is the main benefit offered by Google News, and one of the reasons why websites want to appear in this news platform. The more people that come to your website, the more conversion and sales opportunities you will have.

Appearing in Google News is a great opportunity to bring more visitors to your website and increase your sales.

But that's not all, it is estimated that more than 60% of people trust Google News. Therefore, if your content appears on this platform, it will give your readers more confidence. This trust makes the difference between brands and web pages, which affects user behavior in the stages before the click (ad) and after the click (web page experience).

The best part of all this is that Google News headlines are integrated with the other results of a given search, which can increase organic traffic to your website in a short period of time.

How much does Google News affect organic traffic and SEO?

Compared to regular organic traffic, news attracts 100 times more traffic. This means that Google News can generate tons of traffic and increase the authority of your website's domain. As a result, shared resources and inbound links will also increase, Linkbuilding and therefore and as a result, your organic visibility on web search engines.

If you want to obtain these benefits, you must know how to appear in Google News and first of all, you must fulfill certain requirements that I show you below.

What are the SEO requirements to appear in Google News?

Your website must be exclusively news

The first requirement, which Google News demands, is that the website, which you want to index, is dedicated exclusively to publishing news. If your website is a sales or marketing one, for example, it will not take it into account.

Google News only shows websites that write and publish relevant news or content on specific topics and niches. To ensure that this is the case, there is a team that reviews the website manually to decide whether or not to include it in the News index.

This is the first barrier that you must pass, and the most important requirement to appear in Google News so, if you do not comply with it, it is recommended that you do not even bother to request that Google News add you to its listings.


Technical requirements SEO in Google News

If you passed the first obstacle, bravo! However, you still have a long way to go, it's not that easy to get into Google News! You have to overcome a number of obstacles, so let's continue.

  • Use static and unique web addresses (URLs): It's essential that your articles and news have static URLs (web addresses) so that Google News can easily track them.
  • Make sure your URLs are not dynamically generated, otherwise it won't work very well with Google News.
  • Plain HTML content only: For Google News the speed of loading is primordial, since it allows to index and position the web content quickly.
    Google News only uses the HTML source code to index the content. Therefore, you must make sure that the content of your articles appears directly in the HTML source code, and that they do not need to execute JavaScript to do so.
  • Have a clean code: This means that the article must have a continuous block of HTML code.
  • Avoid placing videos, photo galleries, etc., in the middle of the article code, as this can affect the indexing process of Google News.

Other SEO considerations that Google News takes into account

Besides the technical requirements, which I already mentioned, there are others that Google News does not consider mandatory, but that can help you appear faster on the platform.

Also, they will help you get the best position in the story carousel, which is where you will get most of your news traffic. Let's see what they are:

  • Create a news-specific XML Sitemap: It is necessary, if not mandatory, that you have a specific XML news sitemap. This Sitemap should contain the articles you have published in the last 48 hours, up to a maximum of one thousand. This is the main mechanism Google News uses to crawl your website and find the new articles and news you have published.
  • Mark your articles with structured data: Google can only enter structured data from more specific articles or data segments. However, bookmarking articles or news on your web pages is almost mandatory, as it will increase your chances of getting into the Google News main story carousel.

Additional SEO Tips for Google News

There are other obstacles that, as I said, you have to overcome before appearing in Google News.

It has multiple authors
It is important that several authors, with authority, contribute to the content of your website. This will place you above all other blogs and small sites that exist, and will increase your chances of having your website approved by the Google manager on the platform quickly.

  • Update your content daily: Try to write and publish content every day. You can use information from others, but most of it must be your own.
    There is no rule that says how much you should write, as long as the content is unique, remember, if you copy content from another site Google will notice and penalize you. In general terms, I recommend that you publish at least 70% of your own unique content, and only 30% from external sources. This is very good for SEO in Google News.
  • Write for a specialized niche: It is essential that you focus on a niche or specialized subject. There are already many news sites that publish general news and try to talk about everything. That's why Google News is more interested in websites that specialize in specific topics or areas.
    So, if you have a very specific topic or a specialized industry that covers your news, you are on the right track. This will increase your chances of getting into the Google News index and getting more organic traffic.

You already know how to appear in Google News, meet all these requirements and I assure you that you will get a lot of traffic, coming from the best stories, it's all advantages!

But, (yes, there is a but) we only saw the technical requirements, what about the content?

