Google News Preview

How does it work?

1. We read the article and the home page. From the article page we read the title, meta description, h1, Article / NewsArticle structured data, dates, robots tags and breadcrumb; from the home page, the WebSite structured data and favicon. The preview uses the image your page gives Google as the article image.
2. We apply Google's rules. The title is truncated to the device width, the large image is shown only when its conditions are met, and only the domain appears on mobile; every rule is based on one of the sources below.
3. We render four surfaces. The search result, Top Stories and the News tab on mobile and desktop; Discover on mobile only (there is no Discover on desktop). All in light and dark themes. The mobile view is drawn in the frame of the phone you choose, using Chrome DevTools screen sizes, and how many lines the title takes on each phone is shown separately. Neighboring results are gray placeholders.
4. You can experiment. Change the title, description and image and see the result before you publish.

Our sources

Every display rule and check in the tool is based on the official Google documentation below; the links go to the English versions. The documents were last verified in October 2026.

• Google Search Central — Title linksWhich sources the result's title is chosen from, and how it is truncated to the device width.
• Google Search Central — Snippets and meta descriptionsHow the description text is chosen from the page content or the meta description.
• Google Search Central — Site namesThe site name above the result: WebSite structured data on the home page, og:site_name, title.
• Google Search Central — Favicons in search resultsThe site icon: defined on the home page, square, at least 8×8 px (larger than 48×48 px recommended).
• Google Search Central — Google DiscoverLarge card image: at least 1200 px wide, more than 300K pixels, 16:9, max-image-preview:large.
• Google Search Central — Article structured dataBetter display of the headline, image and date in Google Search and Google News.
• Google Search Central — Publication datesThe date shown in the result: consistency between the visible date and datePublished / dateModified.
• Google Search Central — Robots meta tagnoindex, nosnippet, max-snippet and max-image-preview (none · standard · large).
• Search Central Blog — Simplifying the visible URL in mobile results (January 2025)Only the domain is shown on mobile; breadcrumbs are still shown on desktop.
• Google Search Central — Visual elements of search resultsSite name, favicon, visible URL, title link, snippet, date and thumbnail.
• Google News Publisher Center — Best practices for article pagesMatching title and h1, a headline of 2–22 words, a visible date and time between the headline and the body.
• Google Search Central — Canonical URLsThe canonical address Google shows when the same content has several addresses.
• Chrome for Developers — DevTools device modeThe screen width, height and pixel ratio in the phone preview are the values from Chrome DevTools device mode.
• Chromium — DevTools device list (EmulatedDevices.ts)Devices' portrait screen sizes in CSS pixels and device pixel ratios (DPR).

Frequently asked questions

Is the preview exactly what Google will show?

No, nobody can guarantee that: Google decides how a result looks automatically based on the query, device, location and person, and it may rewrite the title and description. This tool combines the data on your page with Google's documented rules to render the most likely appearance. You can see which rule causes what in the source link under each check.

Is structured data required to appear in Top Stories?

No. According to Google's Article documentation, markup isn't required for features like Top Stories; however, Article / NewsArticle structured data helps the headline, image and date display correctly. AMP is no longer required either.

Why does my article image look small?

A large image requires two things: the image must be at least 1200 pixels wide, and the page must allow max-image-preview:large. Without that permission, Google may show a default-size (small) preview; with max-image-preview:none it shows none at all.

Why isn't the breadcrumb path shown on mobile?

Since January 2025, Google has reduced the visible URL in mobile results to just the domain; breadcrumbs still appear on desktop. You don't need to remove your BreadcrumbList structured data.

Why does my article look different on different phones?

Phones have different screen widths: a page is 360 CSS pixels wide on a Samsung Galaxy A55 and 440 on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. On a narrow screen the title wraps onto more lines, and because Google cuts mobile titles off after a few lines, the end of a long title may not show on narrow phones. Using Chrome DevTools device sizes, the tool shows how many lines the title takes on each phone.

Why are the site name and favicon read from the home page?

Google takes the site name and favicon from the site's home page, not from the article page: the WebSite structured data on the home page is used for the site name, and the link rel="icon" tag on the home page for the favicon. That's why the tool fetches the home page too.

To try out a title and description by hand, use the SERP Preview; to generate the article's structured data, use the Schema Generator; for its images, use the Image SEO Checker.

This tool is not affiliated with Google; “Google”, “Google Discover” and “Google News” are trademarks of Google LLC.