Maximizing the amount of traffic to your website is the ultimate goal of any expert blogger. Two of the best organizations online that will help you accomplish that are Google News and Yahoo News; millions of readers across the globe come to these sites every single day. The exposure and credibility these sites give your blog will put you in the big leagues. And, if you sign up on one of these sites, you will be able to receive mass exposure. Before you can submit your blog's URL to Google and Yahoo News however, you have to register on their websites. There's no cost to register but you need to know how both sites work.
Google News
Google searches many news websites and compiles them to create one singular, convenient news source. Certain factors dictate how often which news stories appear. Google uses only online news publishers to figure out which articles from the 4,500 news sources are most relevant. No humans are involved in the editorial process. Google News breaks down its subject into top news stories and eight categories: word news, national news, business, science and technology, sports, entertainment news, health news, and most popular news stories.
There are some points that should be kept in mind.
* RSS / Atom Feeds and Single News Stories are not accepted by Google News at this time.
* When submitting your URL there are questions you are made to answer first. Then, Google News will look at your blog and decide whether it is suitable for their website. Upon acceptance, they will let you know if they need any further information from you; however, there is no assurance that your blog will be included on their website.
* If you want to get more hints and tips straight from the source, go to Google News-Help Topics.
Yahoo News
* Yahoo also gets just as much traffic as Google News; they are both very similar in terms of how they produce content. They too use automation instead of humans to receive news articles. However, the hot news stories are found on the main web page, while the rest is searchable through Yahoo's news index.
* As far as getting a blog accepted, the first thing a blogger has to do is answer some questions, followed by telling Yahoo why your blog should be listed on their news site.
* If Yahoo likes what they see in your blog, and decides to list it on their news website, you will be contacted.
Guidelines to Getting a Blog Approved
When trying to get your content listed on Google and Yahoo news, remember that the competition is tough and the rejection rate is high. But, keeping these tips is mind will give you a slight edge to building a great reputation.
* Your content must be positively one of a kind, and it is imperative to keep your blog seo-friendly with related keywords.
* Realize that you must have at least one additional blogger working with you, or your blog will not be listed. You can either find guest bloggers or collaborate with a colleague and work together on a long-term basis.
* A quick server response time is key. Web crawlers are partial to blogs that can be indexed and loaded quickly.
Upon acceptance of your blog, Google News strongly recommends adding a sitemap. This can easily be handled by registering on Google Webmaster Tools, then going to the sitemap section located in Tools. Sitemaps are extremely effective in promoting traffic and helping spiders crawl your blog.