WordPress-Google-News-Plugin-News-Tags-Tag-Tracker-Metabox

Add all the necessary news tags provided by Google and track standout content from the News Tag tab on the WordPress Google News Plugin metabox.

The WordPress Premium Google News Plugin allows publishers to add Google News-specific metatags to the head of each individual article. As shown in the image of the custom meta box below, publishers have full control over the various metatags, including the Standout Tag, which we expanded by designing a Tag Tracker; the news_keywords meta tag, which allows publishers to add up to 10 keywords; the syndication-source metatag and the original-source metatag.

We paid a bit more attention to the standout-content metatag when we featured the Standout Tag PLUS Tag Tracker, but let’s recap.  If your news organization breaks a big story, or publishes an extraordinary work of journalism, then Google News says you can indicate this by using the standout-content tag. We created the Standout Tag Generator PLUS Tag Tracker, which will keep you from violating the terms of use standard laid out by Google News.

By implementing the news_keywords metatag you can specify which keywords are most relevant to your articles. They are an indispensable news publishing tool that will help Google News determine how to best classify your content and, as a result, will vastly increase traffic. They help specifically identify what the post is about for the purpose of specific user search queries, versus where the post should be included topic-wise in Google News. That’s what the XML news tags are for. Google says:

One of the best ways to ensure that your site appears for particular user queries is to make sure that your article naturally contains the words, names, and figures that are central to a particular news story.

What does the news_metatag offer publishers? Well, if you use the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, then you understand the importance of keyword-use, which is pretty much how Google handles this metatag. However, unlike the restrictions of Yoast, publishers can get creative with their title and not have to worry about whether or not they have the Yoast green light. If the keyword(s) is or are not in the title, you will be alright.

The syndication-source metatag indicates the preferred URL for a syndicated article, or simply identifies the original URL the syndicated content first appeared on, i.e. for-sale syndicated weekly commentary. If two versions of an article are exactly the same, or only very slightly modified, Google is asking publishers to use a syndication-source metatag to point them in the right direction. This tag is very similar to the canonical metatag and, in fact, will take a back seat to it.

The original-source metatag indicates the URL of the first article to report on a story. Google encourages publishers to use this metatag to give credit to the source that broke the story because, let’s face it, you’d want others to give credit where credit is due if it was you. Google recognizes that this can sometimes be tough to determine, but just do your best, and we included it because it is very important. It is very, very important to know that Google will not lower your site and/or article ranking if you have added to a story that was already reported by another publisher, so long as you provide a new bit of information.

So, give credit where credit is due because, unlike using this metatag, omitting it will hurt your publication standing.

No Google News plugin or related plugin has ever given you the power of all these features in one bite-size, lightweight plugin.

CO_PP_Button_2X

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.