We have seen many reels, infographics, and stories on Facebook and Instagram. Still, Google is not any social media channel, yet it has a feature known as Google Web Stories, whose format is somewhat equal to that of Instagram stories.
If you like to write simple yet creative stories for brands, then you need to know all about Google Web Stories before you begin to write. Let’s check how it helps your business and how to create them.
Table of Contents
What are Google Web Stories?
Google Web Stories – the name itself describes stories related to showcasing your brand and products in a very interactive way. It helps you create videos related to the content allowing the audiences to tap the pages to view your images, text, and audio. “Google Web Stories” was also known as “AMP Stories”.
When you work on stories, they have to look like first-person narratives. Google Web stories allow you to create that format with live stories where you get to experiment and create quizzes and polls.
Where do the Web Stories appear? They can be seen in a standard Google search or as a carousel in Google Discover. In addition, it is easy to link the stories to your social media account by adding them to newsletters.
You can create Web Stories as individual pieces of content on your website, increasing your search results when the stories get indexed. Sometimes instead of featuring individually, you can create podcast episodes or YouTube videos for more attraction.
Google Web Stories Format
There are three main features to remember in Google Web Stories:
- Poster
- Cover Page
- Story Pages or Inner Pages
People are first drawn to the poster when they come across your Story, and Google describes it as the packaging. Next, you tell your Story and narrative by using a cover page, a story page, and your preferred assets on the story pages. Each Story can have a single cover, poster, and multiple story pages. In addition, Google Web Stories allows you to include affiliate links as attachments, and you can monetize the stories through AdSense, Ad Manager, and Display ads.
Let’s see how Google Web Stories are made
Your business can reap many benefits from using this Google format, such as it shares a unique and customer-engaging brand story. In addition, it inspires engagement through interactive formats, thus driving traffic to different channels and converting traffic to revenue.
Create a Storyboard
To start with your stories, first, you need to create a storyboard. Then, you have to write your Story and create a draft. Google has templates like Storyboard script that can be used for drafting your Web Stories.
Select an Editor
Once you feel that your draft is complete and final, you must select an editor to create your Story. If you are a person who likes custom designs, then you can create one by going through a tutorial from AMP. It has steps that you can follow easily and create Stories. If you don’t prefer that one, no issues; use the no-coding editors available.
Those who use WordPress for their website design can use the Web Stories Plugin. This plugin can be easily installed and used across the site to publish Web Stories. It has features like drag and drop, iTn-built templates, space for custom branded elements, and many more.
Build Web Stories
After completing the draft concept and choosing your editor, the next step is to build your actual Web Story.
Test Your Web Stories
After completing all the above steps, the last and final step is to enable your Web Story on Google. Finally, you need to test your Story before publishing using various tools.
Test your web story before publishing.
The final step is enabling your Web Story on Google, which requires testing it with various tools.
- First, test if it is AMP valid or not by using the AMP test validator or AMP test tool.
- The second thing is to see if Google can index the Story. Test it using the Sitemaps report and URL inspection tool.
- Check if your Story supports various devices using Chrome Developer tools.
If your Web stories are created using AMP tools, you will receive an embed link; paste it into your site code. For example, when using a WordPress site, use the Web Stories block to embed the Story.
Practices to follow for creating Google Web Stories
Some of the best practices for creating Web Stories.
Storytelling Through Videos
Google always supports Videos as it gives more intense knowledge of stories. So for Web Stories, it chooses video-first. Apart from videos, the use of audio, images, text and animations is also appreciated by Google to narrate stories. While including text, keep it apt to the topic with less than 280 characters or 40 to 70 words per page.
Input Engaging Elements
No one likes to read boring stories; you need to develop interactive stories that can engage the users. So try to input some engaging factors while writing.
You can accomplish this with multiple story pages, which will help you catch viewers’ attention and entice them to tap for more information. As an added touch, include interactive quizzes and polls, CTAs, and links to other content sources to encourage viewer engagement.
Add Unique Brand Elements
When you upload stories, they tend to display in the search results and Google Discover, thus increasing your brand traffic. Include elements that make your brand unique, allowing your audience to understand you more.
Stories must be AMP Valid
Stories must accelerate through Mobile pages first, so Web stories always run on the AMP framework. It is recommended to test your process so that you can view Web Stories on the Web.
Easy access to Web Stories
We all like to portray our brand by creating the best Web Stories, but before that, we need to check if the stories are accessible or not. While using images, add alt text for easy indexing, add subtitles, captions, and metadata and transcribe your audio, allowing it to reach more audiences and benefit them.
Best SEO practices
We all understand now how important web Stories are for our business. They are just like pages on our website but created in a simple format for the audience to get a glance at our brand and products. These stories need to be optimized using SEO best practices to get indexed and appear in the search results.
Web Stories SEO Checklist
Everyone follows their SEO strategies for their business, but when creating Web Stories, they are a few key points to be aware of:
- Since Web Stories are similar to pages on your website, you need to include a self-canonical tag link like rel=” canonical”.
- Adding Metadata to Web Stories is important as it tells the search engines about your stories. You can do it by following the AMP metadata guide rules.
- The title of the Story must be no longer than 90 characters.
- All the Web stories data must be AMP structured.
- Web Stories must be added to sitemaps and do not include noindex attributes. Use Index Coverage Report to check if you have indexed a story.
- Make sure that the images you use have an alt text for Google to discover, and when using videos, always add subtitles.
Conclusion
As you would experience the same benefits on your other channels, the story format also offers similar benefits on Google. The step-by-step instructions on this list can help you create interactive content that will delight your audience. For more details, contact Ahbiv Digital Agency; we are here to help you with more information on creating perfect Web Stories.
