Google News Referral Traffic Gone after CMS Upgrade
-
Hoping someone can help. I've tried the Google forum which is it's usual vacuous hole of no help.
We recently upgraded our CMS which now includes automated sitemaps (not sure if this impacts news sitemaps, though). Anyway, after rollout, we're no longer getting any traffic from Google News.
Sequence of Events:
1. Dec. 13 launch
2. Google news referral traffic stopped
3. IT tried to 'fix' and now we're getting the elusive 'publication name' message
The publication name specified in your Sitemap does not match the publication name we have for your site in our database. Please check that the publication name in your Sitemap exactly matches the publication name displayed for your articles in Google News.
4. Retested sitemap
When I retest the news sitemap, it returns 0 errors.
When I do a site:mnn.com (our website) on the Google New Homepage, new content is showing up in SERP
Yet, still no google news referral traffic.
Our news sitemap is www.mnn.com/googlenews.xml
Can someone help? We're a news site, and can't afford to lose this traffic. Would love an early Christmas present.
Thanks!!
Lisa
-
Hey Lisa,
I was just reading a post about Google News errors and I remembered your question.
This part might help?
Unknown publication name – an error that I frequently come across in troubleshooting Google News issues is an “unknown publication name” error for the Google News sitemap, which is reported in the Sitemaps section of the site’s Google Webmaster Tools profile**.** This error is triggered when the publication name used in the <name>tags in the Google News sitemap is not an exact match to the publication name in Google News’ database</name>. To determine the correct name to use do a [site:domain] search in Google News and see what publication name is displayed for the indexed pages**.**
Source: http://www.adamsherk.com/seo/the-most-common-google-news-errors/
-
Lisa,
Tough one. Sorry for the delay, had to ping a few folks.
As for the naming error, is it possible that the site was registered in Google News originally with a slightly different name? In the application form, the name of the publication is a pretty important step, and any minor difference might raise a flag. The Sitemap calls the publication "Mother Nature Network". Perhaps it was registered with something slightly different?
Another thought: Considering the site is showing up when you do a Google News Site Search, is it possible that the traffic hasn't disappeared overall, but it's just not being properly attributed in Google Analytics anymore?
-
BTW, I already posted my issue in the google news publisher forum to no avail.
-
It quite literally coincided with the rollout of the new CMS. We averaged 2K visits a day from Google News and now we get nothing.
-
We recently upgraded our CMS which now includes automated sitemaps (not sure if this impacts news sitemaps, though).
How did it work previously?
Did traffic go down in general? I know there G changed the way analytics interprets image/product based searches and just changes how they were categorized (still receiving the traffic, just labeled differently)
I also recommend posting your issue here and seeing if a rep can help get it resolved.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Pages Crawl Per Day Gone Drasitcaly Down, is it google issue?
Hello Expert, In search console in Crawl Stats Pages Crawl per day going day by day i.e. from 4 lac pages per day now it is reduce upto 2 lac in last 15 days. So where is the issue? Where I am going wrong or it is issue from google end? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Johny123450 -
Why my website sudden gone down its ranking?
From today morning my site rank down in Google search engine http://watchwrestling.co/ Most of the pages are on the top rank of google but now it gone how can i fix that issue
Technical SEO | | watchwrestling0 -
Why wont google Index this page?
A week ago i accidentally changed this page settings in my CMS to "disable & dont index" as i was going to replace this page with another, but this didnt happen, but i forgot to switch the settings back! http://www.over50choices.co.uk/funeral-planning/funeral-plans Anyhow in an effort to get it back up quickly i submitted in GWTs but its still not indexed. When i use several SEO on page checking tools it has the Meta Title data as "Form" and not the correct title. Any ideas please? Yours frustrated Ash
Technical SEO | | AshShep10 -
Help with google news application url question
Hi, i am going to be applying to have out site in google news but i have come across the below and not sure how we do this. I use joomla and our site is www.in2town.co.uk and the page we are including is http://www.in2town.co.uk/latest-news-headlines Article URLs. To make sure that we only crawl new articles, please make sure your URLs are unique with at least 3 digits, and are permanent. can anyone please let me know how i do this with the url please
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Traffic Drop in 1 month!
Hi guys, ok, i'm at the end of my line with this one, my site www.golfclothingdirect.co.uk has taken a pounding since 4th April and i'm blowed if i can find a real reason for it. Traffic has been increasing slowly in line with budget, sales were picking up, and coming into season should have been better - 24th & 25th robot had an access issue - host contacted and said there had been a site issue, but resolved and now all A OK. Sales are terrible and traffic is grinding. All comments greatly taken on board! Thanks Mark
Technical SEO | | UrbanMark0 -
Google Trusted Ranking effect?
We are looking into getting the google Trusted badge. We meet the requirements and now just deciding if it is worth the time to do it now or later. Has anyone noticed a difference in your organic rankings or PLAs with it. What about conversion rates? Any input would be great!
Technical SEO | | DoRM0 -
De-indexed from Google
Hi Search Experts! We are just launching a new site for a client with a completely new URL. The client can not provide any access details for their existing site. Any ideas how can we get the existing site de-indexed from Google? Thanks guys!
Technical SEO | | rikmon0 -
Google webmaster tools
I have linked webmaster tools to Google analytics account. My question is where can i see Webmaster reports in Google analytics ?
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050
