Standout Stories

This plugin works with Google’s September 2011 announcement of the standout tag to help news sites inform Google about their best content.

The plugin has two separate actions:

1. Label your own current story a Standout. This is done on the right rail with a click. This will add a link in your post’s header that’s invisible to your readers but visible to web spiders. Since Google advises sites not to use this more than 7 times a week, the plugin keeps a running tally and tells you how many you have left.

2. Give other’s credit when it’s due. If you are re-blogging or referencing a great post from another publication, you can signal this to Google News and win yourself some Karma. This can be done as often as you like. To add this link, simply use the black and red S button on the Visual Editor when you want to link to that other story in the body of your post. When you publish your post, the plugin will add a link in your post’s header that Google News can use.

The plugin is the work of Contextly, a related links service and more for sites that care about their content. Currently Contextly is an invite-only beta, but if you are interested, please sign up on our site or e-mail us at [email protected].

About Contextly

Contextly creates tools for sites that care about their content. Contextly was founded in 2010 by veteran online journalist Ryan Singel, a longtime writer and editor for Wired, Our flagship product is a related links tool that helps readers find interesting stories to read and puts stories into context. The tool helps publishers get more page views, demonstrate their authority, get more page views, and get more revenue. All without poor quality links to low-quality content on other sites.