Need Google News Approval? Registering guide overview, tips and tricks

Anyone looking for an overview of current news from different sources is in the right place on the Google News platform. Automation algorithms and processes are used to compile news articles. For a website to be registered with Google News and its articles appear on the portal, it must be registered with Google News. Due to the competitive situation, news pages and their articles must follow certain guidelines, which are communicated by Google.

Even your site on Google News may be useful in its own right: news.google.com is ranked world-wide instead of 112. According to a survey conducted by the Search Engine Journal in 2016, about 60% of users trust the news they read on Google News, rather than the original sources. Even more important is the integration of the news portal into the Google search engine, by far the most visited website on the web. If you can successfully place your news page in Google News, you will also improve your web search engine presence. And this is exactly what leads to success on the Internet.

It is very important to take care of Google news in detail. If your messages appear in the portal, you can count on a lot more traffic. However, there is fierce competition for user clicks.

Read our guide on how the portal works and how to send your site to Google News. In addition, we offer lots of tips on how to optimize your offer on Google News to increase your chances of SEO success.

How Google News works

Google News automatically collects all current articles from registered news sites and ranks them by relevance. In addition, the Google algorithm combines articles on the same topic into one. The result is a list of the most relevant titles of the day, each with an associated main article and related articles.

Keywords that Google considers relevant are currently appearing. A click on a keyword takes you to a specific page listing news articles in that keyword. Below is a news feed with the latest articles from major publications. Coming weather forecast areas, editorial recommendations (usually for more timeless articles) and an overview of current events are coming.

The heart of Google News is the mainstream in the middle. It starts with the most relevant general headings and then lists the most important news for specific topics, such as technology and sport. The links will take you to the pages of the special section where articles and articles considered less relevant will appear. So if you found your article on the Google News homepage, you succeeded. Connecting your website to Google News is very profitable.

Another important factor is the integration of Google news into the Internet search engine. And here the Google News algorithm plays a role. The more relevant the source of information, the more it will appear in the search results from the "News" tab. If users are looking for current information, they usually click on "News". The goal should be to show your highest bid in results. The increase in traffic is then guaranteed. Under certain circumstances, your news article may even be pushed to normal search results if the keyword you are looking for is updated.

Referencing your site on Google News: The registration process

Google News checks each individual website that it refers to. According to the guides, the site will then be added or rejected within 60 days. In order for Google to verify your site, you must first register with the Publisher Center. You can then "promote" your site to include it in Google News. Then wait until the Google News team has decided to refer to your site.

Guidelines for Google News Pages

Guidelines and laws are among the basics of successful SEO. It's no different from Google News. For your content to have a chance to appear there, a little preliminary work is required. You need to optimize your site and articles so that Google News considers them relevant and responsive. The following points must be considered:

To subscribe to Google News, you must follow the general instructions for webmasters. This means that Google can find your site and recognize its content and themes and that visitors can easily use your site. What is good web ergonomics? These include basic quality standards, such as "Create a useful and informative website and write pages that describe content clearly and unambiguously", and general tips on using important keywords, but also technical tips to follow. This includes abstaining from practices such as spam and user deception. Review Google News policies carefully and implement reasonable optimizations where possible.

Critically check the neutrality of content and content flow. Google News is a news aggregator and not a marketing platform. In order for your page to be recognized as an appropriate news portal, ideally, you should already have an appropriate archive as "evidence" for the most neutral and relevant reporting possible. This is one of the biggest obstacles, especially for young websites, but it is the only way for Google News to make sure your site meets the quality requirements and has the clear features of a web portal. news (not an advertising-oriented offer). Therefore, it is advisable to wait a few months before subscribing to Google News until the site has a continually full archive of good content.

You have to take care of journalistic standards. This means that unique content is your website and should not be plagiarized. Personalized work will always seem more serious. Pay attention to the quality and individuality of your content. Use as many resources as possible to ensure quality. A certain amount of content is certainly important, but without the proper quality, your website will not only be valuable to Google News, but also to readers who are looking for reliable sources.

Add author names to your articles. Anonymous content tends to be penalized more often by Google, given its low content. Introduce your editorial team and put a face to each of them. A way to interact, such as a comment space or contact form, adds value to your readers.

Remove technical obstacles. In order for the Google News search engine to consider your site to be relevant, certain technical requirements must be met. This applies especially to the URL structure of your bid. For example, it is important that your articles have permanent URLs, preferably in the form of an HTML link. Also, your website should offer articles in the same language everywhere, not use other domains and look clear. Take a close look at the technical requirements of Google News and put them into practice.

After reviewing the above points and implementing them, you can submit your site to Google News. If Google News refuses, you can try to sign up after 60 days.

Submit your site to Google News

If you believe your site is ready to be listed on Google News, you should register the copyright for your site in the Google Search Console, if you have not already done so. The site will then appear in the Publisher Center under "my web sites". From here, you can access, complete and submit your Google News subscription form.

The registration form is very simple. In addition to the required metadata, Google News requires a description of your website "in a nutshell". Your description should be short and concise. It's less about advertising your site than communicating the content and choice of your topics in a compact and intelligible way. After all, you want to make it as easy for the Google News team to send you your site as a valuable source of information. Avoid over-detailed promotional texts.

