Google News has been the subject of much speculation over the past months so company software engineer Andy Golding decided to clear the air on the official Google News Blog.

In a nutshell, some of the Google News myths include:

• Having a photo in your article helps with the rankings
• Sitemaps help rankings
• Timing of publication is important
• Adsense will help in the SERPs
• There’s no way to tell why articles aren’t included

In a second nutshell (the nuttier the better, right?), the facts include:

• When posting an article, then updating it, the crawler may not pick up the changes
• Redesigning a website may affects results in Google News
• Articles that are videos or images only may not be included in the results

Google News has also rolled out an experimental feature that allows the subjects linked in an article to comment on the story. The comments have to be reviewed by Google employees to prevent mischief first, however, but this gives voice and a chance for rebuttal or to add more information for visitors.

Filed under: Google