What is a Top Stories SERP feature on Google?
The Top Stories SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Feature typically appears near the top of the Google search results for news-oriented queries. It showcases fresh articles and breaking news from various reputable websites, commonly presented on the results page as three to four blocks of content. However, depending on the topic and the number of relevant news articles, Google sometimes displays extended Top Stories feature sections on the results page. Often, trending topics on Google will generate a Top Stories feature.
Each block within the Top Stories feature contains a thumbnail image, headline, publication time, and source. Here are some examples of the Top Stories SERP Feature on Google for a variety of topics:
Image source: Google Results Page
Image source: Google Results Page
Image source: Google Results Page
Benefits for organic site visibility
Appearing in the Top Stories carousel can significantly boost your website’s organic metrics. Here are the key benefits:
Increased visibility and traffic: Being featured in the Top Stories section provides prominent placement, often appearing at the top of search results. This prime position significantly increases site visibility, capturing Google users' attention immediately. As a result, it frequently leads to higher click-through rates and increased organic traffic.
Enhanced brand credibility and authority: Appearing in Top Stories signals to users that your content is timely, relevant, and authoritative on the subject matter. This can significantly improve your brand's perceived expertise and trustworthiness in your industry, and get your brand in front of users searching for topics that matter most to them.
Competitive advantage: Securing a spot in the Top Stories feature puts your content ahead of competitors who may only appear in standard classic link organic placements. This advantage can be valuable in highly competitive niches or breaking news topics.
Potential for viral content: Content featured in Top Stories has a higher chance of being widely shared by users and picked up by other news outlets or social media platforms. This increased exposure can lead to a snowball effect, further amplifying your brand’s reach and potentially creating viral content.
Top 5 page optimisation actions for Top Stories SERP feature visibility
To improve your chances of appearing in the Top Stories SERP feature, consider implementing these specific actions:
1. Create High-Quality, timely content
Produce original reporting with new facts or unique perspectives.
Create newsworthy content that aligns with Google News content policies.
Ensure transparency, factual accuracy, and avoid misleading information.
Provide clear attribution for all sources, including text and images
Implement real-time or near real-time publishing capabilities to quickly respond to breaking news.
Create an editorial calendar to cover upcoming events and trending topics.
Regularly update timestamps on existing articles with new information as stories develop.
Ensure advertising and paid promotional material don't exceed your content
2. Implement news-specific schema markup (structured data)
Structured data helps Google understand your content better and can increase the chances of appearing in Top Stories. Add structured data to your news articles using schema.org NewsArticle markup. Key elements to include:
Date Published: The date and time the article was first published in ISO 8601 format.
ISO 8601 format represents date and time by starting with the year, followed by the month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds. For example, 2020-07-10 15:00:00.000 represents 10th July 2020 at 3 p.m.
Date Modified: The date and time the article was most recently modified, in ISO 8601 format.
Headline: The headline of the article. Headlines should not exceed 110 characters.
Article image: The URL to an image that goes with the article. Only a marked-up image that directly belongs to the article should be specified.
isAccessibleForFree: Boolean flag to indicate no charge versus paywalled content.
Author biography URL: A link to a page that uniquely identifies the article's author. For example, the author's social media page, an about me page or a bio page.
Publisher information: This details the overall organisation publishing the article and can give additional credibility signals to Google.
Here is an example of article schema:
{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Cities", "datePublished": "2023-07-10T15:00:00.000Z", "dateModified": "2024-07-30T10:00:00.000Z", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Doe", "url": "https://example.com/authors/jane-doe" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://example.com/organization", "name": "Example News Network", "url": "https://example.com", "logo": "https://example.com/images/logo.png", "sameAs": [ ] } } |
3. Optimise for mobile-first indexing and fix technical errors
It’s crucial that Google can quickly and efficiently crawl and index your news stories in the search results. Additionally, Google heavily favours mobile-friendly content, especially for Top Stories.
We recommend you speak with a developer to ensure your site is responsive and offers a seamless experience on all devices. Actions they may take on your site could include:
Fluid grid system: Use percentages for layouts to allow content to adapt to different screen sizes.
Optimise images: Implement CSS properties like max-width for images to ensure they scale properly and maintain quality.
CSS media queries: Apply specific styles based on device characteristics to ensure seamless adaptation across viewports.
Mobile-first design: Start with the smallest screens and scale up to ensure core content is optimised for mobile users.
Performance optimisation: Use techniques like lazy loading and image compression to enhance site speed and user experience.
To enhance crawling and indexing for your site, consider the following:
Create and submit an XML sitemap: Develop a comprehensive XML sitemap that outlines your website's structure. Submit it to Google Search Console to facilitate quicker and more efficient indexing of your pages.
Optimise your robots.txt file: Ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured to allow search engines to crawl important pages while blocking access to non-essential or duplicate content. This helps guide crawlers effectively.
Establish a robust internal linking strategy: Use internal links to connect related content throughout your site. This not only aids in navigation but also helps Google to discover and index pages more efficiently.
Maintain a low-depth page hierarchy: Structure your website so important pages are less than three clicks away from the homepage. This optimises your crawl budget and ensures that critical content is easily accessible.
Conduct regular technical audits: Perform audits to identify and fix issues such as broken links, duplicate content, or slow-loading pages.
4. Leverage your site's topical authority
Google favours authoritative sources for Top Stories. Establish your site's authority by:
Consistently publishing high-quality, in-depth articles on your core topics
Including legitimate quotes and insights from industry experts
Linking to reputable external sources to support your reporting
Earning backlinks from reputable external sources
Creating optimised Author profiles for journalists and contributors and ensuring these are clear on all article pages.
Information about the publisher or organisation behind the content
Adding internal links to relevant content within your website
Contact information
5. Implement proper Article structure
Structure your articles to make the most important information easily scannable and digestible for users and Google. This could include:
Use an accurate, descriptive headline.
Match the title of your article page (in the HTML <title> tag) to the title of your article (in <h1>or equivalent).
Include a compelling meta description
Break content into short paragraphs with HTML subheadings
Use bullet points or numbered lists where appropriate
Include relevant, high-quality images with proper alt text which are mobile-friendly.
By focusing on these optimisation actions and consistently producing high-quality, timely content, you can improve your chances of gaining visibility within the Top Stories SERP feature.