My latest take on why and how you should capitalize on Google News as an SEO opportunity

1. Not Your Father’s Google News
@MatthewJBrown – Moz
Flickr: Roadside Pictures

2. Download This
Presentation:
Bit.ly/GoogleNews2015

3. Remember your first
Flickr: RobertRD

4. Then you got another one
Flickr: John Lloyd

5. Maybe some really nice
Flickr: Nakhon100

6. Maybe a fleet of rad cars
Flickr: IJsselstein

7. Flickr: John Lloyd
What if you still had this car??

8. INTRODUCING
GOOGLE NEWS!

9. Some fun* facts about Google News
*Actual fun may vary considerably

10. It’s been around forever
Only a FOUR YEAR beta!

11. There’s no Matt Cutts

12. Your two best points of
contact
Stacie Chan and James Morehead

13. It’s all algorithm*

14. A VERY slow moving algorithm

15. They report 76,000 publishers
Up from a reported 50,000 in 2013
Source: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15
Flickr: Chad Cooper

16. # of domains on News.Google
~15,000 (h/t: Jay Leary) - Jay@Moz.com

17. Newzdash tracks tons of News metrics
Newzdash.com – Plans: $110-$270 annual

18. Clicks to publisher = #1 metricSource: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15

19. They don’t want to be
‘in the way’Source: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15

20. You’re always in a test groupSource: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15

21. Localization is next

22. They get lots of
personalization complaintsSource: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15

23. They fear the filter bubbleSource: Google’s NYC publishers summit 7/30/15

24. WHY DO I CARE?

25. They send 6+ billion clicks a month
Source: Google News Publisher’s Summit 7/30/15
6% of the 100 billion per month
Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-1-trillion-searches-per-year-212940

26. 34% Growth since 2013
75% Growth since 2012
If you’re already in, optimization
is worth the effort.

27. Getting in is also a great idea
Even with low effort/output

28. It’s consistently a top SERP feature

29. More visibility than many other SERP
features

30. News: The QDF Killer

31. News: Panda
Defense?

32. News: Mobile (of course)

33. GETTING IN
Flickr: Jeff Maysh

34. Don’t assume you can’t get in!

35. Even if you’re not a news site

36. Plenty of room for y’all

37. Heed the basics
They aren’t obvious
https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/40787?hl=en#general

38. Frequency!
Multiple times weekly (at LEAST)
Flickr: Freaktography

39. Authors + Bylines

40. Contact Info

41. Article Templates

42. Segregate other content

43. Eliminate short form

44. When someone asks you if
you’re a blog….

45. OPTIMIZING
Flickr: Dave

46. Fair warning:
It me

47. Benchmark with VED
https://deedpolloffice.com/blog/articles/decoding-ved-parameter
https://moz.com/blog/inside-googles-ved-parameter

48. Headlines

49. * Credit Wil Reynolds
Don’t HIT ENTER!!

50. New Google Trends

51. Images rule Google News
Bigger. Tagged. Same domain. Good aspect ratio.
Not-clickable. Go for BIG hero images.

52. News sitemaps
48 hrs of content only. Use this to
alleviate crawl nonsense.

53. Pay attention to dates
Make sure news sitemap
matches!

54. META News Keywords

55. Keep close tabs on
markup

56. Video (meh)

57. Editor’s Picks:
Gawker’s study here: http://gawkerdata.kinja.com/google-news-editors-picks-as-seo-our-
initial-results-1681002004

58. Mobile app URLs

59. Standout tag
More info @ http://www.adamsherk.com/seo/success-
with-google-news-standout-tag/

60. Yoast Google News SEO plugin

61. Publisher Center

62. Publisher Center

63. RELEVANT Search Console
Errors

64. Don’t panic: wonky errors
These happen from
time to time. Check
Publisher Center for
the real deal.

65. When you need help…
Protip: Be logged into
the correct Google
account when you do
this!

66. IN CONCLUSION:
(WHERE I RANT)

67. THANK YOU!
Email: mjb@moz.com Twitter: @MatthewJBrown