A Google News XML sitemap is a specialized XML sitemap created for news websites to help Google News discover and index their content more efficiently. Unlike a regular XML sitemap that includes all the pages of a website, a Google News sitemap specifically lists news articles published within the last 48 hours and allows Google to crawl them faster.

How Sitemaps Enhance News Visibility

A Google News XML sitemap enhances visibility by helping Google quickly discover and index recent news articles (within the last 48 hours). It allows faster crawling, ensures articles are not missed, and improves the chances of ranking well for time-sensitive content. By including metadata (like publication date and genre), it helps Google better understand and classify news content. Submitting this sitemap also increases the likelihood of appearing in Google News specifically. Key benefits include:

• Faster indexing of new articles.
• Improved article discoverability.
• Better classification via metadata.
• Higher visibility in Google News results.

Key Elements of a News Sitemap

A news sitemap includes essential details like:

• Title and publication date: Each article should have its title and publication date clearly defined.
• Genres and access tags: These tags indicate the type of content being described.
• Relevant descriptions: Use descriptions that align with your target keywords to help search engines understand the article’s content.

To submit a news sitemap to Google News, you’ll need to file a request. The primary benefit of being added to Google News is faster indexing, compared to simply using a regular news sitemap.

Key Elements and Metadata for a Google News XML Sitemap

A Google News XML sitemap must contain specific elements and metadata to help Google understand and index the content correctly. Below are the key elements that should be included:

1. <url>
   • The parent tag that holds the URL for each individual article.
2. <loc>
   • The URL of the news article.
3. <lastmod>
   • The last modified element is an optional (but recommended) but useful metadata tag in a Google News XML sitemap. It indicates the last time an article was modified or updated. Make sure this value is matching with the on-page "Last updated:" if it's visible and also matches with lastModified values in the schema markup.
4. news:news:
   • The parent tag holds all the news-specific metadata.
5. news:publication:
   • Contains information about the publication, such as:
     • news:name: The name of the news publisher which should match the name in the Google Publisher center (e.g., "BBC News").
     • news:language: The language of the publication (e.g., "en" for English).
6. news:publication_date:
   • The date and time the article was published in ISO 8601 format. As an additional recommendation is to make sure that this date matches with the on-page timestamp and the publishedDate in the schema markup(e.g., "2024-10-12T13:45:00+00:00").
7. news:title:
   • The title of the news article.
8. news:keywords (optional):
   • Relevant keywords describing the article's content. A best practice across a lot of publishers is to add the name of the tag/topic pages of the article as keywords.

Tools for Generating Sitemaps

Several tools and plugins are available to help you generate sitemaps for your news content:

• XML-sitemaps: An online tool to create sitemaps.
• Mysitemapgenerator: Another option offering similar functionality.
• WordPress Plugins: For WordPress sites, you can use plugins like XML Sitemap & Google News, available through the WordPress admin panel.
• If you are a big publisher you can get in touch with your SRE or Platform team and to provide these requirements. Creation of Google News XML sitemap is fairly easy for them (if you have all data available)

Best Practices for News Sitemaps

When creating a news sitemap, follow these guidelines:

• Include articles from the past two days. Older articles should be removed from the sitemap but will remain in the Google News index for a month.
• Limit the sitemap to 1,000 URLs. If you need to include more, create multiple sitemaps and combine them using an index file.
• Ensure that your news sitemap document follows the correct structure using the sitemap protocol, for example:

Common Sitemap Errors to Avoid

When creating or submitting a news sitemap, keep an eye out for these common errors:

• Too many URLs
• Unrecognized news site or source
• Invalid publication name
• Incorrect language
• Missing required tags
• Incorrect published date or last modified date

Example of good Google News XML sitemap

• New York Times
• The Guardian
• The Telegraph

Conclusion

A news sitemap plays a key role in speeding up the indexing of your news articles, helping you gain visibility in Google News. You can create a news sitemap manually, use online generators, or leverage plugins for CMS platforms like WordPress. Just remember to follow the technical requirements and submit your sitemap for review through Google Search Console.

By ensuring your news sitemap meets Google’s criteria, you’ll be on the path to improved visibility on Google News which you can track with StoryHawk.