2:15 AM
Google News has been an abundant source of Traffic for many websites
since few years. Previously there were only a few publishers on Google
News so things were pretty easy, back then. But now many sites got into
google news to drive traffic to their blog/websites. However, Google
News still acts as a good source of traffic for websites that produce
good quality content in large volumes.
If you are new here you should check out my article on Things you need to know about Google News.
In this article, I will explain you the step by step process to get your
website/blog into Google News. Things are not that easy but if you
follow all the steps properly then the chances of your website getting
into news would increase.
Steps to get your Website into Google News:
1.Your Website Theme/Look
Your website theme plays a key role in getting you approved for google
news. It should be of Magazine Style with proper section wise news on
various topics like Politics, Education, Entertainment, Technology etc.
As the name says the theme must look like a news website. There are many
themes out there, if in case you are a WordPress user you can go ahead
with some popular Magazine Style Theme.
2. Your Website must be complete with all required info:
Your website must have pages like About Us, Contact Us, Media Kit and an Authors page as well. Of all these, you must have an about us page where you have to list all your authors with a brief bio.
- You can have a look at a sample page here
3. Website must be Multi-Authored:
This is quite obvious. A single person alone cannot produce lots of
content daily. So, it should have a minimum of 2-3 authors who covers on
various topics each and every single day.
4. Do not post about Job Updates, Notifications, and How-To Guides:
This is one of the biggest mistakes people do, posting about jobs and
job notifications is completely against Google News TOS. So, if you have
any articles about Job updates and notifications you have to remove
them immediately before you apply for Google News.
However, you can post few job updates after your site gets a full approval for Google News.
Along with that do not post How-To guides, a website with how to guides
doesn’t get a news approval as the name says the website must be updated
with latest news stuff and not how to guides. If in case you are
posting How to guides exclude them for the news sitemap.
5. Author bio on Post Pages
The author name is a must, but bio is generally optional. But if you are
applying for an approval then having an author bio will increase your
chances of getting approved.
6. You must divide content into sections/categories
Every news website has some categories so divide content into different
categories because Google News will ask you for different sections like
Headlines, Technology, Entertainment etc while you are applying for
Google News.
7. You must publish good number of articles per day
Generally they say you can get into news if you publish 3 articles per
day. But believe me, that wouldn’t be sufficient enough. You must
publish at least 10 articles per day and before few days of applying
publish at least 15+ articles per day.
8. Grammar plays a key role
Your application will be reviewed manually by someone from Google News
team. They will verify the complete website to the best possible extent
and they will manually read few articles posted on your website. So, no
matter even if you have satisfied all the above guidelines if your
website doesn’t have proper grammar then your application will be
declined without any hesitation.
9. Google News Sitemap and News Keyword Tag
Google News sitemap is a little different from the sitemap which you
generally have on your blog. A Google News sitemap will have only a
maximum of 1000 URLs in the index at a time.
Also, you need one more additional tag called news_keywords tag, however, this is optional initially but if you have one for your blog the chances of getting approval would increase.
For these two I would highly recommend you to go for Yoast SEO News Plugin if you are a WordPress user which is a premium plugin and you have to pay for it.
Alternately you can also use Google News XML Plugin for Sitemap and Google News Keywords from Tags plugin for news_keywords tag.
10. If you cannot do all the above steps then do this
If you follow all the above steps properly then you can definitely get
into google news but I know the above-mentioned steps are a little
difficult to achieve and takes some time.
Also, sometimes even though you have followed all the above steps, still
your application might get rejected due to some unknown reasons.
Alternately you can buy a website/domain which is already listed in Google News. There are quite a few brokers on Flippa and
few other marketplaces who sell expired/parked domains that are already
listed in Google News. It would cost you anywhere between $500 to $5000
based on the demand for the domain/website.
- One you are done with all the steps head over to this page and click on Google News Publisher Center at the bottom of the page. Generally it takes 2-5 days to know whether your application is accepted or rejected. If in case its rejected you have to wait for 90 more days. So, give your best on the first attempt itself.
So, I guess it’s very clear on how to get your site listed on to Google
News. It’s not easy at the same time it’s not impossible as well.
Do contact me if you need any help in getting your site listed on Google
News, I can help you out with the same.
My next article would be on optimizing a Google News website stay tuned.
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