Theme Zoom LLC announced today that numerical URLs associated with posted news-articles (previously required by Google News Partners) are no longer mandatory as long as you have an official Google News site map on your news site.
The Theme Zoom team researched the topic of News URLs after a customer commented:
“Nice article Russell. I’ve written to you before about my experience and remember one critical component I forgot to add that I haven’t seen mentioned. In order to become a Google News Partner, each URL has to have a unique number of at least 3 digits (at least it did when I was accepted). Considering that most people set up a WordPress site using the category and post name, this may exclude many unless they want to mess with redirecting.”
Here are the facts.
The 3 digit rule for Google News Articles is for people who:
- Do not have static URLs (Google has to have a unique number of at least 3 digits that is static).
- Do not have a Google News Sitemap (Many people will give up and go home without installing this).
Theme Zoom recommend a Google News sitemap so that the website may have keyword rich static-looking URLs rather than machine generated numbers or the required 3 digit numbers. Many people end up using the 3 digit number system because of the painful experience of using the completely-unique-Google-News-mark-up-language used for the specific news site map.
Many webmasters submit a website for Google News only to be rejected because they do not have a Google News Site Map.
Many webmasters install a Google News site map only to be rejected because they are not a Google News Partner.
This is a catch 22.
Most webmasters are rejected during the first Google News Application because they list their regular site map on the online application form.
In order to successfully create the Google site map, a webmaster will need to go through the painful process of learning Google News site map mark-up language. They will then need to provide this site map to the Google News hand review department. If a blog or a content management system (CMS) is being used, a plugin or setting will need to be adjusted to make sure the News site mop is getting pinged and updated when a news article is published and live.
The entire process is not for beginners.
The key purpose of Google’s desire for the 3 digit number should be understood. It is to make sure that there is a single news article associated with a single page and that this association is permanent:
Google Writes:
Be unique. Each of your pages that display an article’s full text needs to have a unique URL. We can’t include sites in Google News that display multiple articles under one URL, or that do not have links to pages dedicated solely to each article.
Be permanent. For example, we wouldn’t be able to crawl the page www.yoursite.com/news1.html if it displayed a different story every day. In order to ensure that our links to articles function properly, each article on a news site needs to be associated with one unique URL, and that URL must be permanent (i.e., it can’t be recycled).
Display a three-digit number. The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits. For example, we can’t crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article23.html. We can, however, crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article234.html. Keep in mind that if the only number in the article consists of an isolated four-digit number that resembles a year, such as http://www.google.com/news/article2006.html, we won’t be able to crawl it.
And on the very LAST line (of course) Google tosses in as an after-thought (when the webmaster has thrown up his hands in total confusion):
Please note, this rule is waived with news sitemaps.
If you did not find this confusing enough . . . the new Google News Sitemap Format is almost here. Old maps will be rejected.
Back to the drawing board.
Russell Wright and the Theme Zoom Team
