The BBC and Guardian websites have been named as the most likely to appear in Google UK’s news search rankings amongst all, according to a new study.
Both sites edged out the Daily Mail which ranked a distant third in a survey of news results which were automatically returned by Google for certain keyword searches.
Searchmetrics found that in addition to the media big beasts Google is now also devoting greater prominence to smaller sites, with a 15 per cent uptick in the use of such sites during 2012.
Marcus Tober, CTO of Searchmetrics explained: “News results now appear routinely in search results and because they often incorporate related thumbnail images that help them stand out on the page, they have higher click-through rates (CTRs), delivering valuable traffic to news sites and publishers and help appeal to advertisers.
“While it isn’t surprising that the BBC, with its wide range of content should top our study, our data indicates that there are increasing opportunities for smaller sites to appear in news results as Google is now showing more content from a wider range of sources. Getting into news results is even more valuable for publishers because they always appear on the first page and are positioned near the top.”
Top ten sites which appear in news results on Google.co.uk
1. bbc.co.uk, 33,384
2. guardian.co.uk, 30,691
3. dailymail.co.uk, 19,315
4. telegraph.co.uk, 19,211
5. huffingtonpost.com, 12,790
6. yahoo.com, 11,347
7. indiatimes.com, 10,764
8. independent.co.uk , 9,863
9. wsj.com, 7,543
10. reuters.com, 7,037