Google News is only available to websites and blogs that offer timely, topical content.
You don’t have to be a news site, but if you constantly post newsworthy information, you might get accepted.
Let’s take a look at some of the things you should know about Google News.
Table of Contents
What is news?
Google defines news as “newly received or noteworthy information, particularly about recent or significant occurrences.
You are a news publisher if you are at the forefront of your sector and report information that would be of interest to your audience on a timely basis.
What is Google News?
Google News is a content syndication network established by Google to assist organise the world’s news and make it more accessible to its consumers, similar to a news XML.
Google News Today
How can I find the most recent news on Google?
Google News contains a variety of news and video stories.
Look for specific content.
1. Open Google News.
2. At the top, select Search.
3. Enter your search terms, such as a topic to read about, a location to follow, or a source to read from.
Ways to succeed in Google News
With the New Year upon us, we’d like to share some best practises and suggestions that we hope will help publishers achieve greater success in Google News in 2019.
General Advice
The Google News Publisher Help Center contains a wealth of useful information.
Make certain that you have read the material in this section, particularly the content and technical guidelines.
Google News Headlines and dates
- Present clear headlines: Google News considers a variety of signals to identify an article’s headline, including the HTML title tag and the most visible text on the page.
- Provide accurate times and dates: Google News uses a variety of methods to establish the time and date to display for a story.
You can assist us in getting it right by using the following methods:
Show one clear date and time:
Show a clear, visible date and time between the headline and the article text, according to our date requirements.
When feasible, prevent other dates from displaying on the page, such as for related stories.
Use structured data:
For AMP or non-AMP pages, utilise the datePublished and dateModified schemas, as well as the appropriate time zone designator.
- Avoid artificially freshening stories:
If an article has been significantly changed, it may be appropriate to give it a new date and time.
However, don’t artificially refresh a story without adding important information or another compelling cause.
Also, don’t make a slightly revised version of a previously published story, then delete the old one and redirect to the new one.
That violates our article URL standards.
Duplicate Content
Google News strives to reward independent, original journalistic material by crediting the original publication, as both users and publishers want.
This means that we attempt not to let duplicate content, such as scraped, rewritten, or republished material, outperform the original content.
In accordance with this, the following guidelines should be followed by publishers:
- Block scraped content: Scraping is the process of obtaining content from another website, usually on an automatic basis.
Scraped content from Google News must be blocked on sites that scrape content.
- Block rewritten content: Rewriting is the process of taking material from another site and rewriting it so that it is not similar.
Sites that rewrite information in a way that adds no significant or obvious value must remove the modified content from Google News.
This includes, but is not limited to, rewrites that make only minor modifications or those that make several word replacements while maintaining the overall sense of the original piece.
- Block or consider canonical for republished content:
When a publisher obtains permission from another publisher or author to reprint an original work, such as content from wire services or in collaboration with other publications, this is referred to as republishing.
Publishers that enable people to republish their content can assist ensure that their original copies perform better in Google News by requesting that those republishing use canonical or block.
Google News also asks those that republish material to consider proactively limiting such content or using the canonical, so that we can better identify and attribute the original work.
- Avoid duplicate content: If you own a network of news sites that share material, the republishing guideline above applies to your network.
Choose what you believe to be the original article and consider blocking duplicates or using the canonical to point to it.
Transparency
- Be transparent: Visitors to your website want to trust and comprehend who publishes it, as well as information on those who write articles.
As a result, our content rules emphasise the importance of having pieces with clear bylines, author information, and contact information for the publisher.
- Don’t be deceptive: Our content regulations prohibit sites or accounts from impersonating any person or organisation, or from misrepresenting or concealing their ownership or primary purpose.
We do not allow sites or accounts to deceive users through coordinated action.
This includes, but is not limited to, sites or accounts that misrepresent or conceal their nation of origin, or that target users in another country under false pretences.
- Avoid taking part in link schemes: Don’t partake in link scams, which can include large-scale article marketing programmes or the sale of PageRank-passing links.
For additional information, see our page on link schemes.
- Use structured data for rich presentation: Structured data can be used to improve your content for rich results or carousel-like presentations on both AMP and non-AMP pages.
- Protect your users and their data:
Consider using HTTPS to secure every page of your website to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of the data users exchange on your site.
More helpful hints on how to use HTTPS can be found in our best practises.
Adhere to the Principles of Good Journalism
Looking at recent improvements to the Google News sitemap syndication platform, you’ll see that Google is no longer solely focused on news-related “current events” material. Just by glancing at the meta tags, you can tell.
