Google news has altered how readers are keeping up with the world around them.
The last generation had to first choose a publication and then flip through the pages for finding the headlines that capture their attention.
But today’s newsbuffs just need to visit the Google News for beholding aggregated pages of multiple sources which are grouped by topic. The news are showcased in the order of interest of the reader.
Now while it has become easier for the writers to get their pieces on the online radar with Google News, there is also a downside. Google News relies on formulas and algorithms to give readers what they need.
But like all other things Google News relies on formulas and algorithms for making sure that they are giving people what they are looking for. Google News Help Centre suggests that the site selects on the basis of the diversity, originality, freshness, relevance and locations.
You should go into the process armed with the editorial tactics and proven tips for commanding the attention in search engines and boost the overall traffic on Google News. Here are some tips.
- Conduct Keyword Research to Understand People’s Favourite News Searches – At the time of starting your Google News Optimisation, the first thing to do is to find the news items that interest people. There are certain features and tools like Explore tool in Google Trends and the Autocomplete feature that will assist your cause to a great extent. Once you start using the features and tools, you will get some idea about what people are searching for in the press release section. This will assist you to come up with the best possible answers for the trending and queries that readers have in their minds.
- Publish Unique Content – This goes without saying that Google News Index values the original, unique content with the clear attributions. You should resist the urge to repurpose or re-use the same article. Instead you should publish the exclusive, relevant and most importantly a trustworthy copy for receiving higher preference over others.
- Present Clear Headlines and Present Accurate Date and Times – Google News analyses a variety of signals to determine the article headline. This includes everything within the title tag, HTML and for the most prominent text on the page. Google News also decides the date and time for displaying for an article in a variety of ways. You can get it right by using following methods –
- Use Structured Data – You should use the schema like datePublished and dateModified. Not just that, you should also utilise the designator of right time zone for Non-AMP and AMP pages.
- Show One Clear Time and Date – You should show a clearly visible time and date between the article text and headline. You should prevent the other dates from appearing on the page whenever possible like related stories.
- Include Photos and Videos – The usage of videos and photos can add value to the content optimisation of the Google news. Even though Google focuses more on the richer textual content, using videos and image can add more to that without any doubt.
So if you want your images to get paired with the news items, ensure that they are relevant. Your images should have the standard file name extension and they are sized to at least 60*90 pixels. Maintain reasonable aspect ratio with images and use well-written captions.
- Add Meaningful Links – You can attract the measurable traffic to the related content and improve the user’s experience by playing relevant contexts. Natural links as called by Google or editorial placed links can offer earned media SEO benefit. But links that are also known as the unnatural links can be considered as Google guidelines violation. That is why links in press releases in Google News employ “no follow” tags. While the SEO may not get enhanced by these links they can still drive traffic to the website.
The digital marketing experts also suggest that you provide subheads and keep track of the impact of Google News constantly so that you can make the most of Google News.
