![Ideogram Technology Solutions [P] Ltd.](/assets/img/ideogram-logo.png){kind=logo}
A news website is judged in the first few seconds. Readers arrive from Google, Facebook or a WhatsApp forward, often on mobile data, and leave if the page is slow or cluttered. Editors, meanwhile, need to publish a breaking story in minutes, not wait for a developer.
This guide covers what a news portal needs today, for newspapers moving online and for digital-first media houses alike.
Start with the newsroom workflow
The website is a tool for your newsroom, so design it around how your team works.
- Roles and permissions: reporters write drafts, sub-editors edit, editors publish
- Fast publishing: a clean editor that works on a phone, for reporters in the field
- Categories and tags: state, district, politics, sports, business, and topic tags for running stories
- Featured and breaking slots: editors choose what leads the home page without touching code
- Scheduled posts and updates: publish at a set time, and mark updated stories clearly
- Author pages: a profile for each reporter, which also builds trust with readers and search engines
Speed is a feature
Most news traffic arrives in bursts. A story is shared widely, and thousands of readers arrive within minutes. A site that slows down or crashes at that moment loses the readers it worked hardest to earn.
- Caching so popular pages are served instantly instead of being rebuilt for every visitor
- A content delivery network that serves pages from locations close to readers
- Compressed images in modern formats, sized for phones
- Fewer heavy scripts: every ad network, widget and tracker slows the page
Be ready for Google News and Discover
Search and Google Discover are major sources of readers for news sites. You cannot buy your way in, but you can make sure nothing holds you back.
- NewsArticle structured data on every story, with headline, dates, author and image
- A news sitemap listing recent articles, so new stories are found quickly
- Clear dates: a published date, and an updated date when a story changes
- Large, high-quality images (at least 1200 pixels wide) and permission for search engines to show large previews
- Transparency pages: about us, editorial team, contact details and corrections policy
- Original reporting: Google rewards publishers who break and own stories, not those that rewrite others
Advertising without ruining the page
Advertising pays for journalism, but too many ads push readers away and slow the site.
- Reserve ad spaces in the design so the page does not jump when ads load
- Mix programmatic ads with direct local sponsorships, which often pay better
- Avoid pop-ups that cover the story on mobile
- Measure page speed after adding any new ad code
Features readers value
- Live updates for elections, results and developing events
- Search that actually finds stories
- Share buttons for WhatsApp, Facebook and X
- Notifications or newsletters for readers who want the headlines daily
- An e-paper section for print readers. See our guide to e-paper websites
- Multilingual sections if you publish in more than one language
Common mistakes
- Breaking news posted as an image instead of text, which search engines cannot read
- No author names or dates on stories
- The same story published under several addresses
- Home pages so crowded that nothing stands out
- Hosting that cannot cope when a story goes viral
Next step
We build and host news portals for media houses in Jammu & Kashmir. See our news and media work, or talk to us about your publication.
