Google to favour original news reporting after updating search rankings

Google is updating its search rankings to elevate original news reports in the search engine results pages. After the update, original coverage of a topic, news, or event will likely be ranked higher and more prominently over follow-up articles from other publications.

Apart from this, Google will also do its best to ensure that the original source is featured in search results for the longest period of time.

Here is what Google said in its announcement:

“While we typically show the latest and most comprehensive version of a story in [the] news results, we’ve made changes to our products globally to highlight articles that we identify as significant original reporting. Such articles may stay in a highly visible position longer. This prominence allows users to view the original reporting while also looking at more recent articles alongside it.”

Google has also updated its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to emphasise a greater focus on original news and reports. This change is expected to assist original publishers and content creators in the SERPs.

 

Original Reporting

In case you are not sure what qualifies as ‘original reporting’, know that there is no absolute definition for it. Similarly, there is no set standard for determining how original an article is in comparison to another.

In its announcement, Google talked about this a little bit. The post mentioned:

“There is no absolute definition of original reporting, nor is there an absolute standard for establishing how original a given article is. It can mean different things to different newsrooms and publishers at different times, so our efforts will constantly evolve as we work to understand the life cycle of a story.”

It is important to note that these changes are already in effect now. We are not yet sure of the impact this update will have on news-based websites. Only time will tell if it creates a significant dent in the search engine results pages.

For more information and updates, stay tuned.