How to Get Your Posts to Feature in Google News

Posted: 12 May 2016 08:12 AM PDT

Whether you're running a blog to make money, get yourself heard, or spread useful information among countless internet users, you're unlikely to reap any benefits from all your hard work unless it attracts traffic. This is precisely the reason why search engine optimization (SEO) is considered so invaluable.

SEO can be pretty tricky for you to do on your own, and outsourcing it to an expert may not be a viable option since SEO experts and companies generally charge somewhere between $76-200 per hour. That is a lot of money for something that may not even become to show effect for at least a few weeks or months (if an SEO expert promises to give your blog a boost in lesser time, it's best for you to turn away and run!).

So what's the best way to gain prominence and attract traffic? Even better, what's the best way to attract organic traffic? As it so happens, the solution is simpler than you may even realize. You can use Google News to your advantage. Millions of Google users visit Google News to get their daily fill of latest stories from around the globe. If you can get in there, you'll be able to generate more traffic than you can even imagine. And that too without spending a cent!

Now it's time to answer the million-dollar quest, i.e. how to get into Google News? Although many people are of the opinion that breaking into the coveted area is not easy, the reality is somewhat different. If you're willing to make a little bit of effort, then you'll find your posts getting featured in the news section on Google quicker than you can imagine.

Here are a few things that you need to do in order to regularly have your posts featured in Google News.

Proper Blog Structure

This is perhaps one of the most basic things that you need to take care of right away after you've made up your mind to aggressively present your work to the world. You need to ensure that your blog doesn't contain any broken links, empty pages, scripting and coding issues, malware, and other such things that may cause your blog to look half-baked or spammy. Remember, the more time and effort you invest in ensuring a properly fault-free structure, the more it will pay off in the long run.

User-Friendly Layout

This is yet another basic thing that you need to look at. You don't want your visitors to feel lost upon reaching your blog. You want them to be able to easily navigate their way through your blog and reach the content that they're seeking. In order to ensure that, pay close attention to your navigation bar and menus, categorization and placement of content, and visibility. Making the blog visually compelling may also help in wooing the visitors and making them stick around for a longer period of time, whereas Google will also acknowledge the effort that you've put in.

Create Author Biographies and Maintain a Staff/Writers Page

It's really important for you to maintain a staff or writers page on your blog. Google has learned over the years that users trust those posts more for which they can identify the people penning them. Author biographies also help in this regard as they add a certain level of authenticity to the content. Including contact information in the biographies such as Facebook, Twitter and email ids can also help a lot.

Focus on Quality

Once you get to the writing part, make sure you remind yourself that you'll stick to the proper writing process and won't make any kind of compromise on quality. You shouldn't expect yourself to get away with writing something that comes off as sloppy and even stupid. Typos and other mistakes should be minimized by properly editing your blog posts. Do not consider a piece finished until you honestly deem it nothing short of perfect.

Minimum Word Count for News Articles
Although Google hasn't published any hardline on the minimum word count for Google News posts, word on the digital streets is that it's 80. So be sure to touch, or even better, exceed this figure.

Publish Newsworthy Information
Now this is extremely important. When writing a post, make sure it's about a person, place, product, or event that actually matters to people, and is time-bound. This basically rules out all content that may be identified as guides, advice columns, reviews, promotions, and pretty much everything that cannot be attributed to a specific time period. Furthermore, writing informational pieces, including weather forecasts, won't help the post make the Google News cut either because the latter is a place to show news, not strictly informational content.

Create Original Content
Here comes the tricky part. Google isn't fond of copied content. If it's copied word-to-word, it's considered plagiarism and thus faces a potent risk of getting penalized. And if it's copied but rephrased, then it's considered aggregated and therefore marked as low-quality. Both plagiarized and aggregated content is generally filtered from Google News, though it's not unusual to find aggregated content in there every once in a while.

In order to leave nothing to chance, focus on writing completely original posts. Mine for information by following key people and brands of the niche that your blog focuses on, and grab whatever newsworthy information or quote you can get. Even a small string of words from a key person or brand can help you create a powerful and original piece.

Perform On-Page SEO optimization
Although SEO is pretty technical, there are some aspects of it that you can easily implement on your own, particularly those related to what is known as on-page SEO optimization. After getting done with the post and while you're preparing to publish it through WordPress or some other publishing tool, make sure you make proper use of meta tags, namely meta title, mete keywords, and meta description. Just spend a day or two on learning how to use meta tags properly so that you know what you're doing, and why. Once you get the hang of it, you'll not only have an easier time featuring in Google News, but the Google search engine ranking of your posts will also improve substantially.

Submit Your Blog to Google News Publisher Center
After you're done taking care of everything above, you'll need to Submit your blog to Google News Publisher Center for assessment. A manual check by a living person rather than an algorithm is performed in order to assess whether your blog meets the criteria that has been set for Google News. It may take anywhere from a few hours to even a few days before the checking process is completed. Therefore, be patient and hope for the best.

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ProBlogger: A Commenting System to Rule them All: Why Choosing the Right Comment System can Make or Break your Blog

A Commenting System to Rule them All: Why Choosing the Right Comment System can Make or Break your Blog

Posted: 12 May 2016 06:00 AM PDT

This is a guest contribution from writer Lauren Sirt.

Writers leave their mark on the world through their words.

Whether you're a journalist, author, blogger, or anything else–your words have power. People read your work and start to think differently. They may begin to avidly follow your writing or oppose your statements altogether. But either way, the fact that they even have an opinion regarding your work is tremendous.

