Top stories
What are Top stories?
Top stories is a section of Google’s search results that shows recent, relevant news articles for queries about current events or newsworthy topics. It usually appears as a carousel or a short list near the top of the page, with each article’s headline, publisher, image and how long ago it was published.
Any page that meets Google News content policies can appear; you do not need to apply to Google News, and AMP has not been required since 2021. Google looks for timely, original reporting from publishers with signals of authority on the topic.
Why Top stories matter for SEO
For publishers, Top stories can bring large amounts of traffic within hours of a story breaking. It favours freshness and authority, so it rewards sites that report quickly and reliably on topics they cover often.
For other sites, it shows which queries Google treats as news. Ranking with an evergreen guide there is harder while a story is live.
How to appear in Top stories
- Publish original, timely reporting on topics you cover regularly.
- Show clear dates, bylines with author pages, and contact and editorial information: the trust signals behind E-E-A-T.
- Add Article or NewsArticle structured data with headline, image, datePublished and dateModified.
- Use large, high-quality images (at least 1200 pixels wide) and allow them in previews with max-image-preview:large.
- Make sure new articles are crawled quickly: link them from the homepage and a news XML sitemap.
Top stories example
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "City council approves new cycle lanes",
"image": ["https://www.example.com/news/cycle-lanes.jpg"],
"datePublished": "2026-10-18T08:00:00+01:00",
"dateModified": "2026-10-18T09:30:00+01:00",
"author": [{ "@type": "Person", "name": "Sam Patel", "url": "https://www.example.com/authors/sam-patel" }]
}
</script>Top stories FAQ
Do I need AMP to appear in Top stories?
No. Google dropped the AMP requirement in 2021. Any page that meets Google News policies can appear.
Do I need to be in Google News to appear in Top stories?
No application is needed. Google automatically considers sites that publish news and meet its content policies.
Related SEO terms
SERP features are the results on Google’s results page that are not plain blue links, such as AI Overviews, featured snippets, local packs and videos.
Content freshness is how recent and up to date a page is. Google ranks fresher content higher for queries where recency matters.
Google Discover is a personalised feed of articles and videos in the Google app and on mobile, shown by interest without a search query.
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the qualities Google’s quality raters look for in content.
Structured data is code in a standard format that describes a page’s content to search engines, making it eligible for rich results.