How Do I Get a Website into Google News?

A number of people have asked us this question over the years, particularly since we have placed a couple of really popular websites into the highly popular news search engine that Google has: Google News.

On several websites we have designed and built the backend processes which tell Google News what to index. Specifically, this includes a Google News Sitemap.

A Google News Sitemap is an XML sitemap which is specifically formatted for Google News’ purposes.

You should submit your Google News Sitemap to Google via your Google Webmaster Tools system.

But wait, there is no point in even adding a Google News Sitemap to your website unless your website has been accepted for inclusion in Google News.

The steps required to be accepted in Google News are perhaps beyond the scope of what we can do at Silicon Dales, but we can give our clients – and you the interested web visitor – some good tips, based on real world, successful experience.

Inclusion in Google News is up to Google, though, so you should be prepared for rejection, unless you are publishing actual news on your site (and no, this might not include aggregating news output, even if you are paying for it).

What Do I Have To Do To Get Into Google News?

Well, here are some pointers. Your website, to be included in Google News should:

  • Be owned by a distinct organisation – one with clear contact details, office address, and telephone number;
  • Be produced by multiple individuals, each with clear contact details and biographies – think transparency!
  • Have clear contact details;
  • Not promote one product or service (so this means that your company news section probably cannot be included, for example).

There are many more rules – and even adherence to all of the above (and more) will not ensure you pass the test. You must be very honest with yourself – does your website really qualify as “news”. If the answer is yes, and it is obvious publicly, a) who you are (as a business) and b) who your writers are, then there is every chance your website will be accepted into Google News.

How To Submit a Website to Google News

To submit your website to Google News, just follow the steps here.

How to Make a Google News Compliant Website

If you don’t use WordPress, or much of the above looks like Double Dutch to you, we can help you build a Google News compliant website, and get things setup for you. Just contact us.

For our enterprise level clients, we do things like creating a Google Webmaster Tools account, setting up Google Analytics, and making sure your website has valid Robots.txt, sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz files to give the search engines what they need! All you have to do is ask, and we’ll take this trouble off your case and make sure your website just works. Quickly.

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