News SEO is a special SEO approach for news sites. Google News, Top Stories, Discover are special slots for news. They require special optimisation.
Google News vs Top Stories
Google News is a separate app and site (news.google.com). Top Stories is the news block in regular search results for a topic query.
Google Publisher Center
Register the site at publishercenter.google.com. Approval process. You need real news content, regular publication, quality journalism, authors and address.
NewsArticle Schema
Required for Top Stories. JSON-LD: @type NewsArticle, headline, image, datePublished, dateModified, author, publisher.
News Sitemap
A special Google News Sitemap — only articles from the last 48 hours. XML with news:news, news:publication, news:publication_date, news:title.
E-E-A-T
The site must look like a real journalistic source. Authors with bios, About page, editorial policy. Factual accuracy is critical.
Speed and updates
\"First to break the story\" gives an advantage. But speed + quality is the balance.
Headlines
Clear, concise, no clickbait. Under 70 characters.
Images
1200x675 minimum, 16:9, real photos. \"On the ground\" exclusivity is valuable to Google.
Categories and tags
Clear structure: politics, sports, economy, tech. 3-5 tags per post.
Monitoring
Google News Publisher Center stats. GSC \"Performance\" with Search Type = News filter.
Sayt.uz and News SEO
We aren't a news site, but for technical updates (\"new Google algorithm\") we use NewsArticle Schema. Top Stories isn't ours, but Google understands article type better.