Essentially, your audience is looking for a similar opportunity. While they may not have time to invest in writing themselves, they too have experiences which can add to the conversation you initiate – and they want their input to be heard. That's where comments come in.

Although we often take comments for granted as a feature that is generally present at the bottom of most articles and blog posts, considering what a powerful tool it is for UGC (User Generated Content), it’s important for online publishers, community managers and everyone else to invest in the right comment system to maximize its full potential.

So read on for the lowdown on these top-notch commenting systems, so you can make the best decision for your publication.

The Basics

Most popular CMS platforms have their own commenting systems. As a whole, the biggest benefit of these commenting systems are that there is no need to install them separately, they are simple to use, and cover all the bases when it comes to what users expect from comments.

If you plan on using one of these commenting systems, your blog comments will be covered in one simple step. But even if your needs are relatively basic, it's important to understand the ins and outs of these native commenting systems so you can make your choice count.

Here are the most popular:

WordPress Comments

We can't talk CMS without talking WordPress. With over 76.5 million people using WordPress, the CMS powers 25% all websites worldwide. So it makes sense to say that WordPress knows a thing or two about commenting systems.

If you have a WordPress site already, all you have to do is simply enable the comments feature and watch your comments spring into action. WordPress Comments allows you to adjust your moderation settings so you can ensure only comments you feel comfortable with appear on your site. In addition, you can also post regulations such as requiring commenters to fill out their name and email, further reducing the likelihood of pervasive spam.

For discussion purposes, WordPress Comments has a "nested comments" feature, which allows users to respond to each individual commenter, as opposed to simply posting a new comment in a thread. You can also choose to display comments based on most recent so the newest part of the discussion is shown first.

Blogger Comments

Another popular CMS for bloggers, Google's Blogger offers their own comment system featuring simple solutions for bloggers to manage discussions on their site. Blogger Comment's biggest advantage is the array of security features which enables moderators to reject comments and filter out the spam. Moderators can also prevent spam by requiring all commenters to fill out a specific code, ensuring bots are unable to leave their mark.

If you happen to get a spammy comment however, there's no need to worry. You can still mark posted comments as spam in order to filter them out.

Beyond Native Comment Systems

Disqus

Disqus was created as a platform to cultivate online dialog on a variety of subjects such as sports, tech, entertainment, and more. Through browsing their website, users can follow any topic of interest, helping them to connect to others with similar passions.

Online publishers are getting in on the action as well by transporting their comments onto the

Disqus platform. For example, The Atlantic has their own channel on Disqus's site, providing an external means for users to discuss their opinions on various articles.

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One of the major benefits of Disqus is its strong moderation features. Because users have to sign in through social media or email accounts, it’s easier to filter out spam and prevent people from trolling. The moderation features enable publishers to have control over which comments actually appear on the site. You can prevent any unapproved comments from being posted, helping to keep your comments section clean.

In addition, because it is associated with an email account, users get notified via email when their comments get responses and likes. This encourages the conversation to continue, increasing engagement and overall retention.

Livefyre

Like Disqus, Livefyre has the goal of boosting user engagement through promoting conversation and delivering a better social experience. The two tools are alike in that they require users to sign up with their social media accounts. What sets this particular comment system apart from your run-of-the-mill discussion platforms is its ability for users to chat in real-time. As a result, conversations are natural and flowing, encouraging users to stay on for longer and truly interact with the content they read. In addition to the comments themselves, Livefyre also blends tweets and other social media content for a more robust discussion.

Numbers don't lie. According to the company's research, publishers using Livefyre's commenting system saw 10 times more engagement post installation. In addition, clients such as Mashable generated nearly 40 times more comments after implementing Livefyre.

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Spot.IM

As we know commenting systems are great for UGC. But in order to attain all of the benefits of a flourishing online community, publishers have to think big. In this instance, it means going beyond comments and catering your site to the needs of the social user.

Spot.IM provides the complete package. Not only is it an active, real-time discussion platform, but it also utilizes social features such as notifications, newsfeeds, and even private messaging. Taking it a step further, their social profile system allows users to create a profile picture, cover photo, and and add personal interests as well as view each user's previous comments. With all of these features combined, publishers are able to instantly turn their site into their very own social network.

That's why leading online publishers such as EW make Spot.IM their comment system of choice. By using the tool, EW was able to cultivate their own mini social network which has increased user engagement and solidified their place as the fourth most visited newsite in the arts and entertainment category.

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Facebook Comments

Just as it sounds, Facebook Comments allows users to sign in on Facebook and comment through their account. The plugin is used by over 1.04 billion active daily users as of December 2014 due to its ability to merge with the popular social media giant in regards to both the appearance of comments as well as notifications. This means, when a user comments on a post, he or she will get a notification on their Facebook account when another user likes or responds to their original comment. In addition, users can also easily share their comments to Facebook using this tool.

Publishers too can benefit. By using Facebook Comments, they are able to gather vital information on commenters such as where they live, occupation, age and more. This helps them gage who their active users are in order to gear content towards them.

Despite the many benefits, Facebook Comments is only worthwhile when your audience is made up of active Facebook users who don't mind their identities being tied to their comments. If your audience prefers other social media accounts such as Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram, this would not be an effective comments system for your blog.

So as you can see, choosing the right comment system is no easy feat. There are an enormous amount to choose from, many of which may seem to be extremely similar. But by using one that empowers your users and promotes community, your blog will stand out from the crowd and continue to thrive for years to come.

Lauren is an avid writer, passionate about the world of high-tech and innovation. She loves to keep up with trending topics and write all about the startup world.

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