• seohunters9

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. Technical SEO
        4. Google News URL Format

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Google News URL Format

        Technical SEO
        6
        8
        4498
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • WalesDragon
          WalesDragon last edited by

          Hi,

          We are currently redesigning our gaming website (www.totallygn.com) and one of our main goals is to get listed by Google News in future.

          Looking at the Google News URL requirements "The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits."

          How does the above affect SEO structure?  I was planning on using a format such as

          www.totallygn.com/xbox-360/360-reviews/fifa-12-review

          how would this compare to something like?

          www.totallygn.com/xbox-360/360-reviews/fifa-12-review234

          Thanks in advance for your help

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MattBarker
            MattBarker last edited by

            Hi all,

            Is it still the case that you can submit EITHER with 3 digits in the URL OR via a news sitemap? I can't see anything in the official instructions about the sitemap route... they seem pretty insistent on the 3 digit rule though.

            • Can we do it just by submitting a news sitemap via GWT?

            • Do you still have to go through the inclusion process here: http://support.google.com/news/publisher/bin/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=2394225&page=ts.cs&from=191208

            Thanks guys... MB.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • JohnPeters
              JohnPeters last edited by

              My site was just accepted in to Google News yesturday and when I went to check the sitemap for the news, Google Webmaster showed errors for the news sitemap.

              So I have tried every wordpress plugin I could find, and submitted the news sitempa.

              Each one had errors, the only one that worked for me and my site is now showing in Google News is this plugin BWP Google XML Sitemaps

              Hope that helps

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • KeriMorgret
                KeriMorgret last edited by

                Hi WalesDragon,

                Did these answers solve your question, or are you looking for some more advice still?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • MikeGracia
                  MikeGracia @RobertFisher last edited by

                  No worries!

                  I am pretty sure that plugin is the one which allows the WP admin to select JUST posts, and leave out pages... but I am not 100%.

                  The reason I recommended that particular plugin though, is that from experience, many of the other Google news sitemap plugins seem to cause some sort of XML error when submitting the sitemap to Google news, but this one doesn't, so using it should save a few headaches, and having to 'shop around', so to speak!

                  Another thing to bear in mind, is that if you have 1 section of your site (say, domain.com/news) and you have an RSS feed on there, showing a feed of a different section of your website (say, domain.com/self-promotional-company-blog), and the second blog for any reason ends up with 3 unique digital in the URL of a post, then Google news can find the link in the RSS feed of your news section, and index the page on the (self promotional blog) in error -

                  Sounds harmless, but if the news team then decided that you were actually TRYING to get self promotional stuff (even company news) into Google news, you could loose your news approved status... short solution is just to be careful when putting any RSS feeds (of other parts of your site/domain) on your news section!!! (Hope that makes sense?!) - I learned this the hard way (didn't get dropped or anything, as I acted swiftly to sort the issue!).

                  Hope that helps!

                  Mike.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • RobertFisher
                    RobertFisher @MikeGracia last edited by

                    Mike, 
                    Thanks for this, I personally found it helpful. I like the idea of the Google News Plugin and will test it out on a small site.
                    Good info,

                    Robert

                    MikeGracia 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • MikeGracia
                      MikeGracia last edited by

                      In addition to the excellent response by Robert Fisher, below, you do not actually NEED to do this, but you CAN do it automatically if you choose to.

                      Google News needs...

                      EITHER a unique 3 digit code in the URL...

                      OR

                      A Google news specific sitemap.

                      So, your options are to either change your WP (I checked, your site is Wordpress based, yes?) Permalinks settings, to include post id, OR use a google news sitemap plugin.

                      You can always put a number in front of the post id, so use something like:

                      /%postname%/1%post_id%

                      So, adding a numerical '1' befor %post_id% in your permalinks.

                      If you are worried about lots of 404 errors due to changing your URL structure, then how about using deans permalinks migration (install it BEFORE changing your permalink settings!) - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/permalinks-migration-plugin-for-wordpress/

                      As for a Google News sitemap... For wordpress, I recommend this one: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gn-xml-sitemap/

                      If you go down the sitemap route, do be sure that ONLY news posts are included... E.G. NOT your static, non-news content pages!

                      IN TERMS OF SEO -

                      I don't feel it will effect things too much, so long as everything else is good as regards your on-page SEO etc.

                      Hope that helps!

                      RobertFisher 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • RobertFisher
                        RobertFisher last edited by

                        If you understand that the requirement for the three or more digits is around insuring that there is a unique page for each individual article. So if you look at: www.totallygn.com/xbox-360/360-reviews/fifa-12-review, It appears to me that the second 360 is still associated with reviews of games associated with XBox 360. The fifa-12-review appears to be a soccer game (I have never played on one of those things I am an intelligent worker and not involved in any type of warfare even modern).

                        So, the second where you have review 234 does work because  the three digit number appears to give a unique numeric identifier to that article. (Note if a 4 digit number it cannot start with 199 or 200).

                        In the event there is something that would prevent you from using this convention, you can always create a news Sitemap. Google Support News Sitemap.

                        Hope this helps, best,

                        Edit: missed seo question: It has a positive effect on SEO as it is following Google's convention. (One question is whether or not having a news sitemap would give more credence/weight as a news site versus the unique identifier???) My guess is it would.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Browse Questions

                        Explore more categories

                        • Moz Tools

                          Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                        • SEO Tactics

                          Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                        • Community

                          Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                        • Digital Marketing

                          Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                        • Research & Trends

                          Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                        • Support

                          Connect on product support and feature requests.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • TheHecksler

                          Google tries to index non existing language URLs. Why?

                          Hi, I am working for a SAAS client. He uses two different language versions by using two different subdomains.
                          de.domain.com/company for german and en.domain.com for english. Many thousands URLs has been indexed correctly. But Google Search Console tries to index URLs which were never existing before and are still not existing. de.domain.com**/en/company
                          en.domain.com
                          /de/**company ... and an thousand more using the /en/ or /de/ in between. We never use this variant and calling these URLs will throw up a 404 Page correctly (but with wrong respond code  -  we`re fixing that 😉 ). But Google tries to index these kind of URLs again and again. And, I couldnt find any source of these URLs. No Website is using this as an out going link, etc.
                          We do see in our logfiles, that a Screaming Frog Installation and a-moz.groupbuyseo.org w opensiteexplorer were trying to access this earlier. My Question: How does Google comes up with that? From where did they get these URLs, that (to our knowledge) never existed? Any ideas? Thanks 🙂

                          Technical SEO | | TheHecksler
                          0
                        • whiteonlySEO

                          Category URL Pagination where URLs don't change between pages

                          Hello, I am working on an e-commerce site where there are categories with multiple pages. In order to avoid pagination issues I was thinking of using rel=next and rel=prev and cannonical tags. I noticed a site where the URL doesn't change between pages, so whether you're on page 1,2, or 3 of the same category, the URL doesn't change. Would this be a cleaner way of dealing with pagination?

                          Technical SEO | | whiteonlySEO
                          0
                        • BT2009

                          How do I deindex url parameters

                          Google indexed a bunch of our URL  parameters. I'm worried about duplicate content. I used the URL parameter tool in webmaster to set it so future parameters don't get indexed. What can I do to remove the ones that have already been indexed? For example, Site.com/products and site.com/products?campaign=email have both been indexed as separate pages even though they are the same page. If I use a no index I'm worried about de indexing the product page. What can I do to just deindexed the URL parameter version? Thank you!

                          Technical SEO | | BT2009
                          0
                        • Vacatia_SEO

                          Url folder structure

                          I work for a travel site and we have pages for properties in destinations and am trying to decide how best to organize the URLs basically we have our main domain, resort pages and we'll also have articles about each resort so the URL structure will actually get longer:
                          A. domain.com/main-keyword/state/city-region/resort-name
                          _    domain.com/family-condo-for-rent/orlando-florida/liki-tiki-village_ _   domain.com/main-keyword-in-state-city/resort-name-feature    _
                          _   domain.com/family-condo-for-rent/orlando-florida/liki-tiki-village/kid-friend-pool_ B. Another way to structure would be to remove the location and keyword folders and combine. Note that some of the resort names are long and spaces are being replaced dynamically with dashes. 
                          ex. domain.com/main-keyword-in-state-city/resort-name
                          _      domain.com/family-condo-for-rent-in-orlando-florida/liki-tiki-village_ _      domain.com/main-keyword-in-state-city/resort-name-feature_
                          _      domain.com/family-condo-for-rent-in-orlando-florida/liki-tiki-village-kid-friend-pool_ Question: is that too many folders or should i combine or break up? What would you do with this? Trying to avoid too many dashes.

                          Technical SEO | | Vacatia_SEO
                          0
                        • bonnierSEO

                          Special characters in URL

                          Will registered trademark symbol within a URL be bad? I know some special characters are unsafe (#, >, etc.) but can not find anything that mentions registered trademark. Thanks!

                          Technical SEO | | bonnierSEO
                          0
                        • ozererim

                          How do I get out of google bomb?

                          Hi all, I have a website named bijouxroom.com; and I was in the 7th page for the search term takı in google; and 2nd page for online takı. Now, I see that in one day my results seem to be on the 13th and 10th page in google respectively. I made too much anchor text for takı and online takı. What shall I do to gain my positions back? Thanks in advance. Regards,

                          Technical SEO | | ozererim
                          0
                        • kaje

                          Old URL redirect to New URL

                          Alright I did something dumb a year a go and I'm still paying for it. I changed my hyphenated URL to the non-hyphenated version when I redesigned my website. I say it was dumb because I lost most of my link juice even though I did 301 redirects (via the htaccess file) for almost all of the pages I could find in Google's index. Here's my problem. My new site took a huge hit in traffic (down 60%) when I made the change and even though I've done thousands of redirects my old site is still showing up in the SERPS and send much if not most of my traffic. I don't want to take the old site down in fear it will kill all of my traffic. What should I do? Is there a better method I should explore then 301 redirects? Could the other site be affecting my current rank since it's still there? (FYI...both sites are built on the WP platform). Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated. Thank you! Joe

                          Technical SEO | | kaje
                          0
                        • ChristianMKTG

                          Drupal URL Aliases vs 301 Redirects + Do URL Aliases create duplicates?

                          Hi all! I have just begun work on a Drupal site which heavily uses the URL Aliases feature. I fear that it is creating duplicate links. For example:: we have http://www.URL.com/index.php and http://www.URL.com/ In addition we are about to switch a lot of links and want to keep the search engine benefit. Am I right in thinking URL aliases change the URL, while leaving the old URL live and without creating search engine friendly redirects such as 301s? Thanks for any help! Christian

                          Technical SEO | | ChristianMKTG
                          0

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        • Digital Marketers
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • Local Citation Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.