Table of Contents
Every day we surf the internet in search of the latest news all over the world. There is a huge amount of information available and it can be difficult to find the required content quickly. Also, there are smart platforms that help to cope with this complexity. They are called news aggregator websites. These are online services that gather the latest news from different sources for various topics.
In this article, we will discuss the main features of news aggregator websites and how to enlarge your profit thanks to the monetization of your news aggregator platform.
Features of the news aggregator website
To build a reliable and high-quality news aggregator website it is important to know which content should be posted and how to do it right. We defined several main features that should be taken into account:
Popular news aggregator platforms
We prepared a list of the most popular news aggregator websites that people use on a daily basis. They are known all over the world and considered to be real competitors.
Google News
Google News website is considered to be the most mighty news aggregator that uses AI technologies in their work. It gathers information from a huge number of platforms and chooses the topics according to readers’ locations, interests, OS, and other features. Also, Google News organizes the content into diverse categories and includes trend articles, for your page, etc. the number of page views reaches several billion monthly as it is Google and it is almost impossible to count accurately.
NewsNow
NewsNow is a British news aggregator website that covers and gathers news from the UK and many other countries. This platform has various categories for content. NewsNow has a rather simple and plain design but it doesn’t interfere with this service to be well-known and successful as all content is well structured. NewsNow is a very mighty aggregator website and engages more than 12.5 million visitors monthly. Their target audience is readers from the UK, the USA, Ireland, and Canada.
Fark
Fark is an aggregator website that provides information in such areas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment. This platform succeeded because the owner defined the right target audience, their interests, and chose particular content fields. Fark involves another way of aggregation where people can submit a link of their own and give it a unique headline. Others can then comment through Fark itself, building a group around the aggregated content. Generally, the Fark aggregation website gets more than 50 million page views thanks to organic traffic and advertisement. Also, this platform has a podcast and online shop with merch so Fark is considered to be a famous and powerful aggregator website. How to build podcast app read here.
Techmeme
Techmeme is a news aggregator website that posts content from particular sources among which are The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It also posts content from other sources but so actively that from chosen ones. Also, Techmeme provides paid sponsored posts, advertisements, vacancies, etc.
Popurls
Popular is a simple aggregator website with one great difference – it has its own mobile application. This platform structures the content due to original sources not in categories. Monthly Populrs gets around 13 thousand page views and uses no paid advertisements.
How to aggregate content effectively: 6 Tips
Content aggregation is not an easy process as it could seem to be. Every new source and the content it gives should be checked properly. Your success and status of your website depend on the quality of the information you provide for your readers. We prepared a list of tips on how to promote your news aggregator website successfully.
#1 Choose trustworthy sources
Every source of information should be reliable and trustworthy. You need to check the information and topics very thoroughly and filter corresponding to your target audience. This accuracy will help to avoid showing irrelevant content. The sources you take information from have to be legal and trusted. Also, even if the source is reliable, it doesn’t mean that all content and categories will be relevant for your audience. That’s why all new information should be checked well to be correct, updated, and real.
#2 Add value
The content is considered to be more valuable when the author adds its own review or expert conclusion. Of course, the quality of content is important but if you engage more visitors it is not enough only to publish the text. To make your website specific and differ it from others, you need to give your opinion on different topics and comment on the news. It proves your professionalism and expertise in many fields that makes the content even more interesting and useful for readers.
#3 Summarize
Besides your target audience has a similar way of thinking, they are all diverse. It is better to write short summaries defining the main points of the article. It will help the visitors find they need info faster.
#4 Give proper credits
As an aggregator website means gathering information from other sources, it is important always to give credits to the original authors and publications. Making this helps your content avoid being defined as stolen and be recognized by Google.
#5 Use SEO
SEO makes your content easily found on the surfaces of the internet. This option is obvious and you should pay a lot of attention to it. Usually, the checked sources already have SEO optimization, however, double-check the content you aggregate.
#6 Discussions
Discussions under your articles attract more readers or just people who are experts in a particular area. This option is a kind of expressing an expert opinion but for certain questions of your readers. You should check all comments and don’t skip any of them. It shows your deep expertise in all fields that are described in the articles you aggregate. Also, you can contact the sources` owners and invite them to join the discussions.
Benefits of content aggregators
Simplicity
A news aggregator is an excellent platform that gathers all the latest news from various online services, structures them, and gives easy access to visitors. Among a huge amount of information and websites available on the internet, people search for the needed content and want to spend not much time and effort to find it. Making consumption easier is a great way to engage more readers.
Broad coverage
Aggregator websites search for and gather relevant content from a large number of other online platforms. It means that this type of web solution has a wider list of categories, options, and ways of interaction with authors or other visitors. The great amount of information gives the opportunity to split them into more genres to involve more readers that look for diverse content.
Customization
Sometimes aggregator websites start to gather too much content related to different areas. So it is critical to set customization suitable for your website. You can filter the content by specific industries or tastes of your target audience. It is impossible to aggregate everything available on the web. So controlling the amount of the info is also important despite the need for a broad reach.
Reduce costs
Aggregator websites don’t need spending much money on advertising, copywriters, editors, and other staff. This type of website takes the content from the other original sources and gives them credits. So the content is already checked and relevant, the deal is to aggregate particular areas. The only cost the website owner needs to spend is implementing the technology of aggregation. These websites become known at the expense of original sources.
