Is your business a frequent publisher of newsworthy content? Are you already in Google News? If not, here's what you need to know about getting started with Google News SEO & feed optimization, if your website is a good candidate for Google News. SearchEngineLand.com columnist Rick DeJarnette covers 9 key things you need to know to get started as a Google News publisher. Read the companion article here: http://searchengineland.com/9-tips-for-getting-free-clicks-through-google-news-172172

1. tips for getting
FREE

2. by Rick DeJarnette
@rickdejarnette

3. GETTING STARTED
“Sites included in Google News should offer timely
reporting on matters that are important or
interesting to our audience. We generally do not
include how-to articles, advice columns, job
postings, or strictly informational content such as
weather forecasts and stock data.”
- Google News Quality Guidelines
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

4. GETTING STARTED
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF PARTICIPATING IN
GOOGLE NEWS?
• increased CTR from
news modules in
“blended” or
“universal”
search results.
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

5. GETTING STARTED
WHAT KIND OF CONTENT IS ELIGIBLE?
ACCEPTABLE:
• original content
• text based articles
• image galleries &
slideshows
• videos
• blogs, satire & press
releases
NOT ACCEPTABLE:
• commerce
journalism or
advertorials
• content promoting
products or
organizations
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

6. GETTING STARTED
HOW DO YOU GET INTO GOOGLE NEWS?
• submit a formal application here
• 60 day reconsideration request period
• don’t take any shortcuts in application
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

7. TIP #1
REVIEW THE GOOGLE
NEWS GUIDELINES &
ENSURE COMPLIANCE
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

8. TIP #2
CREATE A NEWS CONTACT
PAGE WITH ACTUAL
CONTACT INFORMATION
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

9. TIP #3
CREATE A GOOGLE NEWS
SITEMAP
•
•
•
•
follow the Google News sitemap protocol EXACTLY
only include URLs to your site’s original content
only carry last 48 hours worth of URLs in news sitemap
update the news sitemap regularly
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

10. TIP #4
USE THE META NEWS
KEYWORD TAG
•
•
•
•
DON’T use any other punctuation besides commas
DO use between 1 & 10 news keyword phrases
DO include phrases 3-5 words long
DON’T keyword stuff this tag!
• More DO’s & DON’Ts in the complete article here.
see also: Up Close: Using The "News Keywords" Tag For Google
News by Danny Sullivan

11. TIP #5
USE THE LINK STANDOUT
TAG
• results in FEATURED
news listing
• DON’T USE more
than 7x / week
learn how to use it: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks
Through Google News

12. TIP #6
PUBLISH CONTENT IMAGES
ON SAME
DOMAIN
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

13. TIP #7
OPTIMIZE NEWS PAGES
FOR STANDARD SEO
COMPLIANCE
•
• include relevant, optimized code elements
• 80 words minimum for news story body
• understand how UGC text affects news indexing
learn more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

14. TIP #8
MONITOR
GOOGLE NEWS
REFERRER TRAFFIC
read more: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

15. TIP #9
MONITOR CRAWL & INDEX
ERRORS
learn how: 9 Tips for Getting Free Clicks Through
Google News

16. CONNECT
READ MORE:
SearchEngineLand.com
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER:
@sengineland
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