After you submit the form, you will receive an email from Google requesting a response. You will be required to comment on the Google News rules. This will show Google that you have taken care of them, taken them into account and made the necessary optimizations. Attention to the following points:

• Review the Google News instructions briefly and make sure you follow them.
• Link to Impressum and a page presenting the editorial team.
• Briefly describe the architecture of your website. Show Google News that you have a clean, sequential, barrier-free URL / news for your web search engine
• Make sure journalistic standards are met.
• Also, keep in mind that your offer provides valuable content instead of short information such as weather reports or football match results.

Once your answer has been submitted, you will receive an active ticket from Google News. You will then have to wait for an average of one to two months. During this time, it is important for your website to continue to do what you promised the letter: regular publication of good content. Only then will you have the chance to sign up for Google News. Google will contact you with a "yes" or "no". If you receive a refusal, you can start a new registration process after 60 days.

Google does not have to justify a cancellation and is not individually available to you as an operator. Some help forums for Internet publishers may be helpful. Google's own forum platform brings together experts who sometimes voluntarily check websites for Google News guides and identify potential reasons for rejection.

It's pretty common to be rejected by Google News. This is simply due to the huge competitive pressure and the already saturated supply of good news sites. As a result, service requirements and guidelines have become more stringent over the years. So be aware that successful inclusion in Google News is always associated with a lot of effort and possibly even more trying. Finally, if you manage to send your site to Google News, you have a much broader reach.

Overview of steps to subscribe to Google News

Keep a news site functional, fluid and easy to use, updated and well visited for at least 3 months, follow Google News rules and make the necessary optimizations

Register your site, including copyright, with Google

Fill in and send the registration form to the publishing centre

Write and send email replies from Google, make sure you include guides, web architecture, journaling standards, article value and a link to your imprint and your team.

Expect a response from Google (on average 30 to 60 days), in case of rejection: Continue to optimize your site and try to reconnect after 60 days.

Optimization: Tips for Successful SEO on Google News

There are many ways to increase your chances of adding to Google News. The quality of the articles, the quality of the site and the activity rate are decisive. Careful structuring of content is just as important to the success of Google News SEO.

Optimization of individual articles

Optimize individual article titles (H1). If possible, put the main keyword at the beginning and keep the title short, concise and limited to the essentials. Updating is also the key to the success of a title.

The best way to keep your bearings is to read the headlines that appear on the Google News homepage. All are characterized by search engine optimization. Learn from the professionals without going through the profit and loss box!

The teaser should be concise and contain keywords, but it will also arouse the reader's curiosity. He appears in Google search in the "News" section under the title and can decide the user's click in the latter case. Because Google News also uses this data to determine the relevance of your article, a good teaser contributes to your success on the news portal.

The image of the article should reflect briefly on the subject and include a suitable alternate text containing the main keyword of the message. Host this image on the same server as your site, use the JPEG file format and keep the file size as small as possible. Use a legend. This image will appear in the Google News preview and is particularly important to get the reader's attention and motivate them to click. However, do not use obvious clicks, for example, in the form of unnecessary sexualized content or big red arrows, otherwise, Google will punish you quickly and without consideration!

Meta-Description is like a hidden teaser for Webcrawler. Write the description of each article concisely and focus on the keywords. Focus on your teaser without taking it literally.

Your own Google News keyword tags (news_keywords) should contain between 5 and 10 keywords that are relevant to your article. Even though this meta tag has lost its importance to SEO, it remains a factor to consider.

The length of the article must be at least 80 words in order to be recognized as relevant content by Google News. The latest news can be as short as 80 words, but at least 125 words are recommended for regular titles. More detailed news starts between 200 and 250 words.

Optimizing the Google News sitemap

Google News needs its own news map, which contains the latest articles and also collects detailed information about the types of content in your offer. This allows the web search engine to easily retrieve and integrate the latest content, also allowing you to control the articles that Google News processes. Make sure you follow Google Sitemap guidelines. If you have set up a site map, you must also save it to the Google search console, but only after your site has been listed on Google News!

It is important to keep your site map as updated as possible. Ideally, it will contain articles from the last 48 hours. You should also delete old articles from the map, especially if your sitemap exceeds 1000 articles. Also, make sure that the publication name (<news: publication>) is the same as the name specified in the Publisher Center. This prevents Google News from assigning the name incorrectly.

Other general optimization tips

Make sure your website is running fast and smoothly so that crawlers and readers can access your page without any lengthy upload time. It is best to target a maximum upload time of 200ms. Keep the resource requirements of your page as low as possible. This is especially true for integrated advertising.

Advertising topic: Don't overdo it when you integrate ad space. This is especially true for complex creatives, such as embedded videos and animated banners. Make sure your content is clearly the main part of your site. It's best to follow Google AdWords guidelines

Respect your subject: If you maintain a specialized offer on the web, avoid jumping on the subject. If, for example, you run a football news portal, you should refrain from reporting on winter sports. Only then will Google News recognize you as a news page relevant to a particular area. Otherwise, your page will be recognized as a general news page. In this case, complete with the industry weights, which you may want to avoid.

Works perfectly in HTML. It is preferable to follow the traditional order of the title, image, date, body text. This will make it easier for the crawler to find and save your offer on the web.

Publish as updated as possible. Google News rewards speed by paying more attention to current issues, especially the latest news. But make sure you pay attention to the quality of your news. It's important to find the right balance.

A comment feature in your articles can cause web crawler problems. He can read the comments and identify them as part of the article, which can lead to annoying crawling errors. Avoid using a comment feature or outsourcing comments, for example with a link to a forum.

Google's web search engine is smart, but by no means perfect. Become familiar with common Google News search error issues that may prevent the search engine from reading your site properly.