How do I create a special RSS feed for Google News "Editors picks"?
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It’s a realtively new feature of Google News. We can submit up to 5 posts via an RSS feed. They describe it here: https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/1407682?hl=en
Content goes to them via an RSS feed.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi!
You should be able to submit your RSS feed by passing along the following URL:
That URL is automatically updated when you post something new to your site and contains all of the information they specify!
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This is a feed sending only a websites best posts. Google News will post the most recent 5.
It must a different feed than the one they already get showing all posts.
Is there any way we can do this? It’s a major new feature of Google. WP support for it would be greatly appreciated.
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The easiest way to select only a handful of posts in an RSS feed would be to setup a specific category or tag for that feed and then send over that URL. For example, the following URL displays only posts with the “employment” tag.
http://fabiusmaximus.com/tag/employment/feed/Would that work?
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Google News rejected it. They require a logo in the RSS feed. Here’s the code they want:
<image>
<url>http://www.link_to_logo_image.png</url>
<title>text to use as alternative for the image</title>
<link>http://www.link_pointed_to_by_the_image.com</link>
</image>Can we add this to the RSS feed?
Their full specs for the feed are described here:
https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/1407682#general -
Hi!
Hmm…it looks like your feed matches that code. Here’s what they ask for:
<channel> <link>http://www.link_to_channel.com</link> <description>Description of the channel (e.g. News Site’s best articles of the day)</description> <title>News Site’s editor’s picks</title> <image> <url>http://www.link_to_logo_image.png</url> <title>text to use as alternative for the image</title> <link>http://www.link_pointed_to_by_the_image.com</link> </image> <item> <title>Headline for first article</title> <link>http://www.newssite.com/long-island/first-article-1.2654166</link> <description>Some details</description> <dc:creator>Author name</dc:creator> </item>Here’s the location of the image tag in your feed:
Perhaps the issue is that the image does not fit the other requirements they list:
Image dimensions must match one of two options:
Option 1: Height between 20 and 40px, Width of 250px
Option 2: Height of 40px, Width between 125 and 250px
Image must be .png format.
File size should only be as large as necessary, i.e. just a few KBs.
Logo background should be transparent.
Avoid any whitespace around the logo.Are they providing any additional details alongside the rejection?
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No. I have fiddled with it today.
Perhaps I’m doing this wrong. Does the feed use the “Blog Picture/Icon” on the General Settings page? I notice that WP automatically crops the image to a square; perhaps the result is smaller than Google’s minimum.
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Also: I typed in the image URL:
http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/9926dog6790d40efd5f3b58e9d957018b2
It returns just a gravitar logo. Also, it says the image is an 80×80 jpeg — which google will not accept.
Did I use the wrong URL? How do I input this image file to WP?
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Scratch all of the above questions. I found the answer. So I just need to get the Blog Picture/Icon to match google’s parameters!
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Now we know the problem!
Google wants an image in a rectangle. The WP Blog Picture parameter is a square (it forces the user to crop the submitted image to get a square.
Any workarounds?
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We can look at finding some way to match the Google qualifications you mention. Before I pass this along, has Google provided any other indicators as to why their having trouble accepting your site or is the logo dimensions the only specific reason?
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Thanks for working on this! Here is the google reject notice:
http://fabiusmaximus.com/tag/Editors-Picks/feed
Unfortunately, there are errors which will prevent your Editors’ Picks feed from displaying correctly. Please refer to our guidelines and documentation for help correcting these errors, and try again later.
Feed Errors
Your logo does not meet the dimension requirements in our technical guidelines.Feed Info
- Your submitted feed has been parsed successfully.
- Your feed contains the recommended number of articles.
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Thanks for working on this! Here is the google reject notice:
http://fabiusmaximus.com/tag/Editors-Picks/feed
Unfortunately, there are errors which will prevent your Editors’ Picks feed from displaying correctly. Please refer to our guidelines and documentation for help correcting these errors, and try again later.
Feed Errors
Your logo does not meet the dimension requirements in our technical guidelines.Feed Info
- Your submitted feed has been parsed successfully.
- Your feed contains the recommended number of articles.
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Thanks @fabiusmaximus2000! I’m passing this along to our team to see what we can do moving forward. I’ll keep you posted!
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Just checking in. Any news on this? I’d like to make use of this powerful new Google feature.
IMO, changes to WP allowing use of these tools should be a top priority. Google is not God, or even god. But it’s pretty powerful down here.
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Thanks for following up. I haven’t hard a definitive answer on this going forward, but I also haven’t seen any other requests for this (maybe because “Editors Picks” is new). As a result, it’s likely not something we’ll be adjusting right away. I apologize!
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To clarify, the Blavatar is a replacement for the favicon for sites. Favicons are traditionally in square format with square dimensions (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, or 64×64). I’m not sure why Google is requiring such odd dimensions (non-square) in their Editor’s Picks.
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