Almost 20 SEOs have come together to take a stab at deciphering how Google News ranks articles. The result of their collaboration is a survey that’s now been published at GoogleNewsRankingFactors.com.

The survey tackles issues such as on-page factors (keyword usage in headlines, keyword usage in page titles, etc.), off-page factors like inbound links from other websites and social media exposure, time-based factors, publisher authority and much more. It’s quite comprehensive and anyone publishing news and looking for traffic from Google News should find plenty to think about in the survey results.

Here’s a peek at what the 17 contributors say are the top overall Google News ranking factors:

The survey contributors have worked on some of the web’s largest and most well-known news sites, including the New York Times, ABC News, ESPN, CNN, Huffington Post and others.

The organizers say that their plan is to do the survey again next year, hopefully with a larger group of survey takers.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: News | Google: SEO | SEO: General

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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