Notice that my site was being removed from Google News

Discussion in 'Google' started by cmeinck, Oct 10, 2006.

  1. #1
    For the past few years, my site has been in Google News. I don't believe it generates a great amount of traffic, but being anything in Google is a good thing. I have a few writers on my site, but as the owner/senior editor, I do the bulk of the writing. That in mind, I do have 4 or 5 writers on the site and just hired an editor. I received an email today from Google News that I was being removed since they could not verify the site had multiple editors,writers and was an organization. The email started with, "We periodically review news sources, particularly following user complaints, to ensure Google News offers a high quality experience". From their review, they weren't able to find evidence of an organization. My guess is the complaints came via one of the competiting sites. I've sent Google a list of names of folks that write for the site and updated the About Us to reflect the staff and organization info.

    I'm guessing this is the handywork of one of my competitors. I didn't mention this to the Google Team, but was biting my tounge. I had until October 12th to provide Google with information contrary to their findings. I'm hopeful they'll put my site back in the loop.

    If you're in Google News, be advised to update your organizational info along with bios/contact info for your writers.

    Fingers crossed.
     
    cmeinck, Oct 10, 2006 IP
  2. Lexiseek

    Lexiseek Banned

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    #2
    I think you're right. Competitors suck. They turn in opt-in newsletters as spam complaints, etc.
     
    Lexiseek, Oct 11, 2006 IP
  3. cellularnews

    cellularnews Peon

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    #3
    Difficult to be sure without knowing the url of your news site - but both the links in your profile are for blogs.

    Frankly, I really hope that Google News does clear out a lot of the blogs, as the vast majority just parasite off the profesional news organisations.

    Not saying your does - but some of the biggest are frankly, just copies of content from other new providers with a few pithy comments added to make it sound "blog-like".
     
    cellularnews, Oct 11, 2006 IP
  4. cmeinck

    cmeinck Active Member

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    #4
    Those are not the site being referenced. The site does cover releases related to it's field and offers orginal content/product reviews. About a year ago, my competitor was boasting about "tricking" Google News. The trickery is still working for them. They get picked up when they add an application to their downloads area. That certainly isn't newsworthy. FWIW, I got picked up this morning after covering a press release. The site is owned by a company, has multiple editors and writers, so I hope they'll reconsider.
     
    cmeinck, Oct 11, 2006 IP
  5. meganerd

    meganerd Peon

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    #5
    Wow. They really sucks. Hopefully, they'll re-add you. Whats the url btw?
     
    meganerd, Oct 11, 2006 IP
  6. cmeinck

    cmeinck Active Member

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    #6
    Everything Treo
     
    cmeinck, Oct 11, 2006 IP
  7. cellularnews

    cellularnews Peon

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    #7
    Google were doing that to job adverts which were also appearing on our front page.

    I decided to add a "nofollow" tag to those specific links just to help keep Google News clean and relevent.
     
    cellularnews, Oct 12, 2006 IP