Google Provides Specific Writing Rules for News Partners

We have had tremendous response to the articles presenting the way to qualify as a Google News Partner. The good news is that Google has provided specific writing rules for Google News Partners.

In Google News Part 1 we reported the best ways to become a Google News Partner and the extreme traffic and publicity rewards for qualifying for such a partnership. We explained how in order to qualify you need to provide news and updated or news-worthy industry information on at least two topics themes or categories. There will need to be more than one editor and/or author that is actively editing the articles and working on the site.

Additionally there are some technical qualifications that will have to be implemented. Once accepted a special site map and mark-up language that is specialized for Google News must be installed on the website.

Again, keep in mind that Google will personally review the site to make sure it matches the standards expected. This quality control is important to Google because so many networks and sites draw upon Google news in order to provide content for various topics and themes.

Today we are going to post the exact writing rules required to maintain your Google News Partnership once you qualify.

1. Article headlines should be newsy and newsworthy and not merely (and only) personal, opinion or promoting the same products, ideas, or agendas.
2. Articles should be news, not “just” opinion (although it is accepted and recognized by Google that all news carries the writers opinion with it. Feature articles covering latest news are acceptable. Articles covering conclusions from latest news are acceptable. Editorial articles are acceptable as long as it is clearly stated that the article is an editorial. Humor and satire articles are alright as long as they are clearly labeled as such.  (For example Google’s own TISP spoof would NOT be acceptable, because you have to decide for yourself that this content is a practical joke).
3. Articles should cover a broad range of news and topics relating to the central theme. You may still post articles in a broad range of categories although make sure your home page focuses on a minimum of 2 categories featured on the home page.
4. Do not use adult terms or your site may be reviewed by Google and removed.
5. Do not consistently cover one product, person, organization, or agenda.
6. The are article should not have a “space” at the top of the article between the the title and the article.
7. There should be no “hello” or personal introduction in the news article. Get right to the point of the news in the first three sentences because this is what Google news pulls for the “snippet” that will be syndicated out through the networks.
8. If you place a news article on your homepage, Google assumes this article is more newsworthy and will carry more weight in search engine rankings. They rely on the publisher to discern what news is most relevant to their readers and by placing it on the homepage the publisher is saying that it is most newsworthy. If you have any questions about newsworthy prioritization, please see Cnn.com or other news sites to determine how to layout your homepage design.
9. Once you are a Google News Partner . . . DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING UNLESS UPDATED TO DO SO. If you make one misstep you could lose you Google News Partner status. For example, some site owners have reported that changing their metatags, title, site focus, topic and/or theme can “break” their news status. This requires them to endure a lengthy wait process to be approved again, if they are ever approved again.

Here is a list of things Google may use to determine the newsworthiness of your website:

1. - Freshness of news and relevance to story (as compared to other mainstream news sources in a similar topic or theme).
2. - Proper meta tags, title tags and snippet lengths of story (not to short not too long).
3. - Freshness of content
4. - Diversity of content
5. - Richness of content should help Google users easily find news articles on your topics.
6. - Relevant sites in similar topics and themes should be linking to your site.
7. - Descriptive and accurate TITLE and ALT tags with the articles.
8. - Google does NOT like “how to” articles and headlines for Google News Partners.

More about proper Headlines and avoiding “how to” mindsets.

Google does not consider “how to” headlines and article titles to be “news.”

So if Theme Zoom LLC were writing an article titled: “How to use Natural Language Processing to Increase Website Ranking” it would be better to change this headline to “Natural Language Processing Shown to Increase Website Ranking” or something more “news” oriented.
Even if you are positioning an individual as an expert in a headline “Russell Wright Updates His Opinion About Keyword Research” it would probably be better to change the headline to “Russell Wright of Theme Zoom Issues Statement About Recent LSI Changes.”

If there is any question, the writer can decide if he/she is reporting the news or inserting an opinion. A reporting mindset has a stronger impact on the reader when deciding if the website is reporting a story or selling a product.

If you are serious about basic news writing it is helpful to study the “inverted news writing pyramid” and understand that unlike writing a story or novel the “conclusion” or “climax” comes first:

- Russell Wright and the Theme Zoom Team