How To Poise Your Editorial Content For Google News
Google was initially formed in 1998 to organize information and make it accessible to audiences globally. Google went on to organize this information into news, videos, shopping, images, maps, books, flights, apps and other forms. Today, Google stores billions of web pages online and has now become the largest search engine in the world.
Its news section sends billions of clicks to publishers worldwide, which makes it an incredibly compelling syndication platform for sites with newsworthy content. And if you’re a journalist or a publisher who wants to make a mark online, getting your story featured on Google News is the best way to do it. It’s a great channel for spreading your content to a massive, active audience, but only if your content gets seen.
articles? Here are 10 tips from Forbes‘s Digital Growth Marketing, Denis Pinsky.
- Publish informative and unique content
Produce strong original content as opposed to repurposing or duplicating stories. Priority is given to articles that are recent, substantial, original and focused on the topic. - Use proper nouns
Google calls them “original named entities” and they stand for the name of a person, place or organization. If a news source generates a story that contains a named entity that other articles within the same cluster (i.e. on the same topic) do not contain, this may be an indication that the news source is capable of original reporting. - Publish fast & update
Being early, as well as keeping on top of new developments, can increase chances of ranking high in Google News. Minor article tweaks are encouraged and can be interpreted as a developing story update. - Headlines matter
The headline should be indicative of the story at hand and contain meaningful keywords. - First paragraph
The first paragraph of a news article should convey the who, what, when, where, and why of the story in a few sentences (the more detail you can supply, the better). - Click-throughs
An article with a high click-through rate is seen as more relevant, with every click counting as a vote for the article, and is thus more likely to rank higher (headline, first sentence, authorship, image and video all affect click-through rate). - Use great photos
This is very important and often overlooked. Use large images with good aspect ratios. Include descriptive captions. Place them near the article title or relevant text on the page. More info here. - Differentiate
Analyze news from a unique angle and differentiate from what everyone else is writing about. - Forecast
News focus shifts. Understand the consequences of the breaking news and how the story will shift in the near future. - Be the brand
Readers don’t come to the bookstore or iTunes to decide between HarperCollins or Random House; they want to read a specific book by a specific author. The book or in many cases the author is the brand readers want. Similarly, news seekers don’t go to Google to search for CNN or BBC. In most cases they seek specific news. So whether you’re writing for a large national news organization or a local newspaper, you should always remember that you’re the brand people come to read, engage with, and follow.
Read full and original article on Forbes.
The enumeration above gives us hope to the fact that even a relative newcomer to the Google News stage can potentially enjoy having their content delivered to the hands of a huge audience. It may take time and effort, but it all boils down to production of high quality content to get picked up by Google News!
Realview helps news organizations and help them make informed decisions about why and how to utilize today’s digital platforms. Keep reading to learn how Realview creates value and join our multitude of clients who turn the page from their traditional format and evolve into a modern digital newspaper to stand out!
