Google News Qualifications

October 12, 2006 1 Comment

Over the past couple years, I have submitted 4 sites to Google News and I have been rejected every time. But, at least when they reject, they provide some sort of reason. I thought I’d post all of the reasons they gave me. Maybe they’ll help someone get in.

In April 2005, they told me that they couldn’t accept WebDevReviews.com because they couldn’t crawl my articles. They said that in order to be crawled, my URLs needed to contain at least 3 digits.

In August 2005, they told me that YanksBlog.com was rejected because they only accept sites that have news articles that are reporting on current events. This one confused me because that is probably 95% of the content on the site.

In October 2005, they rejected MicrosoftBlog.com without reason.

This month, they rejected Bad Boy Blog because they don’t accept sites that are written and maintained by individuals. This one confused me, as well, but there you have it.

Hopefully this will be of some sort of use to someone. :)

Patrick O'Keefe

Managing online communities since 2000, I publish a collective of websites known as the iFroggy Network. I wrote the book Managing Online Forums and, as a public speaker, have presented for organizations like CNN, institutions like Australian National University and conferences like SXSW. More about me.

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