SEO best practices for news sites

This video is about SEO best practices for news sites, including how to position your content to appear on Google search results and increase visibility and traffic to your website.

This video by Google Search Central was published on May 15, 2023.
Video length: 10:27.

This video from the official Google Search Central YouTube channel discusses SEO best practices for news sites.

The video covers how to position your content to appear on Google search results and increase visibility and traffic to your website. It also explains the different ways news content can be featured on Google, such as text, image, video, and other types of results. The video further explores the eligibility criteria for Google News and the two key places where Google News content can appear in search: the top stories carousel and the News tab.

The video concludes with SEO tips specifically tailored for news websites, emphasizing the importance of creating helpful, reliable, and user-focused content.

• Your news content can appear in Google search results as text, image, video, or other types of results.
• SEO best practices for news websites will help you position your content to appear on Google search results.
• There are two key places where Google News content can appear in Google search: top stories and the News tab.
• There are four common types of search result elements you can influence: text results, rich results, image results, and video results.
• Invest your efforts based on what works best for your audience by analyzing your data in the search console for news.
• To be eligible for Google News, you need to be eligible for Google News and have your content displayed in the top stories carousel and the News tab.
• Google systems prioritize content that is helpful, reliable, and primarily created for people, not search engines.
• Provide a publication date to Google following the byline dates guidelines.
• If using the same page for updates to a story, provide dates with the time zone and follow the byline dates guidelines.
• Good news content across the web is automatically considered for Google News.
• Make it clear what's paid placement and what's not.

SEO best practices for news sites - YouTube

Different ways your content can be featured on Google

• Your news content can appear in Google search results as text, image, video, or other types of results.
• SEO best practices for news websites will help you position your content to appear on Google search results.
• There are two key places where Google News content can appear in Google search: top stories and the News tab.
• There are four common types of search result elements you can influence: text results, rich results, image results, and video results.
• Invest your efforts based on what works best for your audience by analyzing your data in the search console for news.

Eligibility for Google News

• To be eligible for Google News, you need to be eligible for Google News and have your content displayed in the top stories carousel and the News tab.
• Google News is a news aggregator service available on Android, iOS, and the web.
• The top stories carousel is a search feature that displays relevant and high-quality news content.
• The News tab on Google search narrows down search results to focus on news-related results.
• Being eligible for Google News and appearing in these features is different from appearing in Google search results.

SEO tips for news websites

• Google systems prioritize content that is helpful, reliable, and primarily created for people, not search engines.
• Assess your content based on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T).
• Experience shows the extent to which the content creator has first-hand or life experience for the topic.
• Expertise shows the extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic.
• Authoritativeness shows the extent to which the content creator or website is known as a go-to source for the topic.
• Trustworthiness is the most important member of E-A-T and demonstrates the reliability and trustworthiness of the content.

SEO best practices for news sites - YouTube

Content Publication and Dates

• Provide a publication date to Google following the byline dates guidelines.
• Use structural data to specify a date and time zone to help Google understand your article dates.
• Modify the article date and label the dates with text like "posted," "published," "updated," or "last updated" for significant updates.
• Prevent other dates from appearing on the page, such as related stories at the end of the page.

Website Structure for Ongoing News Stories

• If using the same page for updates to a story, provide dates with the time zone and follow the byline dates guidelines.
• Avoid updating a story without adding significant information.
• If using multiple pages for updates to a story, effectively link the pages to each other and include timestamps or publishing dates.
• Create a hub page for the story and link to each new piece from there.
• Images and videos are important for news content, so follow image and video best practices.

Eligibility for Google News

• Good news content across the web is automatically considered for Google News.
• Content that appears in Google News meets three key criteria: high levels of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EAT), consistent history of producing news-related content, and following Google News policies.
• Transparency is a key part of the policies, including providing clear dates, information about authors, publication, and publisher.
• Advertising and other promotional material should not exceed news content.
• Avoid pop-ups or excessive ads that may annoy users or slow down pages.

Monetization and Outbound Links

• Make it clear what's paid placement and what's not.
• Avoid spammy paid or user-generated content links without tagging them.
• Use appropriate structured data for paywall content to differentiate it from cloaking.
• If you want paywalled content to be searchable, ensure it can be crawled and indexed.
• Implementing a meter, paywall, or lock-in wall requires proper structure data.

Watch the video on YouTube:
SEO best practices for news sites - YouTube