7 Easy Ways You Can Turn Seo For News Website Into Success
Everything is now available with a click, be it any physical product, service, or entertainment. Mobile phones are the go-to place. In today’s world, where everything is just a click away how can we ignore news?
After all, we need to stay updated with the ongoing news and news websites, which makes the work easier for us. There is huge competition when it comes to news websites, as news websites have to deliver content quickly and also make it reach the audience.
There are different audiences for different news categories like Technology, finance, entertainment, science, and many other categories. To reach these targeted audiences you need to focus on SEO for news websites.
How to do Seo for News website.?
Search engine optimization for news websites is slightly trickier when compared to other websites. The difference is the life of the content. For news websites, the content keeps changing very often unlike other website articles where the content is evergreen. The key here is to focus on creating evergreen content that will drive traffic for a longer period.
Just like SEO optimized Google search results, SEO optimized news website is about making your news content optimized for the Google News algorithm, and also satisfying the user intent.
Google News is a computer-generated vertical search engine that collects and aggregates news stories from thousands of information sources worldwide and provides the latest and relevant news to its audience. It sorts news content according to relevance, authority of source, language, location, user preference, and the freshness of content.
Hence to drive more traffic to your news website, it is very important to gain greater visibility in Google News.
Google News results are determined algorithmically just like Google Search.
Here are some ranking factors to help your news article rank higher in Google News:
Title
The use of keywords in headlines is one of the most important factors for ranking in Top Stories.
A news article title should be 10 to 110 characters long, and the title should be included in the <h1> tag, as ‘Top Stories’ show <h1> headline as the primary title of the page.
Meta descriptions.
Meta-descriptions show the snippet of your news in search results to the audience. Hence make sure the meta-description for your news content is be eye-catching and keyword-inclusive to achieve a higher click-through rate
Keywords
Keywords Research seo
Keyword research is one of the most important ranking factors. Having keyword relevancy in headings like title, and headline <h1> can help Google rank your content.
Make sure to sprinkle the keywords strategically throughout the news content, without making it too obvious. Including keywords in URL also helps to rank better.
Content
For over a decade Google has remained the most popular search engine worldwide, Google aims to provide authentic answers to its users. So publishing original content and accurate data from credible sources helps to rank in Google News.
Your article should answer the common reader queries. Build the news content around what people are searching for so that it attracts and retains more audience. Make a wise choice of data sources for references, and give credits to the source wherever required.
Remember to update your news content regularly as Google gives preferences to fresh and regularly updated content.
Page Authority
Building page authority is one of the ways to receive recognition from Google. When you publish quality content related to the same topic for a long time, Google recognizes you as an authoritative source for that topic, and your news article will be ranked higher in Google News.
Hence focus on providing the most relevant and updated news related to a particular industry to build authority.
Images
Including relevant photos and videos on your news website is the key keep your audience engaged, and increasing the retention rate.
Provide suitable captions to the images. Also never forget to optimise the image with Alt Text as it will help the user know the content of the image, even if the image is unavailable due to some reason.
Use standard filename extensions like .jpg, .jpeg, or .png. Make sure a robots.txt file or a metatag isn’t blocking Google News’ access to your images
Page URL
A link with a meaningful string of words related to the content will look more trustworthy to the reader than a link with a random string of symbols. Write relevant keyword-rich URLs instead of using default ones.
Optimize for Mobile search
Google has a clear monopoly on the mobile search engine market across India with a share of 99.68 percent as of July 2021. Hence it is important for your site to be optimized for mobile search results, to have a better audience retention rate.
Also, site speed is a crucial factor that determines the web experience for users
Site Speed
Use AMP- Accelerated mobile pages to improve the site loading speed for news websites. Google recommends using AMP for news websites.
7 Key Points to consider before publishing the news
Make your website easy to browse. Use breadcrumbs, search bar, and categorize content to make navigation easy for users.
Use images in the right format, and compress them for better loading speed. Use a unique hero image to make it enticing and shareable on social platforms.
Avoid duplicate content. Edit the content to make it unique or redirect the content to the original source. You can also use rel-” canonical” tag to signal to Google that it is a copy of the original content.
Link content to any of your blogs/articles that are relevant. You can save your old news content as Archive and link back to updated content.
Submit news articles to content directories, Forums to build authority backlinks.
Create a unique sitemap for Google news Content
Use appropriate article structured data.
I hope these points gave you a glimpse of how SEO works for news websites.
Adhere to Google’s guidelines and policies. Google News prohibits certain kinds of content like hateful, illegal, etc. Be aware of the guideline and policies related to google news. Respect google rules and you will receive respect in return.