Who does google require a 3 digit number for news URLs?

[nicole.healthline]

Here, google mentions that article URLs should contain a 3 digit number:

http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=68323

Why is this?

Also, do you think it is good to have both a news sitemap and 3 digits at the end of a URL? Or, will one do?

[RyanKent]

Just to clarify, this requirement is solely for publishing to Google News, and has nothing to do with normal Google.com articles.

It is difficult, but certainly possible, for a site to be approved for Google News. It is designed for news agencies such as the New York Times, Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, etc. If your site does it's own interviews and fresh reporting, and the content is presented in a very specific and professional manner, you can be considered for Google News.

The 3+ digit number requirement for a URL is waived if you submit a Google News sitemap. Any professional news agency which uses Google News is likely to have an automatically generated sitemap. When a news story is submitted, the sitemap would automatically be updated and sent to Google. Using this process a URL can be presented without the 3 digit number.

I don't know why a 3 digit number is otherwise requested. My guess is due to a technical requirement on their end for establishing uniqueness.

do you think it is good to have both a news sitemap and 3 digits at the end of a URL?

Just submit the sitemap. If you do a search on Google News for any topic, you will find many major news companies use clean URLs without the 3 digit code.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Micelleh,

Ryan has given you a great answer here.

There is also a really detailed post about getting into Google News from Cyrus Shepard in the SEOmoz Blog

Sha