Google will now highlight important COVID-19 related announcements made by governments and health agencies on Google Search. The decision comes as a part of a new way that the leading search engine has devised for platforms to highlight such announcements on Google Search.
Websites can add structured data to COVID-19 announcements (currently in its Beta version) by following these instructions by Google. Alternatively, they can submit a COVID-19 announcement in Search Console here.
Once in action, the highlights will be made in the form of ¡°a short summary that can be expanded to view more¡± as per Google. For now, only content marked as announcement can be eligible to appear with a COVID-19 announcement rich result. Google also specifies that this format might change over time.
Google is using the new feature to cover important updates like school closures or stay-at-home directives. It claims to be actively working on it to bring it to more websites in the future. For now, it is limited to health and government agency sites.
Google assures that the special announcements markup is not the only way for sites to highlight updates. Other type of activities affected because of COVID-19 like event or flight cancellations can also be highlighted by following the steps mentioned at the bottom of this page.
This is not the first effort by the tech giant to bring up important and credible information on COVID-19 across its platforms. Google earlier announced steps being taken for its video platform YouTube to ensure only the spread of credible news on COVID 19. To read about how all the tech majors are fighting the same battle, click here.