Google has announced a scheme that is poised to revive online journalism and gives even more emphasis to the power of content creation.
The search engine giant has announced a news_keywords metatag for publishers in Google News to allow Google to better identify, understand and classify content that is specifically news-related – and to authorize writers to express stories freely.
Headlines .... they ain't what they used to be ... Or are they set for a revival with the Google News metatag?
In a blog post, Google News product manager Rudy Galfi explained what sparked the (ingenious) idea:
“The day after the historic 1929 stock market crash, Variety bannered their front page with these words: “WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG.”
It’s a great headline: pithy, catchy, and expressive of the substance of the story as well as the scale of its consequences.
“The Web has transformed both how news organizations report information and the way users find it. Imagine if “WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG” were used as a headline today by an online news site. Since the headline is a sequence of text that’s only readily understandable by a human, most machine algorithms would probably attach some sort of biological association to it.
“In turn, this would make it difficult for millions of curious users who are using Google.com or Google News to find the best article about the stock market crash they just heard about.”
The new metatag looks like this:
<meta name=”news_keywords” content=”World Cup, Brazil 2014, Spain vs Netherlands, soccer, football”>
Up to ten phrases per article can be added, and each keyword is given equal value. This is set to revolutionise journalism bound for Google News, because now writers are free to spread keywords throughout their article in a much more reader-friendly and grammatically correct manner, rather than cramming them all into one keyword-laden line.
However, Google has stressed that the tag will be just “one signal among many” that its algorithms will use to establish article ranking:
“The news_keywords metatag is intended as a tool — but high-quality reporting and interesting news content remain the strongest ways to put your newsroom’s work in front of Google News users.”
Why you need to create online news content
While SEO is an unquestionably important aspect of online content, there is far more to it. Content marketing is not just about the number of clicks an article gets – the briefest of glances at Google Analytics will tell you that.
What is essential is top quality, unique content that offers timely reports on matters which pique an audience’s interest. Good content seizes a reader’s attention and can educate them about a brand while keeping them entertained at the same time – which is a proven way of opening up a means of communication between brands and customers.
At Search News Media we are experienced in working with clients to get them listed in Google News, and then to help them create a strong, authoritative editorial voice. One of our most recent successes has been working with website Pluggedin.co.uk.
Working with them we adopted a strategy that saw the site achieve Google News accreditation in September 20011. Since that time we have created daily treinding news content that has sent the number of regular monthly visitors to the site rocketing from 25,000 unique views in June 2011 to an average of 200,000 per month (June 2012).
Andy Cooke, Website Editor, Pluggedin.co.uk, said:
“The addition of Pluggedin.co.uk as a Google News publisher has not only made a positive impact on traffic but also helped to build brand awareness, confidence and transparency. All this means nothing though without top quality content to begin with. This is where Search News Media have been instrumental in producing timely, relevant, interesting, well written content on a daily basis.”
In sum? With a generous helping of superb content mixed with a dash of keywords, you are sure to flourish online. Looking to write that killer news headline? Read the article Russell Brand Ate my Goldfish for more tips.
Jenny Maclean