It has grown as a news sitemap throughout the years, levelling the playing field for bloggers, content providers, and news publishing professionals.
This change may not be apparent from the search term headlines, but the content exposes it.
This large search engine, however, has not abandoned the fundamentals of good journalism.
Google is still concerned about the style and substance of articles, particularly as part of its XML. Being as honest and objective as possible is essential for good journalism.
Why do you believe the Google XML sitemap crawls, indexes, and publishes third-party website material like CNN, BBC, Techcrunch, The Wall Street Journal, and other sources in its search results?
One of the reasons is that these sites are legitimate news publishers who follow strong journalism standards.
They are open and uphold the same professional standards. Take a peek at their search history to discover how serious they are about their news.
For your reporting to be featured in news XMLs, it must be unique, honest, and well-structured, with quality anchor texts, meta tags, and an authoritative voice.
Traditional journalism is all about investigation, not just search engine optimization.
So, before reporting a story, you should be able and willing to investigate and authenticate it.
PBS suggests that you offer information from the most crucial to the least significant content elements in order for your story to resonate with editors, who will then syndicate it at Google News.
There is a well-established application process for getting your content featured on Google News’ XML sitemap.
Tips to Get Your Website Added to Google News
However, before you apply, please follow these guidelines:
1. Don’t copy from other sites. Write original news articles.
First and foremost, you must ensure that your stories are unique.
Google, for example, does not want to syndicate the same piece of material verbatim, and its search algorithm will bring you up.
You must make your tale unique by using reliable data points from credible sources.
Regardless of where you acquired your information, whether it was from search history, sitemap files, or browsing online pages, make sure your sources are reliable.
Examine the Google News homepage. All of the highlighted stories are original and come from reliable sources. Furthermore, no website gets ranked more than once for its story.
Google is a trustworthy firm, a big search engine that millions of people around the world rely on. Imagine Google publishing a bogus tale; it would be a metasearch engine disaster!
What do you think would happen to its credibility?
And, while we’re on the subject of believability, Google is also concerned with Author Rank.
There is no better approach to establish yourself as a credible author than to write for other news and magazine websites. If
If you’ve never written for reputable news websites like Forbes, Inc., or Business Insider, you should start now.
Because Google knows that respected authors and columnists do not steal news pieces from other sources, they include them in their XML sitemaps.
Instead, they go all out to find a unique story.
Famous authors who submit unique stories over time are given credit in order to increase their “rank” and boost their reputation, regardless of which online journal they choose to write for.
Using a co-author with a high Author Rank is one approach to get your story added to Google News rapidly.
In Google’s opinion, and when looking for inclusions on their news XML sitemap file, such an author adds more authority to your site, and the final piece is more likely to be original and credible.
Original tales are required to get started in news reporting.
More information is available in the following resource guide:
2. Write keyword-rich headlines that communicate the story topics.
The reader is promised something in your headline.
If you get it right, your news report will most likely be picked up by Google and other journalists who can help spread the word.
You might be tempted to include numbers in your headlines for news stories.
After all, consumers are obsessed with numbers.
However, if you’re going to utilise a “listicle” headline, it should deliver unique insights while avoiding “linkbait” terrain.
You will not be included in Google’s news XML sitemap file if you use linkbait and poor anchor text.
I’ve noticed that authority sites that publish news on a daily basis almost never employ the listicle format or “numbered” headers.
Simply said, they write an accurate, clear, and compelling headline. Take a page from Search Engine Land.
Your news story title, like blog postings, influences whether or not your story is syndicated by Google.
Here are some pointers to help you generate newsworthy headlines that will appear in search results, and keep in mind that the same method may be used with your meta tags:
i). Don’t repeat words: The goal of having your website or story added to Google News XML sitemap is to gain hits and views from the massive user base.
You don’t have to repeat words or keywords in the title as though you’re intentionally optimising it for search engines.
Here’s an example of a bad news headline:
“How experienced investors may mentor new investors”
Avoid word repetition like the plague.
ii). Use active voice: A news headline is a quick approach to show what’s inside the content and will capture the search engine’s attention.
Don’t dull your audience or deter journalists from covering your topic.
Use the active voice as little as possible.
The subject receives the verb in the passive voice. As an example:
- Passive voice: Mary was hit by a car.
- Active voice: The car hit Mary.
The subject comes first in an active voice. From the first time you use an active voice, you can express more with fewer words.
Brevity is an important news publisher strategy for capturing the audience’s attention.