SEO requirements for content to appear in Google News

  • You need a legal notice with as much contact information as possible.
  • You must mention all authors and editors on the editorial page or within the news.
  • Your website, complete, should be written and maintained by an organization with several authors and editors.
  • The content of your articles must go through editorial oversight. Forums, individual blog articles, and other similar sources are not included in Google News.
  • Do not overload your website or articles with advertisements.
  • Write regularly, articles should be new and current.
  • Content should be written for your own website, ideally subject to editorial control
  • Create articles and other content sections that have a high level of relevance to a specific topic
  • Avoid publishing content that has nothing to do with the topics you usually deal with
  • Your items cannot consist solely of promotional content related to your business.
  • Before you sign up for Google News, make sure you have a good amount of articles.
  • Remember, during the acceptance process, a Google employee will examine your website in detail to validate that it meets all the requirements.

So far, we've talked about how to appear in Google News, but once you do, you need to keep it up, so it's important that you use SEO strategies in Google News.

How can you optimize the SEO of your website and news for Google News?

Doing SEO in Google News is similar to doing SEO for web search engines.  Some of the best strategies to achieve maximum visibility in Google News are

Web page design

The design of your individual articles is as important as the rest of your website; the fewer elements between news articles, the better.

The structure of the HTML source code of a news article should not be interrupted and should follow this order:

  • Title
  • Image
  • Data
  • Body of the news

Optimizes content based on current events

When it comes to SEO in Google News, having current articles becomes crucial.

If you publish an article before your competitors, your chances of improving your ranking in the news index are greater.

Create a Sitemap with your news

Simply creating a general XML sitemap won't get you very far, at Google News.  You must create a special sitemap for the news, based on the XML protocol and containing the publication date of each individual article.

Your XML sitemap for Google News should be updated automatically and without delay, every time you publish a new news item on the Web.

Another thing you should consider for SEO in Google News, is that you should only include the articles you have published in the last 48 hours. Why? Google News only considers the last two days for the news release.

You can use the Unlimited Sitemap Generator subscription service, for example, to automatically create your XML news sitemap for Google. This generator can be integrated into almost any system and web platform.

Along with an XML sitemap, dedicated to news, you can also create XML sitemaps for videos and images.

Image Optimization

Another important element for Google News is SEO for images. The image you use for the news article is largely responsible for the click rate, also called CTR (Click Rate); one of the metrics for measuring SEO.

The image is shown as a preview of the news article within the organic search results. Therefore, you must upload it to the same web server as all other files on your website.

The title below the image is another very important factor for the news article, so make sure you use an appropriate ALT attribute for the image.

The image should be in JPG format, with a reduced file size and should not be part of a link.

Text optimization

The news, relevance, interdependence with the topic and the speed of presentation of a specific topic are factors of SEO in Google News.

Technically, your text must consist of only 80 words to be considered a news article. However, I recommend using a minimum of 125 words for cover articles and a minimum of 250 words for all other types of news. In addition, it is important that the words are not subject to internal or external links.

Optimize title and H1 header

Be concise and go straight to the point. Use short titles that encourage the reader to click or expand on the information. If possible, place the main keyword at the beginning of the title.

This will increase the CTR (click rate), a key SEO positioning factor for Google News and which influences the way organic search results are displayed.

Reduces loading time

In addition to publishing current content, try to get there first! The speed at which a page loads and news is also a factor that impacts SEO in Google News.

A news article is considered to have optimal speed if, between the time of loading and the complete display of the page in the user's browser, no more than 200 milliseconds (0.2 seconds) have passed. Therefore, you should verify and optimize the loading time of your news website.

SEO in Google News, complex but worthwhile

Appearing in Google News is not so easy, but it's not impossible either. If you meet the requirements, which I showed you in this article, you will have a good chance of being accepted by Google News.

The first point to remember is that it is not a tool for all websites. Neither is it enough that you are a blogger or that you publish content daily, to obtain the privileges of this section, your website must be exclusively news and information.

If this is your case, take advantage of the great opportunity that Google News offers you to publicize the quality of your content, increase the visibility of your articles and, consequently, increase the traffic to your website.

If you appear in the top list of Google News you will also have the first positions in the search engine results.

Surely, SEO is important, but an essential element for the success of your web project is the subscription to Google News. I'm sure this alternative will increase the visibility of your website and grow your business!

Did you like this post? I invite you to share it in your social networks, since many people probably don't know how important Google News is for their online marketing strategy.
 

 
by Luigi Nori Date: 26-06-2023 google news seo serp sitemap hits : 5932  
 
Luigi Nori

Luigi Nori

He has been working on the Internet since 1994 (practically a mummy), specializing in Web technologies makes his customers happy by juggling large scale and high availability applications, php and js frameworks, web design, data exchange, security, e-commerce, database and server administration, ethical hacking. He happily lives with @salvietta150x40, in his (little) free time he tries to tame a little wild dwarf with a passion for stars.

 
 
 

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