New patent for the ranking of Google News articles

A recently granted patent explores the possibility of Google ranking its news articles in terms of the quality and reliability of the sources used. This patent was originally filed in 2003 so it is likely that the view of Google on some of the factors identified in the original patent as important when rating the quality of a source used for a piece of news has changed since then. However, the idea behind this patent remains the same. Google suggests it is highly important that when a search for a written piece about a particular piece of news is carried out, the searcher is provided with relevant results that are from sources of the highest quality. Currently, the user sees many different links displayed all featuring content relevant to the search term but they are not ranked depending on the quality of the source of this information. It is suggested that well respected sources of news such as BBC and CNN will provide users with a higher quality of news information than smaller and less well known organisations. This patent discusses the use of a system which would help identify and differentiate between sources of high and low quality.

There would of course be a number of factors involved in a process that could rank news articles in this way. How many original articles a source produces within a given time could be used to signify if a source is producing top quality material or not. Those that do create many articles regularly would be more likely to be viewed as a high quality source of information. The length of articles produced is also identified as a possible significant factor. Again, this is based on the assumption that longer articles are of a higher quality. Another factor that could be taken into consideration using a system like this is how quickly a source produces news of an event after it has taken place. It is possible that more reliable sources will have access to this information quicker than others and will be able to create appropriate content in a shorter time frame.

The behaviour and opinions of those reading the news articles would also play a significant role in how this type of information would be ranked in the search results. Polls and surveys could be used to identify which sources provided the most popular pieces of news and which sources are trusted by readers the most. The circulation of publications also associated with a certain news source could also be used as a signal of whether a source is providing readers with high quality information or not.

This patent is of particular interest because it goes into such detail of the possible factors that may already be considered in the ranking of news results or that may play a role in this ranking in the future. Whilst the importance of some of these factors in the ranking of news stories may be disputed by some, it is necessary to acknowledge and be aware of these signals that Google may be using and consider how this can affect websites in terms of search engine optimisation.

At SEO Consult we regularly monitor Google and the other major search engines for any significant changes in how they operate and the information they use in order to rank their search results. By being aware and updated, we are able to provide our clients with the most up to date knowledge and expertise to ensure that their search engine optimisation campaigns are successful. Google plays an important role in SEO and having news articles feature in Google News can be very advantageous in increasing exposure and traffic to a website. We help our clients to use a number of different search engine optimisation techniques which are perfectly suited to their business and that will help them to be ranked highly by the major search engines and in particular by Google.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.