How Does an Article Get to the Top of Google News?

PASADENA, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 22, 2011) - Today at the Online News Association conference in Boston, MA, Perfect Market, Inc., Local SEO Guide and Newsknife released a new survey detailing never before seen insights into how articles are ranked by Google News -- www.googlenewsrankingfactors.com. Respondents included the news publishing industry's most influential online strategists. Participating news SEOs have worked with publishers including The New York Times Company, The Tribune Company, Time Warner and Conde Nast.

The result of the survey is a list of the "Top Ten Most Important Google News Ranking Factors," including tactical approaches and insider commentary on emerging trends. The report reveals many new insights about how to get content ranked highly on Google News and also clarifies myths and misperceptions around how articles make it to the top of the Google News page.

News ranking factors may surprise many online strategists. Unlike ranking factors in Google.com, where domain authority is widely believed to carry influence, 'category authority' is "massively important" when determining Google News rank. Similarly, 'authority' matters, but it's much more likely the category focus of the site pulls more weight within the news ranking algorithm.

Other insights from the survey include the fact that being the first to publish isn't necessarily important when determining Google News rank while neither is the publisher's authority.

Commentary:
"Media companies are particularly interested in learning more about the ins and outs of Google News ranking factors, which are quite different than the standard Page Rank algorithms associated with web search optimization," said Tim Ruder, chief revenue officer, Perfect Market. "News SEO requires an intricate, specialized understanding. My colleague Sheigh Crabtree and I are grateful to the news SEO experts who participated in this survey, lent us their expertise and helped form the analysis for this groundbreaking research."

"Ranking for top stories in Google News is the Holy Grail for news sites, yet there has been little public discussion within the SEO community of how to do it," said Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide. "As an SEO consultant who has worked on some of the largest news brands in the world, I thought others would benefit from asking some of the best SEOs out there to share their knowledge of how Google News works."

"Clearly news publications that rank consistently at the top of Newsknife spend effort to get there," said Neil Pharazyn, founder of Newsknife. "These Google News ranking factor insights will give news SEOs a better focus on what works."

Resources:

• Access to the full report: www.googlenewsrankingfactors.com
• Hashtag: #newsSEO
• More about Perfect Market: @PerfectMarket; www.perfectmarket.com
• More about Newsknife: www.newsknife.com
• More about Andrew Shotland: www.localseoguide.com

About Perfect Market:
Perfect Market works with professional publishers to create, distribute and monetize content more effectively online. Perfect Market's patented solutions helps publishers, including San Francisco Chronicle, Orlando Sentinel and Chicago Tribune, serve readers with exactly what they are looking for in online content. By delivering the right content in the right format, to the right user, with the right relevancy, Perfect Market has significantly increased the revenue for its publishing partners. Perfect Market is headquartered in Pasadena, CA with offices in New York.

About Local SEO Guide:
Andrew Shotland is the proprietor of www.localseoguide.com, the popular local search blog, and one of the top local search consultancies in the industry. Andrew offers full service SEO, search engine advertising, website strategy and local search consulting with a specialty in news sites, yellow pages and local directories SEO. He has provided his services to numerous media, ecommerce companies, franchises and start-ups including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, Cox Television & Meredith Corporation. In 2011, Andrew launched a partnership with BIA/Kelsey to provide social media consulting services to BIA/Kelsey clients. He also is a regular contributor to SearchEngineLand.com.

About Newsknife:
Newsknife rates the world's top news sites and journalists for quality, based on their appearances in Google News. An audience of SEO and PR professionals, news site personnel and journalists has subscribed to its Members' Area ratings since it was launched in 2002. Newsknife is a project of Industry Standard Computing Ltd (www.isc.co.nz). ISC is based in New Zealand. It is privately owned and has no media industry connections.