Metatags - remember those? So 2002, right? Back in those days, metadata was
the prime way to rank in the search engines, and SEOs with the most keywords
stuffed into their websites dominated the SERPs. I remember reading through
search result descriptions and coming head-to-head with crazy little numbers
like this:
"cat cats cat food catty kitten kitty cat cat training cat collar"
Okay, what? I for one am pleased as punch that Big G went ahead and nipped
that one in the bud.
Flash forward ten years. Long after the death of the metatag, the concept
has made an unexpected cameo. Google News has recently reintroduced the
concept, and the 2.0 version comes with a whole new set of rules. Let's look
at what exactly has changed and how you can use the new metatag to promote
all your website's best news stories going forward.
The Lowdown on the New Metatag
Google made the move to reintroduce the idea of metatags for use in Google
News feeds. The news_keyword metatag is a way to add keywords to your Google
News stories to help correctly classify them for readers to find. To better
illustrate why this is important, here's a tidbit from the official Google
News blog:
"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. It's also worth noting that Variety's editors had
a full day to write the headline - millions of readers weren't trying to
search for the story within seconds of hearing about it.
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.
To help solve this problem, today we're excited to announce a news_keyword
metatag. The goal is simple: empower news writers to express their stories
freely while helping Google News to properly understand and classify that
content so that it's discoverable by our wide audience of users."
That last part sounds great, doesn't it?
If you're wondering how to implement it. don't. The Google News help pages
clue webmasters in on what they need to know in order to use the new tag.
They use the following example:
<meta name="news_keywords" content="World Cup, Brazil 2014, Spain vs
Netherlands">
The help pages also point out that Google News publishers can only use up to
ten keywords within the news_keywords tag. It's great to set limits, but I'm
willing to bet that people will soon try to figure out a way to abuse it in
no time flat. That's the nature of the Internet, it's the way some people
are, and it's the reason Google must constantly fight to stay one step
ahead.
The new tag is a long-overdue and necessary. As the official blog post
pointed out, publishers can now craft a killer news story "without forcing
the editors to water down the creativity of a great headline." Instead of
fretting over ways to awkwardly shove keywords into your headline and story
body, you can just, well. write.
SEOs shouldn't worry (too much) about scammers, spammers, and fraudsters
ruining this new tag for everyone else. In the first place, how much damage
can one tag inflict with a ten-keyword limit? That seems pretty tame to me.
There is, of course, the possibility of hackers attempting to run scripts or
alter the code in some way, but frankly, we're just not dealing with the
same Google of years past. Algorithms and bots are more sophisticated now
than they ever were before, and these hacks won't stand a chance against G's
search fortress.
It's also worth mentioning that we're dealing with Google News, not the
regular Google search. It's a whole different animal. In fact, webmasters
must submit their sites for review and inclusion in the Google News network
before they can even submit news articles. Every website must adhere to the
Google News guidelines as well as the general Google quality guidelines to
earn the official stamp of approval.
How to Use the "News_Keywords" Tag for Your Website
Does your website publish breaking news or otherwise newsworthy content? If
so, you should consider Google News. Submit your site for inclusion in the
service, and get to work crafting your newsworthy pieces.
Google News is singularly focused on furnishing users with unbridled
exposure to as many varieties of news outlets as possible. Hence, the new
tag. When you're creating a story about something relevant to your niche,
but the wording is way out in left field, that's where these new little
metatags will come in mighty handy. Make sure you include only the most
highly relevant keywords and stick with a set of keywords that are closely
related. This will increase your chances of being found.
Keep a couple of rules in mind before you get started. First, make sure to
adhere to Google's quality guidelines. They're looking for relevant, useful,
well-written content, so don't let your article disappoint. In addition, if
you're writing a satire piece, political commentary, a blog post, or a press
release, you're now required to use proper labeling. Tag these kinds of
content so Google News knows how to handle them. You can find a list of tags
to use in the Google help pages.
If your website is indeed accepted into Google News, rejoice! One step down.
But remember that getting into the service, writing news pieces, and using
keywords are not the only things you need to do in order to rank. Remember
that quite a few other signals are factored into Google's algo, and this new
metadata is but one part of the equation.
That said, it certainly can't hurt. As a strategy for website marketing, it
seems more solid than most. Any time Google rolls out a new change like
this, it's most effective when you use the feature right away. The longer
you wait before you use it, the more watered down others will make it.
Translation: it will be tough to get any kind of real exposure simply from
using the tag.
Start writing those press releases and articles now and get the word out
about your site. Remember - nothing beats free advertising.
my motto is "Keep it simple" and "don't leave anything for tomorrow that can
be done today."
If you have any questions or comments please contact me.
Regards Gerald
Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru
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