Google’s John Mueller answered the question of whether company blogs are eligible to show up in Google News.
Google News
Google News can be a tremendous source of readers who are interested in reading the published news and that can serve as the foundation for a steady stream of advertising income.
And while “news” is generally found on news websites, is it possible for a company blog to show up in Google News?
That’s the question someone asked in the recent Google Office Hours for December 2023.
The person asking the question asked:
“Are company-owned blogs eligible to be included in the Google News feed?”
Google’s John Mueller answered:
“I can’t speak directly for Google News, since I work on Search, which is somewhat separate, but looking at their content policies, I don’t see anything specific to company blogs.
If you’re curious if this is an option or not, I’d recommend asking in the News publisher help community. And, if you’re curious whether your pages are already being shown in Google News, I’d check out the performance reports in Search Console.”
Related: Google’s SEO Best Practices For News Websites
Google News Content Policies
Mueller is right that there isn’t anything specific to company blogs in the policies. However, those who are interested in getting into Google News, including a company blog, should take a peek at the content policies because there are recommendations that are useful to know.
Aside from policies about not misleading readers and so on there are other requirements to be aware of regarding the content policies for news websites:
- “Clear dates and bylines
- Information about the authors, publication, and publisher
- Information about the company or network behind the content
- Contact information”
But is having that enough for a company blog to get into Google News?
Getting Into Google News
It may be possible to get into Google News by passively publishing news content in a company blog. Google’s publisher center help page says that Google can automatically discover news content.
However, it may be useful to be more proactive by visiting Google’s publisher center where there’s a way to submit a URL for consideration for inclusion into Google News.
Related: Google News Optimization: How to Boost Your Site’s Visibility & Traffic
Does Google Publish Company Blogs In News?
Google does indeed publish news content from company blogs.
For example, here’s a screenshot of a security company whose content is in Google News.
Screenshot Of Google News
And here’s a screenshot of a company webpage from Adobe that is also showing up in Google News:
Clearly, dedicated news sites dominate Google News. But company websites that also publish news are also featured in Google News, so it is possible.
Watch the Google Office Hours question and answer at the 15:37 minute mark:
See also: How To Succeed In Google Discover
Featured Image by Shutterstock/andriano.cz
