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The other day, I posted on Twitter a video from the inaugural Google News Initiative Community News Summit of Danny Sullivan doing a Q&A sessions from publishers. There are a number of videos from this summit but I suspect Danny's Q&A was the most interesting.
Honestly, I don't think there was anything specifically new here but I do like how both Glenn Gabe and Marie Haynes summed up their notes on it. So I'll share the video below and their summary tweets.
There is more from Google on this on the blog post named Lessons from our first Community News Summit.
Here is the video:
I shared some of the slides in this GIF in my tweet:
Here is the video where @dannysullivan tells news publishers how to rank better in search https://t.co/AVv14YudOt anything stand out to you? pic.twitter.com/nPHgEtFONs
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 2, 2021
Here are the summary tweets with more details from Glenn and Marie if you do not want to watch it yourself:
How does Google determine who is an authority on a topic? Via @dannysullivan: We understand authority of content & the notion of topics. If your site has a history of publishing authoritative content for a topic, we can see you as an authority in that area https://t.co/LrBwFl6O3l pic.twitter.com/TDsbOAkqHI
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 2, 2021
Transparency is also important for Google News surfaces. It's not a ranking factor, but aligns with some things G's ranking systems try to understand. E.g. Clear byline, publish date, about page, staff info, contact info, & ownership/funding info: https://t.co/rva6iliDIb pic.twitter.com/Jfs5UzPVaR
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 2, 2021
"We want to see bylines."
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
He also said it's very important to explain what your site's purpose is.
"If you're doing all the kinds of things to build up your reputation as you would in the real world over time that equates & aligns very well w the kinds of signals we see on the web. They may make no sense to a human but they correspond to the things that human beings like." pic.twitter.com/DsAsNyiavd
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
The Discover algo is completely different from News.
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
Want to be in Discover? You need EAT! pic.twitter.com/S7NRx2AJYm
In the q&a Danny suggested a local site might consider blocking G from crawling syndicated or international content so Google can focus on the content that matters.
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
This is good advice for many kinds of sites. Focus on the stuff you are good at!
(Around 18mins in)
Around the 22 min mark Danny says it's not important to have your entire company's life history on every page, but it is important to have an easy to find, thorough About page.
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
-who are you?
-who owns the publication?
-what is your purpose?
-how do ppl contact you?
This really was a great presentation. Although the focus was Google News and Discover, I really think that anyone working on a YMYL website should take the time to watch this. https://t.co/lNMqWrFbXN
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) September 3, 2021
Thank you @dannysullivan!
The thing is, there are still a ton of open questions about Google News and publishers, so much so I called the December change a failure for publishers.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
