Our Year in Review is long overdue but so much has already happened this year that has kept us on our toes. The pandemic is still not over, however that was not on the only thing that has gripped our attention in 2021 and sometimes it feels like we are still stuck there just like the “Ever Given” in the Suez canal. For our 2021 analysis we took a brand new approach, looking not only at the top 5 for Google’s most newsworthy and trending keywords during one year, but also in comparison to five years ago and during a five year period – we have the data, so why not share it?

Again, all SERP data is crawled at a fifteen minute interval – covering the SERPs as the news are being published.

Google News:

First, let us take a look at Google News visibility. The data is based on all directly visible rankings from Google’s main section on the category pages. We will start out by looking at the top five publishers for all categories combined in several different time frames and afterwards we will get down to the nitty-gritty by looking at each category on its own.

In 2021, theguardian.com is one third of the time on first position for most visible rankings. However, dailymail.co.uk covers the other two thirds. Constantly on third position is bbc.co.uk. For the first half of 2021, mirror.co.uk is on fourth place, while independent.co.uk takes off for the other half. When looking back 5 years ago at 2017, we basically see most of the same publishers in the top 5, only independent.co.uk is edged out by telegraph.co.uk.

However, when looking at the whole time span for five years, we see a mixed field on top for most of 2017, but at the end theguardian.com wins the race and stays on top until mid-2018. After that, bbc.co.uk takes over until August 2020. From then on the pole position most often lies with dailymail.co.uk. Again, the fourth and fifth positions are divided between two publishers: mirror.co.uk and express.co.uk, who we have not yet seen as a top contender.

Lastly, we want to look at the top 5 publishers in 2021 in each news category – those are based on Google’s own topic categories as seen in Google News and Trends.

From best to worst they are:

Top Stories: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk; dailymail.co.uk

Headlines: theguardian.com; dailymail.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk

United Kingdom: dailymail.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; sky.com; telegraph.co.uk

World: theguardian.com; dailymail.co.uk; independent.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; sky.com

Business: theguardian.com; ft.com; telegraph.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; thetimes.co.uk

Technology: eurogamer.net; nintendolife.com; techradar.com; pcgamer.com; theguardian.com

Entertainment: dailymail.co.uk; mirror.co.uk; theguardian.com; thesun.co.uk; digitalspy.com

Sports: youtube.com; dailymail.co.uk; skysports.com; bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com

Science: dailymail.co.uk; express.co.uk; independent.co.uk; theguardian.com; phys.org

Health: express.co.uk; dailymail.co.uk; theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; mirror.co.uk

COVID-19: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; telegraph.co.uk; reuters.com

SERP reports:

For the SERP reports we chose the general keyword set with keywords from Google Trends and News to only get the visibilities for the freshest trending and newsworthiest keywords from Google’s perspective and our Trisolute Selected keywords. Furthermore, we will be looking at all newsworthy ranking elements of the SERPs, with a greater focus on more user-visible rankings.

Mobile SERP:

For 2021 we see a relatively stable visibility for most publishers. Thus, theguardian.com is on top for eleven out of twelve months in 2021. However, bbc.co.uk starts on first position but drops continously until they reach third position in December. Furthermore, we see a continued support for video content and Google’s own platforms with youtube.com placed so high in the top 5. Nonetheless, another non-Google platform also scores in the top 5 – wikipedia.org. The third and final news publisher of the top ranks is independent.co.uk. Let’s compare these results to 2017. In contrast to 2021 we don’t see youtube.com as part of the top 5, although wikipedia.org makes the cut. Subsequently, theguardian.com is on top of the list, while bbc.co.uk varies between second and third position. Dailymail.co.uk and telegraph.co.uk take over the final positions in the top 5.

For the whole time span we see the same websites as in 2021 on top – meaning telegraph.co.uk has lost its placement in the top 5 over the years. While theguardian.com stays the clear winner, we see the rise and partial fall of bbc.co.uk at the very top with its high-time being between the beginning of 2018 and 2021. Similarly, we see the clear ascent of Google’s video platform youtube.com. They have stayed at the bottom of the barrell until February 2021 then somewhat increased in visibility until 2019 and afterwards experienced a sudden surge. Since then, their visibility has somewhat stabilized, leaving them constantly in the top 3. On the other hand, wikipedia.org has stayed up high until April 2018 then took a hit and they have stayed on fourth or fifth position ever since. Meanwhile, independent.co.uk had contanct scores allthroughout this five year span.

Lastly, we want to look at the top 5 publishers in 2021 in each news category – those are based on Google’s own topic categories as seen in Google News and Trends.

From best to worst they are:

Top Stories: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; youtube.com; independent.co.uk; sky.com

United Kingdom: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk; telegraph.co.uk

World: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk; youtube.com

Business: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; wikipedia.org; youtube.com; telegraph.co.uk

Technology: youtube.com; wikipedia.org; eurogamer.net; apple.com; theverge.com

Entertainment: youtube.com; mirror.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; dailymail.co.uk

Sports: youtube.com; skysports.com; theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; wikipedia.org

Science: nasa.gov; youtube.com; wikipedia.org; theguardian.com; space.com

Health: bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; www.nhs.uk; sky.com; wikipedia.org

Desktop SERP:

On the desktop SERP we se bbc.co.uk for six months on top, followed by theguardian.com taking over the last five months. Although youtube.com started right on top they somewhat lost some visibility leaving them just above sky.com as another video content-centered platform. Wikipedia.org settles right in the middle for best visibility scores on the desktop SERP for 2021. On the contrary, we see how wikipedia.org became relevant in August 2017, making them a strong player ever since. Before the surge of wikipedia.org, bbc.co.uk followed by theguardian.com were the top two contenders. As seen before, we see telegraph.co.uk making the cut right next to dailymail.co.uk.

Looking at five years, we see the ascent of wikipedia.org in August 2017 and youtube.com’s in June 2018.  Yet, wikipedia.org’s visibility drops in the same month and has been constantly in the mid-range ever since. Leading the field on the publisher side are bbc.co.uk and theguardian.com with dailymail.co.uk as the third news publisher contender.

Lastly, we want to look at the top 5 publishers in 2021 in each news category – those are based on Google’s own topic categories as seen in Google News and Trends.

From best to worst they are:

Top Stories: bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; wikipedia.org; youtube.com; sky.com

United Kingdom: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk; telegraph.co.uk

World: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk; sky.com; independent.co.uk; youtube.com

Business: theguardian.com; wikipedia.org; bbc.co.uk; youtube.com; telegraph.co.uk

Technology: youtube.com; wikipedia.org; eurogamer.net; apple.com; theverge.com

Entertainment: youtube.com; wikipedia.org; dailymail.co.uk; bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com

Sports: youtube.com; bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; skysports.com; wikipedia.org

Science: nasa.gov; youtube.com; wikipedia.org; theguardian.com; space.com

Health: bbc.co.uk; theguardian.com; www.nhs.uk; sky.com; wikipedia.org

Final thoughts: