Generating backlinks for “unique” stories could now be even more beneficial for publishers after Google confirmed it will be adding a new “highly cited” label to relevant content in search results.
Google says it wants to shine a light on “original reporting” and ensure publishers that are the first to break news or offer a unique angle on a story for regional users get the credit they deserve.
The search giant said this content could be “anything from an investigative article, to an interview, an announcement, a press release or a local news story”.
However, as the naming of the label suggests, these stories will need to be referenced and linked to by other publishers to qualify as a highly cited source.
Content that does so will secure a prime position in the Top Stories carousel in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), where a label in the top left-hand corner of the image will designate it as “highly cited”.
The move again highlights the importance of link building in SEO to increase the trustworthiness and authoritativeness of content.
Google also announced on Thursday that there would be one other change to help searchers find up-to-date and accurate stories.
Results for breaking news will now have a notice for “rapidly evolving topics”, which provides tips about how to evaluate information online and urges users to double-check whether a source is legitimate.
Both changes are being rolled out to English language searches in the US right now, ahead of a global rollout in the “coming weeks”.
