Publishers, if you’re looking to gain access to the top carousel on a Google Search page,
the journey may not be as hard as you think. This is all thanks to policy rewinds from Google.
The Top Stories Carousel in Google Search houses a plethora of current, ‘relevant to the query’ news stories, that easily capture the users attention and clicks. In order for Publishers to gain access to this coveted placement, you had to adhere to Google’s news policies and incorporate the open source AMP framework to prioritize user experience above all else. All publishers clamoring to gain access to the traffic in the Top Stories Carousel, had to make adjustments with content hosted on this platform. But now that’s all over. In an announcement from May 2020, Google has decided to roll back the AMP requirements and allow content not hosted through AMP in Top Stories.
So…what’s the big deal?
Well, there were a lot of publishers that had issues with the monetization limits AMP pages caused and this new found freedom with Top Stories non-AMP content is bringing a lot of opportunity for publishers for both traffic and revenue. . AMP doesn’t allow JS to be on the page and that’s not ideal for publishers capitalizing on header bidding to increase their ad revenue. AMP has a real time config (RTC) that limits the number of partners and was difficult to install, causing revenue pitfalls.
A good portion of the news sites saw increase in traffic as a result of the lightning fast page load speeds, and mobile page optimization, but the revenue benefits didn’t increase. In fact, the News Media Alliance specified in a white paper, AMP pages deliver less revenue and convert less readers to subscribers.
Google’s announcement is providing publishers an opportunity to reach huge amounts of traffic without the drawbacks of the AMP framework and you can utilize header bidding to deliver more ad impressions and revenue. This opportunity does require some planning to ensure you get the premium search engine page placement discussed. With PubWise’s expertise, we can assess your site to ensure you deliver the fast page load speed advantage that AMP pages offer, tutor you on A+ user experience, can give you access to tier one demand sources and make sure you are getting the highest bid for your ad inventory.
