Do you write news stories? I’m not talking about news in the Internet marketing world, as in a product launch. I’m talking about news that covers big events, such as the Olympics or any pop culture, political news, or other really important stuff? Then, you should know that Google just launched a brand new/old meta tag.
Called “Google News Meta Tags,” it tells search engine spiders that your post or article is about a current event. The reason I typed in “new/old” is because it’s also a meta keyword tag, something that Google abandoned more than 10 years ago. Here’s how the new Google News Meta Tags look:
<meta name="news_keywords" content="World Cup, Brazil 2014, Spain vs Netherlands">
The meta name is different, as “news_” has been added before “keywords.” See? Same, but different, too. The content portion of the tag should use keywords that pertain to the event you’re reporting on.
But don’t become excited about this new tag just yet…
You also have to have the imprimatur of Google News. To submit to Google News, you need to have a substantial site. If you have a blog with multiple posters, who write responsible news articles, then, Google will consider you. Think about SearchEngineland, for example. But you do have to apply for acceptance first.
While this Google news meta tag is just as abusable as the old keywords tag was, when people stuffed a gazillion keywords into the tag in hopes of ranking for every one, the circle of Google News publishers is small and much more controlled. Plus, it’s based on XML, which most webmasters don’t use.
Just a tidbit to sort out the confusion. If you’re NOT a Google News publisher, this tag isn’t for you.
