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.
You can have a look at popular news sites India Today, Times of India, All India Roundup etc
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.
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