With Google News increasing its utility over time for news seekers, it is time publishers take note and tap its potential. It makes sense to accept and exploit the tool that is being used by Net users.
Google News has recently initiated incorporating real-time search suggestions in news search queries. Google shared some of their search engine optimization practices last week through a video. In addition, Google's Maile Ohye revealed more on the topic on Google News blog. It would be ideal for publishers to understand and implement the suggestions.

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You can blame the low conversion rate on recession, but this is not going to help you succeed in your online business. In spite of the economic slow down, many online businesses are doing well. Hence, downturn is not the reason for the low conversion.

The problem may be with your landing page. Businesses are over-utilizing the landing pages. These have become dumping grounds for data, each vying with the others to grab the attention of the user. The hapless consumer has to sift through this maze to find what they were searching for.

Here are some tips to help you solve this problem:

1. Add a call to action feature: This helps the consumer to reach a decision easily and fast.

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Google was recently granted patent for «systems and methods for improving the ranking of news articles.» Google originally filed the patent application in 2003.

The patent has differentiated news sources as high quality and low quality, which may invite criticisms. It classifies local news sources as low in quality, while international agencies like CNN and BBC as high quality.

The patent throws some light into the ranking factors used in Google News. Some of the factors mentioned in the patent are:

• a number of articles produced by the news source during a first time period

• an average length of an article produced by the news source

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In the conference held at San Jose, a session was devoted entirely to the topic ‘How can SEO save publishing industry?’ Here are some excerpts from the session.

With the online publishers suffering set backs recently, the session concentrated on educating participants on using SEO to attract traffic and thereby increase the revenue of publishers.

Some of the tips given by Liesel Kipp, VP Global Head of Product Management, Thomas Reuters are
1. Show the value of SEO
2. Data is the key to your success

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