A Google News Help forum points out a trend that has been going on for some time where sites included in the Google News index are selling out with the promise of top rankings.

For example, one site is listed on sale on auction with the pitch of “Rank on the 1st page of google for ANY keyword within minutes.”

Here is the sales pitch:

Heck, even the top headline reads, “Google News Approved Website.”

Technically, there is nothing wrong with selling your web site. One publisher said, this is not a Googler, “it is perfectly OK to sell a google news web site. I asked the question in this forum back in 2009 before I purchased mine and was told that it is fine as long as I keep a team of writers (like google news specifies) that it should not be a problem.”

But to sell a web site just to say it will 100% rank in the top results of Google within minutes. Is that something Google will want to start fighting?

We have seen sites pop up in Google News that were hacked and tried to sell stuff. But I have personally not seen it sold in this fashion.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.