# What is a news sitemap? Recent article details for Google News

A Google News sitemap entry supplies Google News with details about an article published within the preceding two days.

The news extension supplies article information such as publication time. Its recent-publication window is separate from the permanent article URL and the site’s broader archive.

## Removing old sitemap entries while keeping articles

Illustrative Google timing: a story published Friday at 09:00 UTC remains within Google’s two-day news-sitemap window through Sunday at 09:00 UTC. After that point, remove the news entry or metadata but keep the live story and archive listing. The timing rule applies to Google News, not deleting the article.

## What the two-day rule applies to

An empty recent-news sitemap can be correct when nothing has been published in the last two days. Check for a missing qualifying story before treating an empty file as a failure. A routine correction should not reset the original publication time to force an old story back into the window.

## A quick check after a template change

Pick one newly published article and one older article you edited today. Compare their public pages and the recent-news sitemap. This gives you a quick test of whether the system is selecting recently published articles or accidentally selecting any recently modified record.

## Related terms

[Canonical URL](https://digitalpublishingnews.com/dictionary/canonical/)

## Continue reading

[Google News sitemaps: when to remove older article entries](https://digitalpublishingnews.com/articles/news-sitemap-two-day-window/): It shows Google’s two-day news-entry rule while retaining the article page.

## Sources

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/news-sitemap

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/news-sitemap

Editorial method: https://digitalpublishingnews.com/how-we-use-ai/

Canonical: https://digitalpublishingnews.com/dictionary/news-sitemap/