News searches on Google.es

By Adrián Coutin

The way in which the reader search for information has changed.

Before Internet era we bought our prefer newspaper, at the beginning of Internet Era,  users navigated to a specific website;  nowadays the open searching subject is the prefer way where a high number of users search for news without brand segmentation, from their mobile, tablet or desktop devices.

In the era of search engines searching news subjects generates more traffic than those searching for an specific online media (branding).

Google News  aggregator services is not available in Spain since 2014 which, according to my point of view, limit the scope of news produced by the Spanish online media. On the other hand, the big media can afford those resources requires to SEO work, high competitive environment, that local media can not afford these costs.

Let's see some of the current problems that increase the competitive to optimize to news websites via Google Spain, the only Google channel to access to content news in Spain and being Google.es the favorite search engine in the country.

News searches on Google.es

Most users who make a search on Google using the search box that groups ALL the results, the default Google option, and a smaller group, focus in a news content, navigates to the NEWS option and performs the search from there.

Desktop Searches on Google.es - The default option, ALL content.

 A statistical principle that sets a certain distribution in the consumption of information, Bradford's Law, seems to be behind the behavior of the real limit in the use of the results of Google searches and any other search engine.

Mobile Search - Google.es - The default option, All content. Less space more competition.

If there is a limit that fix that only one third of search results are clicking by users, we have then that the first three positions are the key to having everything or almost everything. 

The optimization of news websites in Google must bet, for a total success, to reach the first three positions of results of searches, and a half success if it is possible to occupy  three or four remaining positions of the first ten positions of all results.

SERP Features - Top Stories

A total success, the first three positions, includes the positioning of the news article in the block of Top Stories. Top Stories, as all SEO specialist know, is a carousel of news articles relevant to a query, it shows three results on the desktop version, and the coursel version mobile which allows displaying multiple similar pieces of content along a horizontal axis.

Google.es - Desktop - Searching for "brexit" Top Stores block deployed in first position.

However is important mentions the 'Top Stories' corousel is deployed only if the volume of searches of certain topics is high or searches are about public figures, for instance current political personalities, etc.

Another problem connected to this block /carousel is that it is not always in the first position in Google SERP; mobile results can deploy the carousel in a second or third positions.

Google.es - Mobile - Searching for "andalucia" - Carousel results are placed second  position.

Videos in Search Results

Google began to show combinations of news snippets with videos from the beginning of 2017. Initially this type of content was not always considered in the results of organic searches, but since the end of 2017 the videos were included in the block of Top Stories, desktop, and later in a specific carousel, Videos.

Google mobile search results placed Videos carousel in less relevant positions,fourth or sixth place, with the heading of Videos from the Web.

Google Desktop - Videos block in search results

Google Mobile - Videos carousel in search results

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The video corousel, when is deployed, is another obstacle for those media that does not have video content. These SERP features is just to those media that support news video therefore newspapers without video need to optimize the content to be in the first or second positions.

SEO News in Google

In order to capture the largest possible audience via Google.es is necessary, in addition to the aspects related to content optimization, to maintain various strategies to produce both new and updated content and video material with original, novel content.

The structured data , the AMP format and a very high rendering speed of the contents must be a MUST of any news website that tries to obtain stable and sustained traffic from Google.es

There are, on the other hand, elements that slip through our fingers. The activation of Top Stories as well as the video carousel depends on the volumes of information demand and Google algorithms.


I assume that the absence of the Google News aggregator in the Spanish market limits access to content that, although relevant and generating significant traffic from Google.es, does not use the facilities of this aggregator, now available in APP version that has wide possibilities of expansion among Android users.

Google News service guarantees a segmentation of content and search facilities that are widely used from all devices. Users from Spain can't access to this service limiting the reach of a high news volume produces for big, medium and small online medias.

Will it be worth being absent from Google News aggregator? Perhaps it is necessary to reflect on all these things.