Search giant Google continually reminds the search engine world that success is a constant state of evolution in algorithms, interfaces, and now page rank. Search engine optimization leaders understand PageRank’s importance, but Google News has announced that it doesn’t use PageRank as part of its ranking algorithm. Quite understandably, top ranking stories are based on user clicks, the authority of the news source, “freshness,” geography, and many more ranking signals.
The way Google News structures their stories is in “clusters,” ranging from the most relevant and popular and moving its way to the less popular and possibly less relevant stories. Much like Caffeine, Google’s soon-to-be overhaul of its existing algorithm, ranking variables are not more different than your average search engine optimization goals. The cluster a story gets attributed to is dependent on timely content, inclusion of recent developments, and even local relevancy. Other variables include the authority of the news source, favoring those who produce numerous, high quality articles over those who produce less or subpar articles.
Additionally, Google implements a different set of variables for each country’s news site for location relevancy. Another variable of relevancy is the number of clicks a story gets. More clicks can a story’s relevance, the reliability of the story, and general interest in it. Josh Cohen, business product manager of Google News, notes that unlike commercial search engine results, click spam is less likely to occur and thus a variable they can rely on.
“NewsRank” is much like PageRank. Search engine optimization efforts don’t differ by much if we sit down and think about it. There are just a few tweaks to fit the news world better. But in the end, search engine optimization efforts are guided by algorithms.
Written by: Daisy K.