Using active voice in your news headline also aids in the reduction of needless words. If you look at Digg’s site, you’ll notice that the majority of the syndicated items have headlines written in the active voice.
Here’s an illustration:
The following news headline is plainly weaker in passive voice:
- An Episode of ‘Top Chef’ Was Produced with Help From the CIA
iii). Write in the present tense: This is another critical consideration when crafting a story title in the hopes of having it syndicated on the Google News XML sitemap file.
Even if the article or content is published in the past tense, the headline should emphasise what is currently happening.
After all, that is why it is called “news,” and that is what the XML sitemap seeks.
On the Google News site, several stories are written in the present tense.
Take a look at this:
iv). Know which words to capitalize:
Have you ever noticed how not every word in a news story title is capitalised?
The initial word of the headline should always be capitalised.
Proper nouns must also be capitalised.
Title case and first word/proper noun capitalization norms are applied on the Google News homepage.
Articles should not be capitalised while using title case.
So, while “Judge Rejects Kesha’s Last Effort to Free Herself From Dr. Luke” is correct, it would be improper if “to” was capitalised as well.
3. Write news-related articles, not evergreen content.
Remember that a big search engine like Google can only include sites that follow their Webmasters Tool Guidelines when adding them to Google News.
It’s not news if there’s nothing timely about your topic or narrative.
That’s all there is to it. “Timing is everything” in journalism.
Others get lost in the pages of the search history, while timely content rises to the front.
You must constantly write news-related content in order for your site to be accepted.
Google News just does not support evergreen content.
Aside from that, the largest search engine Google accepts just certain categories of information.
“We normally do not include how-to pieces, advice columns, job advertisements, or merely informational content such as weather forecasts and financial statistics,” according to Google.
In the blogging world, providing evergreen content is your guarantee of long-term organic traffic.
Such content is rewarded by Google in its organic results.
However, because that type of content isn’t news, a search engine like Google will not syndicate it.
When you glance at the Google News homepage, you’ll notice that the stories are current – most of them as they happen:
4. Write at least 2 news articles each day.
Are you the sole administrator of your website?
You may need to make a change if you wish to be added to Google News.
The vast majority of news media sites syndicated on Google News are co-authored.
In other words, the site is written by more than one person.
Consider CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and so on.
These sites are updated every minute of the day by a slew of prolific writers who are transparent and accurate in their reporting, which is why they rank so high in search engines.
You require more writers who can find new articles, write about them, and submit them within hours.
You may discover that you need to train good writers.
You may begin by employing freelance writers and training them in the journalistic methodology required by Google News and other media outlets and search engines for each piece.
You should also attempt to teach your authors how to follow your brand rules, especially if this is their first time writing for you.
Inform them of the elements that should be present in a news story: the headline, the right voice, the need for sources, and the citation standards.
Create an author page on your website to introduce each writer on your team.
Google will request a list of authors who report on stories on your website.
When you apply, you will be expected to provide contact information for each author.
5. Establish authority with your blog.
Google is obviously picky about what it calls news.
Not every article is newsworthy.
Most of the time, it’s not so much about the news as it is about the context or position from which the author covered it, which is why lamestream media can be so popular.
Because Google is obsessed with timely, up-to-date articles, you’ll need a mechanism to demonstrate to Google that you’ve followed its criteria.
With your blog, you must build authority.
On the web, authority is determined by the number of user-friendly sites and web pages that link back to yours.
You can use the Webmasters tool to see where you stand.
Assume your 3-month-old blog has been reporting on timely, up-to-date stories as they happen.
Another site (say, Mashable) has more authority and a longer search history than your blog.
Now answer this question: If your blog covered the same trending item as Mashable, and both news pieces adhered to the news-writing criteria, which of the stories do you believe Google would crawl first, index, and award a high pagerank to?
Is that Mashable I heard? You are completely correct.
The answer is simple: Mashable has more search engine authority than your 3-month-old blog.
Mashable provides more timely material since it has a large enough budget to support a large number of authors.
You can’t beat it as a small business.
Building authority with your blog is not an easy task.
And it will most certainly not happen overnight.
You must leave your website. You should be present everywhere.
While you’re increasing your Author Rank by contributing to other credible sites, always include natural references to your narrative. To link back to your site, utilise your branded keyword or news headline as anchor text.
The more authority sites you contribute to and link to, the more authority your blog will gain and the more frequently you will appear in search results and search history.
Your blog’s popularity will grow gradually. Please be patient!
Social media is also important, so spread the love. Join social networking networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Don’t try to imitate or emulate the writing style of another author. Discover your own voice.