Information ownership
Despite aggregator websites taking the content from other platforms, their content is wide and deployed. Aggregator websites don’t send readers to other sources or links, it gives the full amount of information. Also, readers can always find the same info they have already seen before one more time.
Steps how to build a news aggregator
Research on competitor websites
News aggregator websites are great platforms for the original sources. It is not about plagiarism, it is about highlighting the latest information from different areas. As aggregator website owners give credits to sources` owners, it is one of the ways of promoting the original services. It is important to search and compare competitors` websites to build your own successful strategy of promoting the website and making it profitable. You have to become a real expert in the types and work of news aggregator websites to gather all your knowledge and put it into your own solution.
Choose an area and reliable sources
The next step is choosing the particular topics of the content you are going to post on your website. It is better to choose several of them and organize them into categories for an easy search for visitors. The most readable topics on the web are:
- upcoming events
- politics
- technology and science
- breaking news
- weather forecast
- sport
- healthcare
- art
The main rule of searching the sources with the requested content is to check them properly. All original sources must be reliable, trustworthy, and provide expert research and opinions to avoid spreading misinformation.
Mobile and user-friendly website
Nowadays people tend to use their smart devices to search for any information on the web. So the cases when visitors go to your website from PC are much rarer. To keep your aggregator website on the top and make it professional, its design should be readable from smartphones and other modern devices like tablets, smartwatches, etc. If you want to make your web solution even more popular, you need to build an application with the same content as on the website but in a more convenient mold. There is a huge probability that your website will gain an audience faster and engage them more. App also has notifications that alert readers about the latest news in a particular area or on the website, about comments and discussions, etc.
Monetization
The news aggregator website is not just a platform for informing users. It is one of the ways of earnings. All you have to do is choose the appropriate type of monetization to move in the right direction. Among the well-known types of monetization are:
- paid advertising on the website
- sponsored content
- paid links
- subscription
- paid ad-free subscription
- paywall to advanced features
From the beginning, you can try all of them to define which one or several suits your website better and more effectively. The more readers you get, the more relevant monetization ways can be included in your solution. If you hesitate about what way to choose, you’d better contact web development software and their specialists to define and build your own business plan. Altamira Softworks can be a great variant as we propose the discovery phase and know what features needed to monetize your solution. So all you have to do is to get a professional consultation with our Business Analyst.
Our leading specialist Evgen Bryl prepared an approximate estimation of news aggregator website development. This is the price for the common basic features. So your total price can be different as we provide an individual approach and different range of functions for each project. The average price of the news aggregator solution starts at $80 000.
| Your Tech Team | Hours | Month Rate |
| Business Analyst | 60 | $1920 |
| Scrum master | 120 | $2760 |
| Admin | 12 | $264 |
| Designers | 40 | $1560 |
| CSS/HTML | 35 | $875 |
| PHP backend | 220 ( without aggregated sources) | $5940 |
| JS frontend | 100 | $2700 |
| QA | 120 | $2040 |
Key functions and features
Every news aggregator website differs from others by the variety of functionality and features it can provide. If you want your web solution to be professional, complex, and unique, you need to put in there as many features as it is possible. It is important to make your website more engaging than competitors. among the common functions for news aggregator app are:
- Main page
- Newsfeed
- User profile
- Registration
- Admin panels
- Search and filters of aggregation
- Mobile availability
- Subscription for news
- Payment system for subscription
- Analytics dashboard
The combination of all features makes your website more interesting, creative, and user-friendly. Remember, that users like the quick and qualified search of the content.
Care about intellectual property
As we have already found out, the news aggregator website gathers information from different sources. Not to be accused of stealing the content and avoid these problems, pay much attention to it. Before posting the information, you need to contact sources` owners and authors of particular content and ask for permission to do it. then you have to take into account the main rules on how to behave after you get permission:
- you can not post the content before the writing permission
- you have to give credits to the original sources
- you need to provide backlinks to the sources
Plagiarism is considered to be a real and serious crime, and you can have many problems with your website using another`s content as yours.
Suitable technologies
To choose the suitable technologies for your news aggregator website, you need to hire an experienced team of developers. Among the most frequently used technologies are Python, Flutter, Ruby on Rails, and PHP. Of course, there are services that propose almost ready-made solutions like WordPress but it is not a good idea.
To make your website more professional and popular, you need to create a custom and high qualified web solution that will meet all your needs and requirements. Business Analyst (BA) can build a suitable business strategy for developing and promoting your website successfully.
Google acceptance
All website content is checked by Google on a constant basis. To make your website accepted by Google, you need to know the policy perfectly well. As news aggregators gather information from different sources, you have to pay attention a lot to this option. Google algorithms may penalize your platforms and you need to know in what cases. The most crucial algorithms for you are:
- Google Penguin. Checks content for spam and irrelevant links.
- Google Panda. Deals with plagiarized and duplicated content.
- Google Hummingbird. Detects keyword stuffing and low-quality content.
Conclusion
Taking everything into account, there is a high level of competition in news aggregator website development but this should not scare you or make you put your idea aside. Your solution can be even better than all existing on the market if you make it really convenient and interesting. You need to include a wide range of functions to your web solution to make it more engaging and attractive for users. To create a really professional web platform, it is better to hire an experienced team of developers with a Business Analyst to build a suitable business strategy for developing and monetizing your news aggregator website.
