It sounds like the same old story, doesn’t it? Google has always made moves toward other areas of the internet, with multiple versions of the search engine developed to suit new technologies, a browser and, yes, news. Google News has been around for a few years now, released in its full version in 2006. Businesses are still trying to figure out the best ways of appearing on its pages.

The aim of Google News is to provide a wide range of news resources from around the world. Although the service is supposed to be an automated aggregator, sometimes human editors do intervene, as with the blocking of some news sites for the Google News China pages. This was also the case with regard to the removal of National Vanguard magazine after articles from the white supremacist publication caused complaints.

This mix of the automatic and human selection makes Google News a tricky target to tackle. Unless you manage to develop your site as a news source, there is no chance you will see your articles appear on Google News direct from your pages. A quick study of the article sites featured on Google News shows that there are news sources that are available to the average business. The hard work is in developing the right kind of article to appeal to one of the favoured news sources.

Getting your business mentioned on Google News is certainly worthwhile. It was estimated in 2007 that Google News had at least five times the reach of other online news sources, and its reach has grown since more countries and languages have been developed. Google News keeps articles on its pages for 30 days, and there is also an archive feature. All of this means wonderful traffic potential if you can manage to get your site mentioned on its pages.

An article on Google News presents a great advantage for any site’s search engine optimisation. The SEO community is still developing strategies for Google News, and you can talk to us at SEO Consult about your options. Despite the advantages that appearing on Google News can mean, a lot of businesses keep the site out of their SEO plan due to the difficulties it presents, one of which is having something newsworthy in the first place. The major difficulty is that articles can’t go straight from your site to Google News.

Handily, a few internet commentators have taken it upon themselves to study Google News sources and rank the kinds of articles that most often appear. A quick Google search on the site’s statistics will return a number of helpful sites to use as resources if you decide to take the news service on.

There is no certain way to ensure that your piece of news will appear as you want it, after you send the article to a trusted news source and Google picks it up. However, many businesses have decided that the rewards are well worth the hard work and the risks. With the potential coverage Google News represents, it’s certainly worth a try.

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