Google said it is now promoting more local news in its search results and news results, including top stories. Google said they would be doing this earlier this year and in 2020 started doing this specifically for COVID news.
Danny Sullivan, Public Liaison for Search at Google said it is improving local news in Google Search in three primary ways:
(1) More local news not just for COVID news, Danny wrote Google will "soon see a carousel of local news stories when Google finds local news coverage relevant to their query."
(2) Google will show more local publications even for national stories. Danny wrote "also been working on improving our systems so authoritative local news sources appear more often alongside national publications, when relevant, in our general news features such as Top Stories."
(3) Google said it is getting better at local news, saying it has "improved the local news experience by refining our ability to understand topics beyond just broad areas, like sports, to narrower subtopics, such as football and high school football."
The example, if you’re in Detroit and search for football, we’ll now show you results for local high school and college teams, rather than just showing you results for, say, the professional team.
Google is also surfacing tweets by local, authoritative sources and authors, including tweets from news organizations:
And Google also released some tools for journalists (or content marketers if you will). More details on those tools over here.
Forum discussion at Twitter & WebmasterWorld.