Maintain your focus. That is the only method to differentiate yourself and get your news-related articles added to Google News.
More people will click on your title, visit your site, and take action if your content is distinctive and intriguing.
But if your news is the same as everyone else’s, you’re not making an impression.
There’s nothing in it for the audience. As a result, they’ll depart.
How Google News stories are selected
Important:
- Some of these features are only available if you are signed in to your Google Account.
- If you share a paid story, others may not have full access until they pay for it as well.
What appears on Google News is determined by computer algorithms.
Algorithms decide which news, photos, and videos to display and in what order.
In some circumstances, individuals such as publishers and Google News staff select stories.
Google News displays material in a tailored manner. Personalization allows Google News to show you stories that are relevant to you quickly and simply.
Chosen by computers
Algorithms select subjects for these sections based on your language and region:
- Complete coverage
- Newsstand sources
- Search results
- Breaking news stories, which appear as:
- Headlines or “Headlines” stories in your briefing in your app
- Top stories on Google News include “headlines” stories.
People who speak the same language and live in the same region receive news on the same topics in these categories.
Personalized news
Algorithms tailor your news based on your:
- Google News settings: Your sources and interests
- Past activity on Google: Your Google Search and YouTube Algorithms activity personalizes your news on the following sections:
- For you
- Favorite topics, sources, and locations
- All other stories and notifications, with the exception of those chosen by people
People can read tales about a variety of topics in these areas.
Customize what you find on Google News
Important: You can only use this feature if you are signed in to your Google Account.
You can personalise Google News to receive more news that interest you, such as updates from your favourite sports team or fresh stories on certain areas such as technology or space exploration.
To receive more or fewer stories, do the following:
- Follow or unfollow an interest, such as a topic, location, or publication.
- Whether you like or dislike certain news about a topic or from a source.
- Hide information from a source.
Google News App Download
The new Google News app is straightforward to set up:
1. On your Android device, launch the Google Play Store app.
2. Look for Google News.
3. Find and tap the Google entry.
4. Select Install.
5. Allow the installation to finish.
When the installation is complete, a launcher for the app will appear on your home screen and/or in your App Drawer. To access Google News, tap.
Change your location in Google News
If you relocate, study, or work in a different city, updating your Google settings makes sense. It does offer Google more information about you, but it also allows you to see everything that is going on in your area.
Here’s how to change your Google News location:
1. Navigate to the Google News home page on your device.
2. From the left menu, select Settings.
If you don’t see the side menu, select the three lines.
3. To modify your location, select Language and Region.
4. Enter the name of your language or location into the search field and press Enter.
5. Select an option from the list, then click Update.
6. Go to Your Local News and select or add your city.
Add the Google News app widget
1. On your Android device, press and hold the Home button.
2. Select Widgets.
3. Squeeze the Google News widget.
- Screenshots of your Home screens appear.
4. Drag the widget to the desired location and release your finger.
You can customise the Google News widget’s shape and size. Learn more about resizing a widget.
Take out the Google News widget.
1. Place your finger on the Google News widget and hold it there.
2. Remove the widget by dragging it up.
3. Raise your finger.
Remove or Uninstall options may be available. Remove the widget to remove it from your Home screen only.
Uninstall the widget to remove it from your phone.
FAQs
Is google news 24 a free app?
You can also use News24 to save stories, receive special emails, store various weather locations, and track traffic on your normal journeys for free.
We would appreciate hearing from you. Please contact us through the app’s Profile/Support section.
Is Google News for free?
Google News is available to everyone and is completely free to use with your Google account.
Why is my Google News feed not working?
Your administrator may have disabled access to Google News.
Contact your account administrator for further information.
Because there is no signed-out mode, you will be unable to use the app.
Switch to a personal Gmail account to view Google News.
What is a downside of Google News?
Because press releases distributed using a distribution network can be read on several sites, Google penalises businesses that have the same material on more than two sites.
Google News has limited SEO relevance because its set of rules is always changing.
Is news on Google reliable?
Google News is an ocean of reliable websites, yet there are many illegitimate, copy-paste, rewriting, and fake news sites attempting to fool it. As a result, new publishers will have a difficult time breaking through. As a result, you must be seen as more trustworthy and responsible than the other websites.
Conclusion
Google Headlines is a terrific method to quickly acquire the day’s news – it even includes local weather at the top of the screen.
It’s a natural progression of news feeds, and because it was created in collaboration with publishers, it’s beneficial to both content providers and consumers.
