{"id":6958,"date":"2009-04-06T21:38:58","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T16:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=6958"},"modified":"2026-10-06T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:48:13","slug":"create-google-news-sitemap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Google News Sitemap (2026 Guide + WordPress Plugins)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want your articles to appear in Google News? A <strong>Google News sitemap<\/strong> tells Google about your newest articles quickly, so they can be found and shown in Google News and the Top Stories section of search. When we first wrote about it in 2009, Google News required every article URL to contain a three-digit number unless you had a news sitemap. Here&#8217;s how to create a Google News sitemap in 2026, with and without WordPress plugins.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63318\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap.webp\" alt=\"How to create a Google News sitemap\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap.webp 1200w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-news-sitemap-768x403.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> A Google News sitemap is an XML sitemap that lists only articles published in the <strong>last two days<\/strong> (up to 1,000), with extra <code>news:<\/code> tags for your publication name, language, publication date and headline. On WordPress, a plugin can generate it automatically. Submit it in Google Search Console under <strong>Sitemaps<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6acc4439ab249\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6acc4439ab249\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Do_you_still_need_to_apply_to_Google_News\" >Do you still need to apply to Google News?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Google_News_sitemap_rules\" >Google News sitemap rules<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Google_News_sitemap_example\" >Google News sitemap example<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#How_to_create_a_Google_News_sitemap_in_WordPress\" >How to create a Google News sitemap in WordPress<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#How_to_submit_your_news_sitemap_to_Google\" >How to submit your news sitemap to Google<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Common_Google_News_sitemap_errors\" >Common Google News sitemap errors<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Do_you_need_a_news_sitemap\" >Do you need a news sitemap?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Frequently_asked_questions\" >Frequently asked questions<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Does_a_news_sitemap_guarantee_inclusion_in_Google_News\" >Does a news sitemap guarantee inclusion in Google News?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#How_often_should_a_news_sitemap_update\" >How often should a news sitemap update?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/04\/create-google-news-sitemap\/#Can_I_use_one_sitemap_for_news_and_regular_pages\" >Can I use one sitemap for news and regular pages?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_you_still_need_to_apply_to_Google_News\"><\/span>Do you still need to apply to Google News?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>No. Google stopped taking applications for Google News in 2019. Sites are now considered automatically if they publish timely, original news and follow <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/news\/publisher-center\/answer\/6204050\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google News policies<\/a>. You can optionally use the <a href=\"https:\/\/publishercenter.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Publisher Center<\/a> to manage how your publication appears. The old three-digit URL rule is also long gone.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_News_sitemap_rules\"><\/span>Google News sitemap rules<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/crawling-indexing\/sitemaps\/news-sitemap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google\u2019s news sitemap documentation<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Include only articles published in the <strong>last two days<\/strong>. Remove older ones or their news tags.<\/li>\n<li>Each news sitemap can contain up to <strong>1,000<\/strong> news URLs. Split into more sitemaps if needed.<\/li>\n<li>Required tags: <code>&lt;news:publication&gt;<\/code> with <code>&lt;news:name&gt;<\/code> (matching your name in Google News) and <code>&lt;news:language&gt;<\/code>, plus <code>&lt;news:publication_date&gt;<\/code> and <code>&lt;news:title&gt;<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Update the sitemap as soon as you publish new articles, rather than creating a new sitemap each time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_News_sitemap_example\"><\/span>Google News sitemap example<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<pre><code>&lt;?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?&gt;\r\n&lt;urlset xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.sitemaps.org\/schemas\/sitemap\/0.9\"\r\n        xmlns:news=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/schemas\/sitemap-news\/0.9\"&gt;\r\n  &lt;url&gt;\r\n    &lt;loc&gt;https:\/\/www.example.com\/2026\/10\/article-name\/&lt;\/loc&gt;\r\n    &lt;news:news&gt;\r\n      &lt;news:publication&gt;\r\n        &lt;news:name&gt;Example Times&lt;\/news:name&gt;\r\n        &lt;news:language&gt;en&lt;\/news:language&gt;\r\n      &lt;\/news:publication&gt;\r\n      &lt;news:publication_date&gt;2026-10-06T09:30:00+05:30&lt;\/news:publication_date&gt;\r\n      &lt;news:title&gt;Article headline here&lt;\/news:title&gt;\r\n    &lt;\/news:news&gt;\r\n  &lt;\/url&gt;\r\n&lt;\/urlset&gt;<\/code><\/pre>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_create_a_Google_News_sitemap_in_WordPress\"><\/span>How to create a Google News sitemap in WordPress<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Back in 2009 we used the Google News Sitemap Generator plugin, which has since been abandoned. Good options today are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/xml-sitemap-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">XML Sitemap &amp; Google News<\/a>:<\/strong> a free plugin that creates both a regular XML sitemap and a news sitemap.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rank Math SEO:<\/strong> the News Sitemap module is included in Rank Math&#8217;s paid plans.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yoast News SEO:<\/strong> a paid add-on for Yoast SEO.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After activating, choose which post types and categories count as news, set your publication name, then open the sitemap URL to check it.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_submit_your_news_sitemap_to_Google\"><\/span>How to submit your news sitemap to Google<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Open <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Search Console<\/a> for your verified site.<\/li>\n<li>Go to <strong>Indexing \u2192 Sitemaps<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Enter the news sitemap URL (for example <code>news-sitemap.xml<\/code>) and click <strong>Submit<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>You can also add a <code>Sitemap:<\/code> line for it in your robots.txt file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6961\" title=\"submit news url\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/news-url.gif\" alt=\"Submit Google News sitemap\" width=\"468\" height=\"102\" border=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Common_Google_News_sitemap_errors\"><\/span>Common Google News sitemap errors<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Old articles included:<\/strong> anything older than two days should drop out automatically.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wrong publication name:<\/strong> it must match the name Google News shows for your site.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bad date format:<\/strong> use full W3C dates with a time zone, as in the example above.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blocked URLs:<\/strong> make sure robots.txt or noindex tags don&#8217;t block the articles you list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_you_need_a_news_sitemap\"><\/span>Do you need a news sitemap?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Only if you publish genuine news regularly. Blogs that post evergreen guides, like most of QOT, are better served by a normal XML sitemap and good permalinks. If you&#8217;re thinking of changing your URL structure for news, read about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2020\/02\/change-wordpress-permalinks-structure\/\">changing WordPress permalinks<\/a> first.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently_asked_questions\"><\/span>Frequently asked questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_a_news_sitemap_guarantee_inclusion_in_Google_News\"><\/span>Does a news sitemap guarantee inclusion in Google News?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. It helps Google find your articles faster, but Google decides what to show based on quality, relevance and its news policies.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_often_should_a_news_sitemap_update\"><\/span>How often should a news sitemap update?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Every time you publish. WordPress plugins update it automatically.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_use_one_sitemap_for_news_and_regular_pages\"><\/span>Can I use one sitemap for news and regular pages?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Yes, but it&#8217;s simpler to keep a separate news sitemap for the last two days of articles alongside your main sitemap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want your articles to appear in Google News? A Google News sitemap tells Google about your newest articles quickly, so&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":63318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,41],"tags":[49,17],"class_list":["post-6958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-google","category-search-engine-optimization","tag-tutorials","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63321,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions\/63321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}