The way I read all of this is that Google simply decided that there are "enough" news sources and they don't want to include any new ones anymore.
Like, they just drew a line in 2019 and said this is it, every type of news content is now covered by the existing sites, we don't need new sites added.
Of course they obviously can never publicly say this for optics and PR.
I mean, this is now ongoing for 2 years. Clearly they are 100% aware and zero changes have been made. Clearly it's intentional and not a bug or the system not working as intended.
The gatekeeper simply decided to just close the gates.
Great content Barry. It has been a year since the article was published. Is there anything new? Do you know if any publisher managed to get to Top stories after 2019 and how?
Yes I've seen a few publishers finally reaching whatever threshold Google has set and they're now getting good traffic from Top Stories. Seems to take at least 2 years of consistent effort and ticking all the boxes in terms of quality and quantity of journalistic output.
So it's definitely do-able, but it does seem a very steep hill to climb for new publishers compared to sites that were manually approved in the old process.
Thanks for your answers, your content is really helpful. Ads are supposed to be a big factor for google algorithms when considering if a site is eligible for google news. But what if a news site with relevant, serious content has a lot of ads but they are google ads? And one other question: Do you maybe know what is the average percentage of traffic from top stories for major news sites?
The amount of ads is a factor, regardless of source (Google ads or other adtech paltforms), as they all impact on user experience and usability and that is what Google search takes into account.
Top Stories drives serious numbers of traffic to most major news sites. For most general news publishers, 50% or more of traffic is Google traffic, and that is divided between Search and Discover. The Search traffic can easily be 90% Top Stories.
We have managed to get into Top Stories with a news site founded in 2021. It happened one and a half years after we launched. So, yeah it is possible, but it is a very steep hill to climb, as you've said :-)
The way I read all of this is that Google simply decided that there are "enough" news sources and they don't want to include any new ones anymore.
Like, they just drew a line in 2019 and said this is it, every type of news content is now covered by the existing sites, we don't need new sites added.
Of course they obviously can never publicly say this for optics and PR.
I mean, this is now ongoing for 2 years. Clearly they are 100% aware and zero changes have been made. Clearly it's intentional and not a bug or the system not working as intended.
The gatekeeper simply decided to just close the gates.
Great guide.
Great content Barry. It has been a year since the article was published. Is there anything new? Do you know if any publisher managed to get to Top stories after 2019 and how?
Yes I've seen a few publishers finally reaching whatever threshold Google has set and they're now getting good traffic from Top Stories. Seems to take at least 2 years of consistent effort and ticking all the boxes in terms of quality and quantity of journalistic output.
So it's definitely do-able, but it does seem a very steep hill to climb for new publishers compared to sites that were manually approved in the old process.
Thanks for your answers, your content is really helpful. Ads are supposed to be a big factor for google algorithms when considering if a site is eligible for google news. But what if a news site with relevant, serious content has a lot of ads but they are google ads? And one other question: Do you maybe know what is the average percentage of traffic from top stories for major news sites?
The amount of ads is a factor, regardless of source (Google ads or other adtech paltforms), as they all impact on user experience and usability and that is what Google search takes into account.
Top Stories drives serious numbers of traffic to most major news sites. For most general news publishers, 50% or more of traffic is Google traffic, and that is divided between Search and Discover. The Search traffic can easily be 90% Top Stories.
We have managed to get into Top Stories with a news site founded in 2021. It happened one and a half years after we launched. So, yeah it is possible, but it is a very steep hill to climb, as you've said :-)
Brilliant to hear Vid!