What’s this about?
I’m really pleased that Google is taking steps to try and counter fake news. It’s about time.
Even if they are only little ones, it’s better than nothing.
These new publisher Knowledge Graph panels should give users more certainty about the source of their information before clicking share.
Read this extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates w/e 10th November 2017.
#SEO #SEONews #FakeNews #KnowledgeGraph #SERP #Google
Google Gives News Publishers New Knowledge Graph Panels
Key Issues Summary:
- In a bid to stem the flow of fake news, Google has launched an extended Knowledge Graph panel specifically for news publishers.
- This is so that users can (nominally) check the veracity, authenticity, and history of a publication, before sharing it with an “OMG have you seen THIS?”
- The additional information offered includes: topics covered, awards won, claims that have been reviewed by third parties, and other information, such as editor name, founding date etc.
- It’s not yet clear if this only applies to august organs of the print variety only, or if online publications are included.
Key Actions To Take:
- If you are a news publisher, or any sort of publisher, you need to take care of this information.
- Have a clear editorial line & editorial page describing the topics you cover.
- List the awards you have won, or been nominated for and link to the official awards pages listing your prize or nominations.
- List all factual data you can for the publication.
- Use the relevant schema markup in JSON-LD – start with Organization, NewsArticle and go from there.
- Make sure that Wikipedia and other online reference sites have the same information, which is up-to-date and correct.
- Even if you are not a large news organisation, this kind of information will help to qualify you as a source of repute.
- Click here to contact me to discuss how to generate an extended news publisher Knowledge Panel.
Insights & Discussion:
I find it delightful that Google’s blog post ignores the elephant in the room, and fails to mention they are doing this to combat fake news. I find it delightful, but not surprising, unfortunately.
This is also part of Google’s current friendly approach to news publishers, including ending first-click free and offering new subscription options for publishers, as they have been all but killed by Google News and Facebook’s news streaming, before finding that other fake organisations knew how to game their algorithms to popularise fake news.
I also think this is a bit of PR on Google’s part. It really knows that users are not going to take the time to verify a publisher before clicking share. The whole point of fake news is that it strikes a sharing chord and generates an almost instant, visceral reaction. Still, they can point to having done “something”.
I haven’t yet been able to generate a Knowledge Panel in the same format as the one displayed by Google, although some of the news publishers I tried definitely do have more information.
More Information:
The State of SEO Mid-2017 Released
TL;DR
- Hooray! It’s a lovely new Knowledge Graph from Google, especially for news publishers.
- Whether this will stem the tide of fake news remains to be seen.
- Personally, as soon as I saw this, I clicked share with “OMG! Have you seen this?”, before getting back to reading about these amazing diet pills.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
- Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.
