How News Publishers Should Prepare for Bing News PubHub Guidelines for News Publishers
Inclusion in Bing News PubHub can significantly expand the reach of your journalism. Content will be distributed to millions of Windows, Outlook and Bing users who get their news through Cortana, Office & Dynamics, Bing.com and the Bing mobile app.
Cortana is a personal digital assistant powered by Bing. Outlook users have the option to create a news digest with the Bing News Connector. Dynamic CRM users can add news timelines to their phone or tablet. The Bing search app provides easy access to trusted news sources on mobile devices.
As with other news aggregation platforms, Bing wants to provide their users “with comprehensive, relevant, balanced, and trustworthy” content. They also use publisher guidelines to determine whether you are providing reliable and authoritative news.
Before Getting Started
The WordPress Google News Plugin was renamed to WordPress News Plugin with the release of Version 3.0 as a core plugin to assist our clients with Bing and other indexes. Preparation can be daunting for many clients, and we do offer our services if you email us needing help before applying.
But for DIY-confident news publishers, read the information below thoroughly before applying. It is better to take the time to be thorough than having to wait three months after rejection.
To be considered for inclusion in the Bing News index, news sites must first adhere to the general Bing Webmaster guidelines, as well the specific requirements we detail below.
General guidelines cover a broad range of topics including content, links, social media, indexation, technical, search engine optimization (SEO), abuse, and what to avoid such as cloaking, duplicate content, social media schemes, and spam.
You should review these guidelines thoroughly and can find them here. First, verify ownership of your news site(s) in Bing Webmaster Tools. You will have to verify ownership again in Bing News PubHub.
We have gathered information about eligibility, best practices, prohibited content, and submitting your site to Bing News PubHub directly from Bing, and the header information is verbatim.
Eligibility
The following sites are not eligible for inclusion in the Bing News index:
- Non-news sites designed primarily to market products or services
- Sites with a primary purpose of unauthorized news or content aggregation
- Sites that do not publish with some level of frequency
- Sites publishing content that does not adhere to basic standards of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling and word usage
Best Practices
Accountability and transparency. Sites must identify ownership with easily accessible and verifiable contact information, including each of the following:
- Publisher name
- Physical address
- Email address
- Phone number
Content rights and responsibility. Sites must have legal rights to publish the content on their site and assume responsibility for the content published on its site.
Attribution and representation:
- Clear, verifiable authorship must be provided for content, including articles, photos and graphics
- Bylines must primarily use the full names of writers (no pseudonyms or posts by “Admin”)
- Sources must be provided for facts, quotes and opinions
- Headlines and link text must accurately represent the connected content
- Site content consistently reflects the stated purpose and theme of the site
- Commentary, opinion and reviews must be clearly labeled
Prohibited Content
Prohibited content includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Threatening or violent activity. We do not allow content that promotes illegal activities or is used to threaten, harass, organize violence, or support violent organizations.
- Promotion of hate. We do not allow content that condones hate or incites violence based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual preference.
- Sexually explicit content. We do not allow content that is sexually explicit or promotes illegal sexual activity.
Submitting Your Site to Bing News PubHub
If you are confident your site adheres to all of the above criteria, submit it to Bing News PubHub.
Many factors can impact whether your site appears in Bing search results. The algorithms are based on variables that can include source authority, newsworthiness, originality, and relevance.
Bing provides a contact email for customer support, which you can use to ask any questions you may have about their guidelines. However, they will not provide feedback on how to improve your site for evaluation.
If you have reviewed the above Bing News PubHub Technical Guidelines and know what to expect in submission, you can move forward. You can email us for help before applying if you are looking to outsource or are just unsure.
Managing Your Bing News PubHub
Be ready to to provide site information such as facts about the nature of your site and its content. You will also need links to specific sections dedicated to news content, such as Sports, News, or Politics.
A link to a validated RSS or Atom feed, which can be generated by the WordPress News Plugin, will also be needed along with a sitemap link. Provide a public email address to Bing to reach you with questions or issues about your site.
The “Attribution” area allows you to specify the site name that users see when accessing content. For example, if a publisher named “The Chronicle of Higher Education” wanted a shortened version of their name to appear with their content, that publisher would enter “The Chronicle” into the Attribution section.
Updating Information in Bing News PubHub
Once your site has been approved, you can update information at any time by visiting the “Your Sites” area and clicking on the “Update” button for the site.
- Add or update news sections, RSS feed links, or Sitemap links if you haven’t included these when you initially submitted your site.
- Save any changes by clicking “Update.”
- Site updates must be reviewed by our team. You can view whether or not your update has been approved by looking at the status of the appropriate section. For example, the News sections area shows the status for any updates with one of the following results:
- Not accepted: Your update is not aligned with Publisher Guidelines. Your information
will remain as it was prior to the attempted update. - Pending: Your request is undergoing review by the Bing News Pubhub team.
- Active: Your update has been approved and is reflected in Bing News.
Again, you can email us for help before applying. We have helped dozens of news sites prepare for submission.
Good luck and Happy Publishing!