Google News Sources Grow 15% In 2012 & Continue To Climb With Patch.com In The Lead

After seeing a 15 percent increase in Google News sources last year, a recent study conducted by SearchMetrics discovered that a majority of the News integrations displayed in Google Universal Search results are coming from AOL-owned Patch.com. Analyzing several hundred thousand keywords, the study found that Patch.com made an appearance in the News integration results 4,352 times, followed by HuffingtonPost.com which made a total of 3,530 appearances.

According to the SearchMetrics study, the top ten sites to appear in Google News integrations were:

1. Patch.com
2. HuffingtonPost.com
3. Go.com (a Disney-owned property)
4. NYTimes.com
5. WashingtonPost.com
6. Guardian.co.uk
7. Yahoo.com
8. NYDailyNews.com
9. USAToday.com
10. FoxNews.com

“Pages listed within the Google News channel have higher click-through rates (CTRs),” said, SearchMetrics CTO Marcus Tober, “And because News integrations always appear on page one and are often blended near the top of search engine ranking pages (SERPS), they present an opportunity to be listed high on the first page, even for competitive search terms you might struggle to rank highly for using traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO).”

While video integrations make up the largest share of Google’s Universal Search content, News integrations on Google has been on the rise for some time now, with a 70 percent increase during 2012. Not only is the amount of news integrations growing, but also the number of news sources. A Searchmetrics Universal Search study for 2012 found that the number of News sources on Google grew by 15 percent during the course of last year.Google vets all of its News integration sources based on a number of criteria, including content, originality, authority, accountability and whether or not the website is user-friendly.

(Image Credit: Searchmetrics)

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.