Google News is a free news aggregator that serves to select the most relevant news from thousands of publications around the world.
Period: April 2019
Client: Newly created media portal
Services provided: Application submission for adding the website to Google News
Task: Prepare and monitor the implementation of all necessary website requirements for submitting the application. Prepare and submit the application to Google News, as well as obtain approval from the moderators.
Google News is a free news aggregator that serves to select the most relevant news from thousands of publications around the world. Benefits of adding a website to Google News:
➤ Increased user trust in your website. ➤ Your content may receive a large number of backlinks, including from authoritative resources. ➤ News aggregators can generate a large amount of traffic.
Work Completed
At the beginning of March, we received a request from a newly created media portal that wanted to get into Google News. We took on this request despite the expected difficulties – the portal was completely “green”, a blank slate with no history for search engines and, in addition, technically underdeveloped.
First of all, we prepared a technical specification with technical requirements and sent it to the client's developers for implementation.
Once all the necessary technical and organizational issues had been addressed, we moved on to the next stage – filling out the application to include the website in Google News.
The request was prepared and submitted on 05.03.2019. As a rule, all applications are reviewed within 3 weeks of submission, but we received a response as early as 11.03.2019, and, unfortunately, our website was rejected. We began investigating the possible reasons for the rejection.
An analysis of the website for technical errors and a study of topics in the Google News Help Forum led us to the following conclusions:
➤ Not all content in the /news/ category turned out to be news content. ➤ The website did not have sufficient trust and authority to be included in Google News.
For example:
One of the news articles was published on the website on 11.03.2019, and on 12.03.2019 the same news article was republished on another, more reputable website. Google News displayed the news article published on the second website, despite the copied content and the absence of any contact information or a link to the original source and the author of the news article. Also, when checking Google search results for a text excerpt, the other website ranked higher than our client's website, which confirmed the search engine's authority and trust in the other website's domain.
➤ Example of an expert's response in the Google News Help Forum:
Without even looking at the site, the short duration of the site is causative to being rejected. Google is seeking sites that have a longer term history of providing great quality news, typically 6 months.
Even without looking at the website, its short period of existence is a reason for rejection. Google is looking for websites that have a long-term history of providing high-quality news, typically 6 months.
Conclusion: The application was rejected due to content non-compliance and insufficient domain authority.
Recommendations
Based on the identified issues, several recommendations were prepared to improve the website's authority and increase search engine trust:
➤ Create author pages displaying all publications by the author and add links in news articles to the author's page.
➤ Add the legal entity's details to the “Contacts” page in text format.
Results
A new application in accordance with Google News rules can only be submitted 60 days after rejection. During this period, all of the recommendations described above were implemented in cooperation with the client, and the application was submitted again on 13.05.2019. On 16.05.2019, we received a response confirming that the request had been accepted and the website had been added to Google News.
